West of Townsville, South Pinnacle thrust its bald head of rock against blue sky as Vilis and I drove Herveys Range Road on the first leg of our road trip to Undara Volcanic National Park located approximately 500 kilometres northwest of Townsville. Rocky slopes in Herveys Range that had been cloaked with the pink of flowering grasses in late May when we and Janis hiked the old bullockies’ trail were now brown and dry. Beyond the saddle of the range, savannah woodland stretched before us, its trees sparsely scattered, its grassy understory bleached and grey like tousled hair upon a seemingly endless scalp. Gum trees raised twisted, gnarled limbs as though in supplication, their slim, pointed leaves hanging limply. Within a High Range Military Training Area , stunted trees and other vegetation had been scorched by fire.

This was open-sky country, with black and whistling kites patrolling the highway for roadkill, and huge wedge-tailed eagles lifting from macropod carcasses beside or on the road as we approached. Outcrops of granite boulders balanced like toddlers’ towers in the open woodland, and tiny red-backed fairy-wrens flitted about in dense, roadside grasses and shrubs, the males’ striking red and black colouring like flashes of fire and burnt ember  in the dry landscape. Steep road inclines carried us down to bridges across flood-prone rivers having flood depth markers of up to 10 metres, the most extreme we’ve yet encountered.

Where Herveys Range Road ended at an intersection with the Gregory Developmental Road – part of The Great Inland Way – we headed northwest through continuing expanses of savannah woodland pimpled with anthills. The road narrowed to a single lane of bitumen edged with wide gravel shoulders. Warning signs indicated this was a route traveled by road trains and instructed drivers to move onto the road shoulder when a road train approached. The reason for this warning became obvious when we met oncoming road trains that roared past us, their bulk occupying most of the road’s paved centre strip.

In early afternoon, after six hours of travel through savannah woodland that showed subtle differences at various sites, despite an overall similar vegetation profile, we arrived at Undara Experience, a privately-owned lodge and tour operator located just outside the national park boundary. We pitched our tent in the campground and set off to explore, first climbing a granite outcrop from which we gazed out over savannah woodland extending to the horizons in all directions.

Leaving the granite bluff, we hiked through stunted woodland to Hundred Mile Swamp. “The name sounds like something from out of Winnie the Pooh,” Vilis said, laughing. The swamp might well have been, with kangaroos and wallabies feeding in the wet vegetation and tail-swishing willie wagtails perched atop the roos, searching for insect meals. Laughing kookaburras perched in stunted trees, galahs and rainbow lorikeets zoomed through the woodland adjacent to the swamp, and egrets, ibises, and herons hunted for a meal in the wetland. More little friarbirds than I’d ever seen lapped nectar from flowering gums and paperbarks, extolling the sweet sustenance with loud vocalizations.

Dusk crept in too soon, nudging us back to the campground, where red-winged parrots perched like Christmas decorations in campground trees and pied currawongs with beaks like thick daggers patrolled the campsites looking for scraps. Vilis heated our soup in darkness, and then we sat in deck chairs and gazed up at a crescent moon and brilliant stars spilling light down through the thin-canopied gums of Undara.

.