Brisbane to Sydney
- 19 days
There are winter seasonal influences on this tour
so departures for this tour can be 14 or 19 days in duration.
Pre-departure briefing
Convened in Brisbane 7.30pm, the evening before
tour departure.
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Day 1
Travel 4.5 hrs | Walking 4 hrs
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Our journey commences in Brisbane, capital
city of Queensland, “the sunshine state”, located
an hours drive from the beautiful beaches of the Gold and Sunshine
Coasts.
Within an hour we’ll be at The Glass House Mountains NP to view
surrounding volcanic formations, then to the Great Divide allowing
time for a village or lakeside lunch and a 2 hour easy walk on trails
through rainforest. We overnight in the prosperous regional Garden
City of Toowoomba, perfect for a roam at dusk or dawn, as time allows.
Accommodation: Regional city motel with private facilities
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Day 2
Travel 4.75 hrs | Walking 3.5 hrs
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We visit the homeland of three national icons, literary figure
Steele Rudd, among others. We trace the headwaters of Australia’s
greatest inland river system, the mighty Darling River (3370kms).
A back country road leads us to an unexpected lunch retreat before
we embark on a 2 hour climb and descent of the largest granite rock
in the southern hemisphere, at Bald Rock NP. The day ends at the comfortable
Girraween Lodge nestled beside Girraween NP, our retreat for three
nights.
Accommodation:
Environmental lodge with private facilities
Day 3
Walking 6 to 7 hrs
We rise for breakfast in our various lodges before gathering for a
days walking through precariously balanced granite rocks and outcrops,
spotting heath wildflowers and wildlife as we go. We climb the open
granite face of the Pyramid and lunch by an underground river. A casual
feature dinner locally or at an historic border town railway station
follows, including a taste of local wines.
Accommodation: Environmental lodge with private facilities
Day 4
Walking 5 to 6 hrs
An early roam of the lodge precincts is likely to be rewarded by sightings
of grey kangaroos, wallabies and birds feeding in the dawn. Today
we’ll enjoy a leisurely start to a 5 to 6 hr walk taking in
Castle Rock, The Sphinx, Turtle Rock and other features, before returning
to a classic Aussie barbeque dinner and some nocturnal wildlife spotting
early evening.
Accommodation: Environmental lodge with private facilities
Day 5
Travel 3.75 hrs | Walking 2 hrs
Today we travel south across the New South Wales border along the
New England Tableland, pausing for a discovery of historic Tenterfield
where in 1889 speech by Sir Henry Parkes gave rise to our nation as
a Federation. We’ll enjoy a local café coffee break then
journey on to an assembly of Celtic Standing Stones. We lunch at Saumarez,
one of Australia’s classic wealthy pastoral homesteads now owned
and managed by the National Trust. We’ll tour the homestead
and various farm buildings for a detailed immersion into life as it
was in the period 1874 – 1934. Our afternoon concludes with
a relaxed two hour walk in the Oxley Wild Rivers NP tracing the course
of an old historic timber aqueduct to where it plunged vertically
into the Gara Gorge creating Australia’s first public hydro-electric
scheme in 1894. We overnight in Armidale.
Accommodation: Country motel and apartments with
private facilities
Day 6
Travel 1.5 hrs | Walking 7 hrs
Today we travel a short distance to the Wollomombi Gorge and Falls,
reputed to be the fifth highest in the world. We enjoy a leisurely
4 kms walk to the head of the falls and continue to the neighbouring
Chandler Falls before returning to our vehicle and travelling on to
a remote environmental lodge for an early lunch and a two night stop-over.
We spend the rest of the afternoon on an 4 to 5 hour walk in the World
Heritage Listed New England NP. There are expansive distant views
over the wilderness from the edge of the escarpment to the beaches
of the Pacific Ocean. The cross section of habitats range from cool
temperate rainforest to high exposed windswept plateau country, heath
land and Eucalypt woodland. The Yaraandoo Lodge is an interesting
study in construction and self-sustaining services with surrounding
lands containing abundant bird life, the scientific study and protection
of endangered species and restricted initiation sites of Aboriginal
origin.
Accommodation: Environmental lodge with shared facilities
Day 7
Travel - local | Walking 4 to 7 hrs
Depending on the preferred activity within the group, we’ll
head off for the trail heads of Cathedral Rock NP to walk the open
sub-alpine woodland through wild granite country, for a summit lunch
on top. Vegetation on the walk will include boggy heath, unique Australian
Banksias and Grass Trees. We’ll continue the day at a leisurely
pace with a short drive to the Ebor Falls in the Guy Fawkes River
NP. Our evening could feature the delicacies of local trout, a fascinating
and experiential visit to the endangered Rufous Bettongs and other
incredible nocturnal creatures.
Accommodation: Environmental lodge with shared facilities
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Day 8
Travel 6 hrs | Walking 2 hrs
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We continue to travel south on lonely back roads toward the
World Heritage Listed Barrington Tops NP, firstly enjoying a
brief rim top walk at Dangars Falls and some road-side diversions.
We enjoy a short inspection of a humble brass and
iron lace foundry still operating precisely as it did in 1872, then
lunch at a village café before proceeding to further short
walks at the Apsley Falls first discovered in 1818. An afternoon forest
drive follows, a spectacular scenic overlook and descent into the
village of Gloucester, to watch the sun setting over the Bucketts
Range. We’ll dine with locals at their prized Golf Club and
settle in to our motel accommodation for two nights.
Accommodation: Country motel with private facilities
Day 9
Travel 2.75 hrs | Walking 4 to 5 hrs
This morning we enjoy a breakfast down town before heading for the
Gloucester Tops and a 4 hour walk on a circuit trail featuring spectacular
falls, the ancient Antarctic Beech forests which evolved in Gondwanaland
66 million years ago. We’ll picnic lunch along the trail. An
evening visit to a local rural property for a barbeque, bush song
and verse will end a memorable day.
Accommodation: Country motel with private facilities
Day 10
Travel 7 hrs
We’ll head south to the tiny village of Stroud for an early
inspection of the convict built settlement. We then head south-west
through picturesque rolling farming land and small villages to one
of the most productive regions in Australia, the Hunter Valley. Here
we drive through coal mining areas, meticulously groomed thoroughbred
breeding studs and wineries, our destination for lunch the highly
awarded Rosemount Winery (arguably Australia’s leading family
winery) or a quaint historic pub, the lifeblood of the small village
of Denman. Our afternoon is taken up with a scenic drive on back-roads
to the Blue Mountains and our retreat for four nights at Blackheath.
Accommodation: Resort motel with private facilities
Day 11
Travel - local Walking 6 hrs
We pray for fine mountain weather with lifting, unveiling valley cloud
as we indulge in a picnic breakfast at a sublime location, magnifying
your first impressions of the Greater Blue Mountains NP. The scenery
is superb, shared only with an abundance of bird life which frequents
the area. We’ll continue from breakfast to complete a 5 to 6
hrs circuit trail. This features a cliff top section with numerous
grand valley panoramas, the historic Wentworth Falls, a descent down
cliff face staircases to an historic pass etched into and along the
cliff face, an ascent through the cascading Valley of Waters to a
late café lunch at a Conservation Hut. The day will conclude
at celebrated icon features, then some education or retail therapy
at the National Parks Blue Mountains Heritage Centre adjoining Govetts
Leap.
Accommodation: Resort motel with private facilities
Day 12
Travel - local | Walking 4 hrs
We’ll rise for a leisurely breakfast before travelling to the
trail head at the Gardens of Stone NP, known for its wide variety
of eroded sandstone outcrops topped with harder ironstone plates causing
a “garden” of curious formations. We’ll walk a 4
hour circuit over the formations here called the Pagodas, along trails
known for their Koala spotting potential, colourful escarpments, extensive
valley views, remnant historic railway formations, a spectacular gorge
and natural cave setting and finally a 400m long glow worm tunnel
curving through 180 degrees where we will view the glowing larvae
of a fly species. Alternative or additional features as time allows
include the historic Zig Zag railway, the national trust home, gallery
and studios of celebrated, if not controversial artist, Norman Lindsay,
or the famous cold climate botanic gardens. This evening we dine at
a grand old guesthouse which grew in glory and reputation with the
early visitors to the mountains.
Accommodation: Resort motel with private facilities
Day 13
Travel - local | Walking 3 to 8 hrs
Today features a longer 8 hr walking day commencing with a steep descent
into the historic Gross Valley. The wilderness trail continues up
Govetts Creek bringing us to the picturesque Acacia Flat beneath the
towering Pulpit Rock and continuing to the Grand Canyon, where we
will emerge from a climb and the valley at Neats Glen. For those not
so adventurous a shorter 3 to 4 hr walk into and out of the Canyon
timed to meet other intrepid members of our group, will be satisfying.
We finish the day with an appropriate toast to the Gross Valley and
its 280 degree panorama of escarpments, then a relaxed meal and evening
preparations for continued travels.
Accommodation: Resort motel with private facilities
Day 14
Travel 5 hrs | Walking 2 hrs
We rise to an early breakfast and a slow scenic drive to the Jenolan
Caves. Here is a natural wonderland of discovered and undiscovered
limestone caves, a number of which have been illuminated for spectacular
viewing under different themes. We arrive early for one of the early
guided tours and a coffee beside the historic caves house (1887).
Following our underground experiences we travel a short distance to
the wilderness national park of Kanangra Boyd to enjoy a short 2 hr
walk on the exposed plateau savouring cliff top views of undisturbed
valleys, the Thurat Spires, sections of the precipitous Kanangra Walls
and the Kanangra Deep. We leave Kanangra for some high country travel
on back roads to Goulburn. We’ll take a break in Taralga an
historic precinct.
Accommodation: Motel with private facilities
Day 15
Travel 3.5 hrs
Today involves a light travel half-day to Jindabyne and our base for
a Mt Kosciuszko experience, on the roof top of Australia. We stretch
our activities to include a brief visit to the display centre of Australia’s
biggest engineering undertaking, the Snowy Mountains Hydro-electric
Scheme. We lunch with delicatessen delights in the central park of
Cooma beneath the 30 flags of nations represented on the Snowy scheme
before proceeding to our retreat for three nights beside Lake Jindabyne.
Later in the day a visit to the local national parks visitors centre.
Accommodation: Lakeside resort with private facilities
Day 16
Travel - local | Walking 8 to 9 hrs
Weather permitting we head off early today to the trail heads at Charlotte’s
Pass where we walk a memorable 21.5 kms main range circuit trail to
the summit of Mt Kosciuszko with diversions to scenic lookouts over
Blue Lake and Carruther’s Peak. There are also sedate pathways
through lakeside parklands at our Jindabyne base for those not so
energetic.
Accommodation: Lakeside resort with private facilities
Day 17
Travel - local | Walking 3 to 4 hrs
Today we commence with an easy 5 kms return walk along the Porcupine
Track from the ski resort of Perisher Valley. This is snow gum and
snow grass country and from observation points at an extensive group
of boulders, magnificent views of the main range and valleys is rewarding.
We’ll then travel the Alpine Way to Dead Horse Gap beyond the
Thredbo Ski Village.
Accommodation: Lakeside resort with private facilities
Day 18
Travel 2.5 hrs
It’s a few hours travel only from our Jindabyne base to the
national capital, Canberra with its highly designed features, magnificent
national exhibits and galleries. We’ll select a few of the finer
exhibits of interest to our group and arrange a free afternoon drop-off
and collection while preparations are underway for our end of tour
celebration dinner at a trendy suburban venue.
Accommodation: Motel with private facilities
Day 19
Travel 4 hrs
Today we enjoy a leisurely breakfast before a few hours drive along
the Hume Highway into Sydney, where we farewell our new-found travel
friends and drop off at a convenient central location, to be advised.
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Divide holidays from the following airports :
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