Bushwalking at Undara (I’m holding the information pages they give you about the walks)
Though I may whinge about tour guides and rough roads, I really did have a great time at Undara and I’m really glad I had the opportunity to go. I think the best part of visiting Undara is just staying there. It’s far away from everything but so close to nature.
Andrew gave me a tour of the grounds before I left, and pointed out all the things they’ll be upgrading over the next few years. Once they’re done all of that, I think it’s going to be a wonderful place for businesses to take their staff on team building trips, or school groups to learn more about the wonders of Australia. By then the roads should be mostly completed too so it’ll be easier to get to there.
In the meantime, Undara is still a great place to take the family. Even if you don’t have a lot of spending cash, there are lots of free bush walks you can go on and Undara Experience puts on some free live campfire entertainment each night too.
Tips for Travellers to Undara
- Until they renovate the showers, avoid the last stall with the drain if you can. I used that one on the last morning and I swear someone in another stall peed while showering because all the dirty water drains in that last stall and I could smell it. SO gross.
- I’ve said it before and I’ll say it again: INSECT REPELLENT.
- If you have a head lamp or flashlight, put it on your head at night (just above your eyes) while you’re walking to your camp site and you’ll see lots of little glints of light. Look closer and you’ll find that they’re spiders (about 2 inches wide) and the glint is the reflection from their eyes. A 12 year old girl named Samantha taught me that — a very bright young girl!
- Bring a camera everywhere you go! You never know when a pretty-face (aka whip tail) wallaroo will cross your path and decide it’s ok with staying still for pictures a mere meter away from you. I didn’t have my camera with me at the time because I was on my way to the loo.
The kookaburras here are also very gutsy and aren’t the least bit afraid of humans so they’ll come within a few feet of you too. I don’t think you can get closer pictures of wildlife unless you went to a zoo where they’re forced to pose for you in a cage. - Watch your food. The birds here will steal it.
- Bring lots of drinking water. The water at Undara is drinkable, but I avoided it because it’s full of calcium and if you drank that stuff for 60 years your liver would turn to stone. I figure if the water has so much calcium that they tell you not to fill your car’s water tank with it, you shouldn’t put it in your own tank either.
- Stay a night. It’s a long drive between Undara and anywhere else. If you’ve come this far, you might as well stay the night and enjoy a nice bushwalk and brekkie in the morning.
My Undara Recommendations
These recommendations are of course completely biased because they’re based on my own experiences, but if you get a chance to go to Undara I would say:
- Spend at least one night there — you don’t have to spend a bundle on the carriages (though if you can, it’s kinda cool); the camp sites are between $20 — $30 per person for one night
- Try the “bush brekkie” ($22)
- Avoid the restaurant until they change chefs — the meats were bland and / or overcooked
- If you have to eat at the restaurant, order the steak (the beef comes from the family’s cattle farm not too far away) — it’s much better than any of the other meats they have (kangaroo, crocodile, emu etc…)
- Go on the two-hour The Archway Explorer tour — you seriously can’t go all the way to Undara and NOT see a lava tube! The four-hour tour wasn’t that great and it’s more expensive. It’s not recommended to try and visit a lava tube on your own because some of them can cave in and reception in the area is terrible so your cell phone won’t do you any good.
- If you have kids under 10, take them on the Wildlife at Sunset tour and spend a night at the campfire area after dinner. The kids seemed to have a good time with those two activities.
Many thanks to Emily, Mark and Andrew for arranging my stay at Undara!