JoelWhere and How to Get There
You’ll find the Kalkani Crater in Centreal Far North Queensland, approximately 3.5 hours west of Cairns. Follow Highway 1 through the Atherton Tablelands, Ravenshoe, Innot Hot Springs and after Fort Mile Scrub, you’ll take a left onto Undara/Yaramulla Road.
Follw this for fifteen minutes or so until you see a gravel road veering left at a big open space. Follow this road (corrugations can be pretty bad!) until you cross a cattle crid, and then arrive at the visitor area which has a toilet.
If you’re visiting Undara Volcanic Lava Tubes, it’s worth taking the side trip here.
What to Expect
If you’ve visited when it’s dry – don’t set your expectations too high in terms of the colours. But the crater itself is impressive and it’s a good 600m walk up to the rim, 1200m around and then another 600m walk back down. The views even of the region are quite incredible!
If you visit in the warmer months, prepare yourself for some heat and little shade.
Ultimate Aussie Bucketlist Experience
We really didn’t know what to expect with this one. Undara Volcanic Lava Tubes was obviously well know and spoken about, but this being so close originally eluded our research.
This was the next stage of our journey as we left the lush rainforests and beautiful waterfalls – to begin the outback experience. Highway 1 is a nice easy drive. The road is sealed all the way to Undara Caravan Park – but not to Kalkani Crater.
Corrugated roads make me cringe – probably more than anything else we experience on the road. For these shorter sections we don’t bother letting the tires down… though usually we wish we had. After 20 minutes or so on the unsealed road we made it.
It was pretty dry and hot out there, with not much shade. But the entire hike was only 2.4kms long, so we got straight into it.
After reaching the top, we realised the magnitude of how large the crater was. From a distance down into the crater, you could see a flat area where, in the wetter periods, this could actually have a pond or dam.
After a nice walk around the rim, soaking in the outback views and other craters in the distance, we were surprised to see a lot of wildlife even considering the conditions of the area. Insects and birds were plentiful – and so were the flies!
Although I wouldn’t expect many people to go this far out of the way for the Kalkani Crater, if you’re planning on seeing Undara Lava Tubes, give this a peek as well.
Ultimate Aussie Bucketlist
Kalkani Crater
