go-see-do guide for adventurous travellers
For a place explored, surveyed and ravaged by pastoralism, mining and smelting; overrun by sheep, camels, donkeys, rabbits and dingoes; and more recently under threat from an avaricious government looking to sell off uranium mining rights, Arkaroola Wilderness Sanctuary is looking mighty fine! That’s due to the extraordinary Sprigg family* – visionaries, eco-tourism pioneers and explorers – who bought this[…]
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Bruny Island As far as I could tell, the fashion police hadn’t made it down to Bruny Island’s Adventure Bay. Just as well. If they had, they’d have been handing out infringement notices left, right and centre on board our purpose-built Naiad. We were donning the Bruny Island Cruises complimentary waterproof onesies – our only protection from the winds[…]
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My first adventures on the Kanawinka Geotrail pre-date Pilchard by quite a few years. They also pre-date both owning a camera AND knowing that the Kanawinka Geotrail even existed!! Now I know the Geotrail connects 60+ significant sites across South-Eastern South Australia and South-Western Victoria. It forms Australia’s first UNESCO Global Geopark – one of the largest regions of volcanic[…]
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Hi there! Tiny town Marree South Australia is the first major sign of civilisation in over 500 km (~310 miles) for travellers heading south down the iconic Oodnadatta or Birdsville tracks – both LOOOOONG stretches of dirt, rocks, gravel and bulldust. But we approached it over several days from the other direction – a straight run from Adelaide of nearly[…]
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1 The Gun Birder* Driving a bouncing 4WD with 4 passengers along a rough station track in search of Australia’s rarest bird wasn’t cramping the gun birder’s style one bit. All I could see were the vast, rolling plains of grass and samphire stretching to the horizon against an endless blue sky. But our driver and guide on the Broome[…]
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I was 4 – nearly 5! – the first time I crossed the Nullarbor. Christmas day, and we were on the Indian Pacific* heading for Adelaide. We’d spent Christmas eve in a pub somewhere in rough as guts Western Australian gold-mining town Kalgoorlie, but I don’t remember that. Maybe I had blanked it out … Many years later, I made[…]
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‘Now we’ll see some REAL scenery!’ Doug announced, herding us away from the spectacular outlook from Coulthard’s Lookout towards our convoy of two vehicles. The Arkaroola Ridgetop tour was well underway. But I was sceptical. The ragged mountain ranges (yes, I’m channelling Aussie poet Dorothea Mackellar*) glistened and glowed in a glorious 360° panorama in the perfection of a clear Outback[…]
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A Taste of the Paranormal Magnetic Hill South Australia promised to be a little bit weird. Up to now, my discovery of the Daleks of Khancoban in a remote Snowy Mountains hideaway had been the pinnacle of my paranormal participation in the world of real-life Australian sci-fi. Now, the sign in front of me detailed a strange and bizarre extrasensory[…]
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‘Good on ya, love,’ a bloke sang out, one of a trio of pensioners trotting past me as I trudged wearily up the last slight steady impossibly steep incline before the Mt Kosciuszko lookout. Leaving the summit behind I only had 2km of the 13 km (8 miles) round trip summit hike to go, and altitude sickness was kicking in.[…]
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The lyrics of Aussie folk ballad Waltzing Matilda* are responsible for most people’s entire knowledge of billabongs**. So visiting a real one – like Marlgu Billabong – raises certain expectations. Visiting a real Billabong That’s why I found the unexpected lack of swagmen, coolibah trees, jolly jumbucks and troopers at the Marlgu Billabong, oasis in the Kimberley west of Kununurra,[…]
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