This Tour is an "Adventure of a Lifetime!"
We recommend that your journey starts from the Byron Shire and the sandy beaches of Byron Bay, allowing you to travel from the most easterly part of the Australian continent. Depart from this most famous destination at your leisure, travel through the rainforests of the NSW hinterland and join us at St George, the capital of the Balonne Shire, a large primary producing district.
From St George and over the next 30 days we will travel through the rich gas fields of south western Queensland, the deserts of Central Australia, the ore rich hub of
Western Australia and onto the most westerly point of our continent. So if you were
thinking that you would like to take a Tour that is different and something that you
just wouldn’t contemplate taking on alone — this is the One!
We will travel into outback Queensland and explore the Simpson Desert region, one of the Great Deserts of the Southern Hemisphere. We will visit the unique and beautiful Uluru and absorb the ambience and culture significance of this natural phenomena, see Giles Weather Station, a fully operational Bureau of Meteorology observation station. We will travel through some of this country’s harshest and most remote regions including the infamous Gunbarrel Highway where the challenging and diverse terrain never disappoints. The Gunbarrel stretches across two States and divides the Gibson and Great Victoria Deserts. This highway was part of a series of roads used to retrieve rocket parts from the Woomera Rocket range. To better appreciate this part of the Tour, the now famous publication ‘Too Long in the Bush’ by Len Beadell is a must read.
This East to West Tour will pass through the very heart of the Western Australian
desert wilderness. We will visit Wiluna, gateway to the Canning Stock Route and once the largest gold field in this part of our universe. We travel onto Carnarvon—our ‘Oasis” in the sun! Here we will be greeted with palm lined streets, tropical plantations, and the picturesque Fascine Inlet. The Gascoyne river and surrounding fertile course red sand are the lifeblood of the towns thriving agricultural industry.
At nearby Mount Augustus National Park, Mount Augustus rises 1106 metres above
sea level and although twice the size of Uluru seems less impressive because of it's
stepped formation and the trees on it's flanks. It's granite is estimated to be 1750
million years old. From here we will travel onto Cape Cuvier. Here this deep natural
port is bounded by sixty metre cliffs.
Our return journey takes us through the iron ore heart of Australia, and then onto the Canning Stock Route, one of the world's longest and loneliest cattle trails, and a trek that should never be contemplated alone or in too small a group. We travel onto Windy Corner and Gary Junction. After a two night stop at Alice Springs, once a telegraph station and known by a very different name of Stuart, we will travel along the PlentyHighway via Boulia. Boulia, situated on the Burke River, is of course renowned for the most sightings of the infamous ‘Min Min Lights’ - often described as a hovering luminescent ball.
We will terminate this amazing Tour at Winton after visiting the Diamantina National Park. Winton is home to “Elliot’ the largest dinosaur skeleton found in Australia and site of Larks Quarry. Here you will find thousands of dinosaur tracks, embedded in sandstone and shale.
The Tour schedule is long but flexible allowing for rest days in between, giving you
some spare days to do your own thing, like fishing, sightseeing, or just unwinding. The diversity of terrain traveled over on this particular Tour will please and at times
challenge you—why not join us!
