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

Cairns to Uluru 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 Normanton 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.

Click through to the next section: Undara to Croydon.