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OUR 2008 PROGRAM IN BRIEF
travel optionsLearn more about our travel options, the quality and style of a Nature Bound Australia journey, from the typical tour profile which follows. Choose from our Best of Australia extended guided tours and active holidays, featuring ultimate walks in the premier Australian national parks and scenic regions of the continent. If time is an influencing factor but you value our quality and style, then we have designed an 8 day World Heritage showcase tour enabling you to sample, feet first, 6 wonderful national parks of significant variety, readily accessed from our tour base in Brisbane.
TYPICAL TOUR profileCentral to all Nature Bound Australia guided walking vacations is our passion for Australian National Parks, nature reserves and World Heritage listed wilderness areas. 30 years experience has been applied to each walking holiday and National Park visit. Each journey has been personally researched and crafted, not simply dusted from the travel shelf. We have selected the ultimate walks for your enjoyment and to cover significant features or a unique holiday experience. All our guided Australian tours feature day and half-day walks of easy to moderate grade and set in inspiring and wild places. Walking on any one day is optional. We embrace the healthy values of an active holiday while rest periods are included simply for you to relax, reflect and re-energise in nature. Soft adventure travel days between parks feature short scenic strolls and warm hospitality.We also seek to provide our international visitors with a well balanced Australiana experience, beyond the walking trails. The Australiana experience can range across historic events and sites, properties of the National Trust, famous art and national galleries, boutique wineries, curious or famous Australians and their life pursuits, working rural properties, quaint villages and even yarns, music, poetry, legends and stories from the Aboriginal dreamtime. Tour groups are limited to 10 to 15 people, led by experienced guides who seek to please. Minimum participation numbers apply to each tour, as few as four on some. Comfortable accommodation and facilities close to the trail-heads, fringing national parks or in the quieter back streets of a village are preferred. An occasional night of "comfort-camping" in the wilderness may be encouraged on some journeys simply to capture the very essence of place and presence. Our air-conditioned, purpose built, four wheel drive, all terrain vehicles with luxury appointments, safety and satellite communications equipment, provide comfortable remote area travel. However, the finest experiences are found, feet first, when exploring beyond the vehicle. Visiting guides add to the integrity of local knowledge and your experience. We take time to meet the local people, to assimilate and immerse, to visit but not invade. Join like-minded people and discover new friendships in the most magical of places. We choose to walk and attune ourselves to nature's offerings, to stimulate the senses and rhythms of life which determine our physical and mental well being. Break from your daily work routines and habits of home. Find clarity and balance, delight in spontaneity and soft adventure travel and celebrate your wilderness connection. Our tour planning includes a guest questionnaire from which our guides can gain an understanding of your specific interests and holiday expectations, be they sightseeing, birding, photography, flora, fauna, geology or other. A touring reference
library and full travel folio are available to all Our prices, available on application, are virtually all inclusive.Concessions and limited single supplements on accommodation may apply to some tours. Up-front, free Aussie travel planning advice is offered to make your journey down under both convenient and rewarding. We can assist with additional pre and post tour travel services as desired. We pride ourselves in socially responsible travel practices and sustainable tourism, achieving minimal impact on communities and environments, wildlife and their habitats. We encourage respect for all people and cultures, providing economic benefit and opportunity locally, sharing exceptional experiences while protecting them for the benefit of others, who follow. "You learn if you sit down in the woods and wait, something happens"
BEST OF AUSTRALIA JOURNEYSChoose from the 8 fascinating walking vacations (which follow below) available on a limited departure basis. These are located around Australia featuring the finest National Parks, a diverse selection of landscapes, habitats and communities.
THE GREAT DIVIDEOur 11 day journeys along "The Great Divide" offer a variety of classic walking experiences through National Parks of the World Heritage Listed, Central Eastern Rainforests and Greater Blue Mountains. In all we visit 14 Australian National Parks. The journeys are conveniently accessed from the cities of Sydney and Brisbane, major international gateways to Australia. We travel along part of the most extensive highland range and tableland country in the nation, which stretches 3200kms (2000 miles) from tropical North Queensland south to the alpine, high point of the country, Mt Kosciuszko and beyond. These lush forests stretching along The Great Divide are home to many rare and threatened species. The evolution of plant life dates back to the existence of the super continent Gondwana and a time when the Australian land mass split from Antarctica and commenced its drift north. Immerse yourself in a diverse selection of land forms and ecosystems, ancient forests with unique wildlife, historic villages and pastoral communities of the region. ….. More about The Great Divide, guided walks OUTBACK TO THE REEF- Brisbane to Longreach section We explore four inland National Parks and the heart of the Queensland outback.The journey links the city of Brisbane and the outback "capital" of Longreach and the itinerary is reversible.Towering sandstone gorges, pioneering pathways and central highlands, the headwaters of several great inland rivers and a great artesian basin carrying a wide diversity of habitats and wildlife, bush legend and indigenous culture. ...More about the Queensland outback RUGGED RED HEART -Alice Springs to Uluru (Ayers Rock) Central Australia offers an intense study in colour, indigenous cultural history, extraordinary space, uncanny silence and arid beauty. It is well established as an iconic destination for mainstream tourism. We journey beyond the reach of fleeting day trippers in search of glorious sunset effects on rugged landforms, historic Aboriginal trade routes, explorer pathways, gorges, canyons, not forgetting the internationally celebrated Uluru (Ayers Rock) and Kata Tjuta (The Olgas) …. More about our walking vacations in Central Australia WILD TOP END - Litchfield National Park to Nitmiluk via Kakadu This journey to the top end, features Australia's largest National Park, Kakadu and is scheduled after the big wet season. World Heritage Listed for its biological diversity, a great wealth of Aboriginal culture, an abundance of unique Australian wildlife, Kakadu is home to estuarine crocodiles, 64 species of mammals and a third of Australia's bird species, including the magnificent jabiru, brolgas, plumed whistling ducks and endangered Gouldian finch. Litchfield National Park with its idyllic scenery of curious sandstone formations, delightful waterfalls and unusual termite mounds and Nitmiluk National Park featuring the spectacular Katherine Gorge are outstanding inclusions in a memorable 12 day journey. ….. More about the wildlife and Aboriginal culture of the Top End NORTH-WEST FRONTIER - Broome to Darwin via Kimberley, Katherine and Kakadu This remote region demands a spiritual connection with the land and the environment, given the extremes of only two seasons, wet or dry. Survival is etched into all life forms including the wildlife and man. The spirit of the local people in isolated pastoral properties, some of the most ancient rock art in the world, the dramatic scenery and a sense of personal adventure guarantees a lasting impression. Our journey of 22 days covers both the east and west Kimberley regions including the "recently discovered", unique and spectacular Bungle Bungle Range. We have also included limited visitations to Katherine Gorge, Kakadu and Litchfield National Parks to fully reward those making the extra effort to visit the North-West. … ...More about Windjana Gorge and Wandjina paintings SOUTH-WEST IN BLOOM - Western Australia wildflowers This spring time journey reveals vast carpets of colourful Australian wildflowers stretching even far beyond the horizon, magnificent forest specimens and seascapes sculptured by the arrival of giant ocean swells. You'll enjoy a diverse offering of added features including spectacular coastal gorges, desert pinnacles, historic villages, wineries, eateries and fine craft, bird and possible whale watching ...More about the Pinnacles Desert, Cape le Grande and Margaret River guided walks SEASCAPE TO THE OUTBACK - Kangaroo Island to the Flinders and Gammon Ranges A legendary Australian poet once described Australia as a sunburnt country and the southern outback epitomises this imagery. We journey from the spectacular coastal scenery and remarkable sea creatures of Kangaroo Island deep into waves of folding outback ranges deserving of the artist's palette. Along the way areremarkable mountains, quaint historic villages, scenic trails, earthly tremors, telescopic views of the heavens and wineries ...More about our walking holidays in the Flinders Ranges and Gammon Ranges TASMANIAN WILDERNESS - Walls of Jerusalem to Wineglass Bay Immerse yourself in a World Heritage Listed area of absolute magnificence and scenic wonder. Wilderness covers 20% of this island state, Tasmania. It preserves a maze of rugged glaciated ranges and peaks forever challenging even the hardiest trekker and inspiring fringe adventurers even from afar. For many, walking in Tasmania National Parks is where they find their soul. All parks and historic precincts on this journey offer exceptional experiences as we circuit the island walking in remote alpine country, amid wilderness tarns and tangled rainforests, absorbing awesome glaciated panoramas and roaming some of the most beautiful beaches of Australia. ...More about our guided walks at Cradle Mountain and Freycinet National Parks This Nature Bound Australia tour is ideal for the discerning traveler seeking an authentic insight into real Australia, the creation of the continent,the evolution of its truly unique plants and wildlife, while also experiencing the lives of people in the bush from wealthy pastoral dynasties to the humble bush battler – all in an available time of 8 relaxing days. Explore 6 National Parks, most of them contained in the World Heritage declared Central Eastern Rainforest Reserves. Recount the lives of our Aboriginal peoples, their dreamtime stories and gatherings for learning and feasting You'll journey through areas of folk history and legend, visit gorges and waterfalls unknown to most Australians, wild rivers carving a tortuous path through the escarpment of the Great Dividing Range and pristine wilderness areas set down by volcanic action tens of millions of years ago. You'll be walking on one of the highest points of Australia one day and the next, standing on the precipitous bluff of Cape Byron, viewing glorious beaches, the swells and sea life of the Pacific Ocean from Australia's most easterly landmark. Every day presents a variety and abundance of Australian wildlife, some rare or endangered. The tour is fully accommodated and catered, commencing and concluding in Brisbane, the east coast capital city of Queensland. ...More about our 8 day World Heritage Tour FRONTIER EXPEDITIONSAustralia is acknowledged for its remote frontier landscapes filled with stories of endeavour, success and disappointment, of legendary tales stirring upmind games of romance and adventure. Despite the challenges and rigors of the outback there is an ever-present desire by people to explore, to witness the feeling and moods of endless horizons and space, to depart the city glare for star filled skies at night, the inspirational meeting with a lone adventurer traveler, rural stations bigger than some nations and curious isolated places that are virtually as small as the dot on the map.
Our Frontier Expeditions of 14 and 15 days duration are available on request for groups of people seeking to explore the outback tracks between Brisbane and Alice Springs, the desert and Kimberley tracks from Alice Springs to Broome and the Savannah lands across the Gulf of Carpentaria from Darwin to Cairns.
Largely self contained camping expeditions or accommodated on outback stations and budget pubs, these journeys are ideal for people with a special and common interest, a desire to break clear away from the city congestion, ready to accept the daily demands of the journey as an adventure and to embrace wholeheartedly, the Australian spirit .
...More about our Frontier Expeditions
GUIDED WALKS FOR GROUPSFlexible scheduling to accommodate additional, exclusive or customised group departures, will be considered. Adopt a journey for your travel club, social group adventure travel friends, Seniors travel tour, or corporate incentives program. Variations to meet the needs of Special Interest Groups are possible. If you are a leader or member of a field naturalist group or your interests lie in bird watching, wildlife tours, botany, scenic and nature photography, or art, then contact us through our on-line Special Interest Group Planner. Bring your host leader on tour or we can source and engage an Australian based expert to assist. Ideal group numbers are 14 and we encourage early liaison and planning of your customised requirements. Variations to the scheduled journeys and concepts will need to be considered and priced accordingly and special group rates and benefits may apply. Complete and forward the appropriate planner form provided to inform us of your needs. ...Special Interest Group planner HOME | ABOUT US | CONTACT US | TERMS & CONDITIONS | GALLERY | NEWSLETTER | BROCHURE | TRAVEL OPTIONS | SELECT A JOURNEY | WORLD HERITAGE TOUR | SHORT TOURS | FRONTIER EXPEDITIONS | SPECIAL PACKAGES | TRAVEL GUIDANCE | ABOUT AUSTRALIA | PREPARATION | DID YOU KNOW? | MEDIA | JOIN OUR TEAM | JOIN OUR CLUB | INDUSTRY | LINKS |
