South America: Atherton Tablelands

Greetings
We have had a busy couple of days checking out some of the natural wonders in the area. We are inland from Cairns. We headed inland to avoid the flooding and so far, so good. We spent the night at the Undara Lava Tubes and toured them this morning. Amazing, what nature can do. 190 millions years ago, this area was covered with volcanos, 164 of them. The Undara volcano erupted and sent millions of cubic metres of lava flowing over the area. The lava takes the path of least resistance, river valleys etc. As it flows the lava on top hardens and insulates the lava flowing in the middle and hence, a lava tube is born. This one was over 100 km long, but only a few lava tubes are left or accessible. Not many countries have them. They are like big caves with basalt walls. Two of the tubes ( or should I say, part of the tube that are remaining) had water in them and it was possible to walk through the tube in the water. We followed the boardwalk to the end where there was no natural light and it was silent except for the sound of dripping water, very eerie. Bats live in some of the tubes, but generally they are uninhabited.
We then meandered along the savannah and stopped at the hot springs. They are natural "hot" springs 73 deg F that bubble up beside the creek. Unfortunately, the creek was flooding, so the springs were small but warm. Waded in them, should have younger looking feet!
Then on to see several beautiful waterfalls, which are quite impressive as the rainy season has been quite rainy, It started early and a lot of rain has fallen. There is a lovely scenic drive which stops at several waterfalls. It is hard to believe that we are in Queensland, its more like New Zealand. Beautiful green rolling hills with lots of dairy cattle grazing, rolling hills and mist covered "mountains" in the background. Very lush and lovely. The waterfalls were teaming, and very loud, not hard to find them! The water is very cool and refreshing. We also visited a water filled hole which was created by the build up of gases from the volcano. The pressure built up and blew a hole in the rock to form this "hole" which is now filled with water and travels for several hundred metres underground.