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In case you don't know about lava tubes, I'll give you my one sentence impression. When a river of molten lava from a volcano runs downhill, it starts to cool and hardens on the outside while it is still molten liquid on the inside (like the skin on a bowl of cooling custard). The molten lava inside remains liquid and continues to flow (or maybe siphon) until the cooled shell of the flow is left like a hollow tube. Many thousands of years later, when it is not quite so hot inside, thinner portions of the roof cave in allowing grey nomads to fall in and annoy the bats and spiders that have taken up residence there.
This is the view from the rim of an inactive volcano (looking out). The large clearing is nothing exciting - it's an experimental area to find the best way to control introduced grasses. The distant clearing is an airstrip for the Undara Lodge. Behind us there is a bloody big hole in the ground.
Some volcanoes explode and some ooze. When they explode, the rocks that rain down on the surrounding landscape are pretty heavy. An umbrella wont help. The tour guide said that anybody caught taking rocks home will be in trouble. He did not think I was likely to try it.
A roof caved in here and provided a good way into the tubes. The longest tube is nearly 200 kilometers long - yep 200 km! They are still waiting for one or two tourists to return from a tour several years ago.
Wherever the cave ins occur, the vegetation improves dramatically providing a clear trail for aerial surveyors.
Don't bump your head - you've got to be kidding!
Try to imagine the amount of molten hot liquid rock that was running through this tube!
Then try to imagine how much it would cost to buy that much heat from your electricity company!!!!!!!! We are doing something wrong...
To get an idea of the size of some of them ... there are about eight people down there. They walked down the boardwalk on the left.
Big eh!
< Another year >
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