Australian Natural Adventures

A specialist travel agency for Australia travel andAustralia tours

  Tourism Australia Premier Aussie Specialist
Accredited Tassie, Northern Territory, NT Outback, NSW, Victoria & Queensland Specialists
Matai Fiji Specialist

Brandi, Marcia and Haley's journey continues........

Day 16 – Friday, June 22: Cairns
Pick up your rental car today to look around Cairns. First enjoy a scenic train ride up the range behind Cairns to Kuranda, and return across the top of the rainforest trees by cablecar. Learn about North Queensland Aboriginal culture at the Tjapukai Aboriginal Cultural Park. Although designed as a tourist venture, the 16 year old Tjapukai concept began and remains today a means of introducing non-aboriginal people to the world’s oldest living culture, while at the same time showing by example to the Aboriginal people themselves that their culture, often ignored and looked down upon by its own people, is of great value and interest to others throughout Australia and the world. Through dance and theatre, and traditional activities including spear and boomerang throwing, food and medicinal plants identification, and shelter construction, there is much to learn here about Aboriginal life. Skyrail's terminus is adjacent to Tjapukai, after which you can take a short taxi ride back to your car. Drive to nearby Clifton Beach, where Cairns Tropical Zoo has a good collection of Australian animals, including wombats, kangaroos and koalas, all of which you can get up close to, and with which you can have your photograph taken. There's also an interesting opal shop across the road, with a well-done mock-up of an opal mine, opalized fossils, and an interesting film about mining opals.

Day 17 – Saturday, June 23: Cairns / Granite Gorge / Lake Eacham
Head off again north up the Kuranda Range, then head into Mareeba, a small Tablelands town and center of this agricultural district. Head through town and out to Granite Gorge to see small Rock Wallabies among the granite boulders. Continue south to explore the rainforests of the Atherton Tablelands. These World Heritage Wet Tropics listed rainforests, at an elevation of about 2,500 ft, are home to some of Australia’s rarest and most unusual animals, including four kinds of very restricted possums, gliders, and the definitely weird tree kangaroo, a kangaroo which has adapted to a life in the trees, rather than on the ground. Much of this area is designated World Heritage, as is the Great barrier Reef just visited. There are huge specimens of strangler fig trees, and the smallest and most primitive kangaroo, the Musky Rat-kangaroo, can often be seen here, as well as fruit pigeons and brush turkeys. Suggested is a walk to see the Twin Kauris and then a light lunch before a one-hour cruise around Lake Barrine. This informative cruise usually manages to find Amethystine Pythons, over 12 ft long, sunning along the bank. Your accommodation tonight is The Chambers Rainforest Lodge, a small ecolodge in the heart of the rainforest. Here there is time to relax and enjoy the peace and wildlife which is plentiful here. There is plenty of wildlife right on the property, and at about dusk dozens of pademelons, a small rainforest wallaby, emerge onto the grass. At 7.30pm meet your naturalist guide Alan at the platypus viewing platform in Yungaburra, on the Atherton road. Although it’s hard to miss, John, your host at The Chambers, can give you directions. This will be a convenient place tomeet, as it’s only a couple of minutes from any of Yungaburra’s restaurants. Your evening is spent spotlighting for mammals and owls. Alan Gillanders is a "step-aboard" guide, that is he joins you in your vehicle, rather than using a bus. The area visited for this is especially good for the strange Tree Kangaroo, which has taken to life in the rainforest trees. A variety of rainforest birds and other animals, perhaps including the leaf-tailed gecko - eight inches long and colored and shaped like a piece of bark - will be found and seen.

Day 18 – Sunday, June 24: Atherton Tablelands / Undara National Park
This morning you meet Up with Allen again for a morning for wildlife – he will let you know when during your prior evening. Spend the early part of the morning looking for platypus at a small stream. Some special birds will be seen, perhaps including the Golden Bowerbird at his huge bower, over 5 feet high. During the morning Allen will explain the plants and workings of the rainforest. After a morning of wildlife head inland, to a completely different habitat, the dry outback. Your journey today, though short, will take you from some of the wettest country in Australia, with over 150” of rain per year, to the rain shadow where drought is a way of life. Today will show the true nature of Australia. From the Lodge drive through the southern tablelands to Undara National Park. Although the Tablelands are rainforested, as you drive west you break into the shadow of this 3000ft range, and emerge into typically Australian dry eucalypt habitat. The park is about 3 hours away, a pleasant drive through ever-changing landscape. The Undara Lava Tubes were formed some 190,000 years ago when a major volcano in the McBride volcanic province erupted, its molten lava flowing down a dry river bed. As the top layer quickly cooled and crusted, the fiery magma below continued to flow through the tubes taking it further and further from the volcano. The eruption slowed and then stopped, the lava drained out of the tubes leaving a series of long, hollow tunnels. Ancient roof collapses created deep, dark and moist depressions where fertile pockets of "dry" rainforest can now be seen. Some rainforest plants and animals still thrive in this remnant environment; each tube offers a rare insight into this unusual geological wonder. The word Undara means 'a long way' in the Aboriginal language, and one of the lava flows from Undara extends 160 kilometers (or 100miles) making it the longest lava flow from a single volcano on our planet. The original tube formed by the flow extended for approximately 100 kilometers, and several sections are accessible. During the eruption cycle, the Undara volcano spewed forth 23 cubic kilometers of lava covering 1550 square kilometers. So far, 68 separate sections of cave have been identified from over 300 lava tube roof collapses. On arrival you can explore the immediate area around your lodge, where you may find a frisky kangaroo or two, before your outback dinner. Your accommodation is a converted railway car, allowing your different experience in the Australian bush.    (D)

Day 19 - Monday, June 25: Undara National Park
Spend the day on a guided tour around the tubes, park and surrounding formations and savannah habitats. You visit several different sections of the Lava Tube line beginning with an easy walk around the rim of Kalkani Crater where the collapsed line of the lava tube is highly visible and the vast scope of the tube system is most evident. Your Savannah Guide explains environmental, geological and historical features. Your day includes morning tea and lunch taken back at the lodge, and afternoon tea. This afternoon you are free to explore the walks from camp, in real Australian outback. Return in time for a sit around the camp with a cool drink, and then another outback dinner followed by good company, bush yarns and singing around the campfire. A guided sunset walk reveals rufous bettongs, small members of the kangaroo family, wallabies and other wildlife using a spotlight to search them out.    (B,L,D)

Day 20 - Tuesday, June 26: Undara / Cairns / Sydney
This morning take an easy drive back to Cairns at your leisure, coming down from the Tablelands via the Gillies Highway, with its spectacular views. Return your car at the airport, and fly to Sydney, arriving mid-evening. You are met and transferred to your hotel, located in the Rocks, the historical heart of Sydney. As well as a good range of interesting shops, some of Sydney's oldest and most colorful pubs, and best restaurants, are found within a ten minute stroll. Australia has developed its own cuisine, a far cry from the stodgy English-based fare of earlier years. Restaurants featuring a fusion of Asian, European and even native Australian food abound, often featuring the superbly fresh fish abundantly available from Australia's long coastline.    (B,*D)

Day 21 – Wednesday, June 27: Sydney

Free day today to spend with your relatives

Day 22 - Thursday, June 28: Sydney
Discover Sydney today, a wonderfully cosmopolitan city. Just a short walk from your hotel (the desk can give you directions) is the office of The Rocks Walking Tours, from where you will start your 10.30am easy 90-minute walking tour of this historic and vibrant area. Many of the buildings date from the very first years of the settlement, and are convict-built. You will get a good insight to the history of Sydney, and Australia. The rest of the day is free to explore this vibrant and friendly city. In addition to great shops to buy the needed souvenirs and gifts, just a short walk is the Botanic Gardens and the Domain, which has good views of the harbor, an abundant bird life, and a colony of huge grey fruit-bats, whose wingspans are approximately three feet. The Australian Museum, with its impressive collection of Aboriginal artifacts and art, is also close by. The Taronga Zoo is a ferry ride across the harbor, and a lunch or dinner cruise is a good way to truly appreciate this water-side city. During today or tomorrow you may wish to take a guided tour of the Opera House; tours leave on the half hour from 9.30am until 4.45pm. This can be followed by dinner and a show, or just a show, in one of the Opera House theatres, depending on your tastes. Everything is within walking distance of your hotel, although the Museum is a little far and you may wish to take the bus or a train - Sydney is extremely well-serviced by buses and the underground. Lunch can be taken on a cruise on the harbor, with views of the Opera House and Harbour Bridge, as well as the boats and ferries of what is often called the most beautiful city harbor in the world. While there are tours that utilize the ferries, usually with lunch or morning tea, the cheapest way to do this is to simply buy a return ticket to one of the up-harbor places such as Homebush (where the Olympics were held). You’ll see a map of all the places they go at Circular Quay. The ferries have asnack/meal bar, and you can just get an easy lunch or snack there, sit back, and enjoy the ride. The ferry to Manly goes in the other direction, and as it passes the Entrance, where the harbor enters the Pacific, can get interestingly rough at times. This ferry will pass the Opera House and various other landmarks, and is also a good run, especially as the sun sets behind the bridge and opera house, and the lights are coming on.

Day 23 - Friday, June 29: Sydney / Los Angeles / Birmingham
Sadly you leave Australia today, but taking many memories and permanent souvenirs. Due to the International Dateline, you arrive back into Los Angeles early this same morning, in plenty of time to catc your flight back to. Birmingham, arriving late afternoon.    (*L,*M,*B)

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