Cairns to Camooweal road trip: Best stops, distance & drive time

Cairns to Camooweal road trip: Forty Mile Scrub National Park and Undara Lava Tubes

Next comes Innot Hot Springs, where Nettle Creek is home to geothermally-fed warm water pools. A little further along Mount Garnet is the last town of any size for some time as National Highway 1 leaves the Tableland region and heads towards the Gulf Savannah.

Just beyond Forty Mile Scrub National Park, however, is one of the highlights of the Cairns to Camooweal drive.

260km from Cairns, the Undara Volcanic National Park is home to what are believed to be the longest lava tubes on earth. These tubes were created during a volcanic eruption 190,000 years ago, when the exterior of the lava flow cooled and solidified while the interior kept flowing.

Undara Experience runs tours exploring the tubes, and explaining these geological oddities.

Just before Undara Volcanic National Park, the Kennedy Highway keeps going south, while National Highway 1 continues east as National Highway 1.

Cairns to Camooweal road trip stops: Undara Volcanic National Park to Croydon

It’s 447km from Undara Volcanic National Park to Normanton, with not an awful lot on the way. However, there are a couple of diversions off the highway worth making.

Between Mount Surprise and Georgetown, the Talaroo Hot Springs offer naturally-heated hot pools by the Einasleigh River.

At Georgetown, meanwhile, you can divert south towards Cobbold Gorge, where there’s a glass bridge above the 30 metre-tall gorge, and you can go on a boat trip.

There’s a caravan park in Georgetown if you need somewhere to stay the night, and it’s another 148km from Georgetown to Croydon, an old gold mining settlement.

This is one end of the quixotic Gulflander train line, which runs half day trips to Normanton.

Croydon offers handsome old buildings in the heritage precinct, a delve into mining heritage at the Mining Museum and barramundi fishing in Lake Belmore.

Accommodation is available at the Croydon Caravan Park.

Click through for the next section: Croydon to Normanton.