Australian
Natural Adventures
Wildlife,
Nature & Soft Adventure Tours
Custom
Australia, New Zealand & Pacific tours and travel
CUSTOM
ITINERARY PREPARED FOR
Nature-loving
Divers
AUSTRALIA
September
14 to October 8, 2010
Day
1 – Tuesday, September 14: Salt Lake City/ Los Angeles / Lost
In Space
Begin your Australian wildlife journey by flying from Salt Lake City
to Los
Angeles. Make your way to the Tom Bradley International Terminalm,
where Australia begins when you step aboard Qantas flight 108 departing
at 11.50pm. The Australian style is apparent—easy going, casually
efficient and very friendly. Qantas is known for its food and service,
so sit back and enjoy dinner
and a movie. However, as this meal will be served about an hour and
a half to two hours after take-off, it will be very late, and you
may want to eat before boarding -even Qantas food is not something
to hang around for. The best variety of restaurants is found at the
rear of the Tom Bradley Terminal. You may want to put a prepared Do
Not Disturb sign on your seat and go to sleep. If you do want to stay
up wine, beer and spirits are included with the meal, and there are
over 400 video, movie, tv and game options on the tivo-style entertainment
system, linked to the seat-back screen in front of you.
(*D)
Day 2 – Wednesday, September 15: Lost In Space
Lose today due to the International Dateline, but regain it on your
return journey.
Day
3 – Thursday, September 16: LIS /Sydney/ Brisbane/ Hervey Bay
Arrive in Sydney at 7.25 this morning, pass through customs and immigration,
then take a taxi into the Rocks area for a quick look at the harbor,
bridge and Opera House. The Rocks is the convict-era historic part
of Sydney, and includes Australia’s oldest building. A walk
in the nearby Botanic Gardens will give classic views of the Opera
House, Bridge and Harbour, and likely get you a dozen or so life birds
including swans, parrots and honeyeaters, while several large trees
host a colony of flying foxes. The noise should give away their location,
or just ask a visitor. Return to the domestic airport for your 2.05pm
Qantas flight to Hervey Bay via Brisbane, arriving at 5.50pm. Taxi
to your hotel, with views across the marina.
(*B,*S)
Day
4 – Friday, September 17: Hervey Bay
Hervey Bay is one of the best places in the world to observe Humpback
Whales, as the females bring their newly born calves to feed and fatten
for a few months. At 7am board your boat for two half day whale watches.
After the second tour you are dropped at Fraser Island, your home
for the next three nights. Kingfisher Bay Resort is a very comfortable
lodge, but still built and operated on ecolodge principles; it even
has a worm farm for recycling. There are walks from the main lodge,
and each morning there is a bird walk around the immediate area. Sunsets
from the beach looking over the strait between the island and the
mainland are stunning, and occasionally a dingo is seen.
Days
5 & 6 –Saturday & Sunday, September 18 & 19: Fraser
Island
These two days are available for more whale trips, and exploring the
island. Fraser is the world’s largest sand island, and is very
unusual in having well-developed rainforest growing on pure sand.
Small perched lakes are also present, ranging form crystal clear water
to tannin-stained. Due to the many sandy roads a 4WD is needed to
explore, and these can be hired from the resort. Large goannas (varanids)
are common on the island.
Day
7– Monday, September 20: Fraser Island/ Hervey Bay/ Cairns
Today you have the opportunity for a last morning whale watch (added
expense), then return to the mainland on the 2pm ferry (or a little
earlier at no cost on the whale boat) for your 6pm flight to Cairns
via Brisbane, arriving at 10.20pm. Taxi to your hotel located on the
Esplanade, with great views over Trinity Harbour and the Coral Sea.
Immediately out of the hotel is the part of the Esplanade that first
sees the dropping tide, and so the shorebirds for which the Esplanade
is famous (it’s one of Australia’s prime shorebirding
areas) first gather here, often just a few feet from your position
– there’s even benches to sit on.
(*D)
Day
8 – Tuesday, September 21: Cairns/ Daintree/ Atherton Tablelands
High tide is at 8.22am this morning, meaning that the first shorebirds
should start appearing about 8.45, and be plentiful by 9am. Spend
about
an hour picking out the many varieties present, including such US
rarities as Curlew Sandpiper and a variety of stints. Pick up your
rental car and head north to the Daintree River, where you take a
1.5 hour cruise to see the saltwater crocodiles that are common here,
as well as other mangrove animals. Return towards Cairns, but at Mossman
head up the range towards Julatten. You’ll have been traveling
through rainforest, but a little way past Julatten the rainshadow
effect of the mountains takes hold, and the environment changes to
a much more arid one, with its attendant suite of dry country birds
and other animals. Especially look for the large Wedge-tailed Eagle,
with a winspan of over 2m, and the smaller Little Eagle among others.
In Mareeba take a small road out to Granite Gorge, where rock wallabies
have become acclimated to human presence, and can easily be seen.
Ask at the kiosk about bower bird bowers, as there is usually an active
Great Bowerbird nearby. Dry country parrots such as the specatcular
Red-winged Parrot and Pale-headed Rosellas are also usually here.
Continue on south, passing a lagoon that usually has Osprey, Black
Swans and other waterbirds, including Wattled Jacana. Look for possible
bustards in the fields, and feeding Red-tailed Black Cockatoos in
the bulloak trees. Eventually arrive at your accommodation for the
next five nights, Chambers Ecolodge. This simple self-contained lodge
is in the center of rainforest, and a wide variety of mammals and
birds can be seen here. Especially look for the small Musky-Rat-kangaroo,
the smallest and most primitive of living kangaroos. Seeing this is
like looking back some 25 million years to the very start of macropod
evolution. This evening pademelons, small rainforest wallabies, will
come out onto the grassy areas, and you will likely be visited by
Sugar Gliders.
Day
9 – Wednesday, September 22: Atherton Tablelands
This morning you meet Alan Gillanders, a local wildlife guide who
will take you around the Tablelands today and tomorrow. As well as
being a past teacher and National Parks volunteer ranger, Alan’s
also the president of the Cairns branch of birds Australia. You’ll
probably start looking for platypus, and may end the daylight doing
the same thing. After dark Alan will take you out spotlighting for
the many mammals that inhabit this rainforest, including endemic possums
and tree kangaroos.
Day
10 – Thursday, September 23: Atherton Tablelands
Once again Alan will meet you for a full day out, which will include
some of the drier and ecotonal areas nearby. As you have already had
a day with Alan today will be tailored to your interests taking into
account the areas visited and animals seen yesterday. One of the special
animals of teh area is Boyd's Rainforest Dragon, which looks more
like a basilisk that a typical agamid. The uncommon Striped Possum,
more often located by its scratching than by sight, bears uncanny
similarities in feeding behavior and digit anatomy to the Aye-aye.
Day
11 & 12 – Friday & Saturday, September 24 & 25:
Atherton Tablelands
These two days are free to continue your exploration of the Tablelands,
now that Alan has shown you about and you are familiar with areas
worthy of more time. At this time of the year some 900 Sarus Cranes
and many Brolgas wheel into a small Crater swamp, and you should ensure
you are here to watch this beautiful event, as the cranes come in
often just 20 or 30 ft above head height, drop their legs and circle
down to the swamp floor.
Day
13 – Sunday, September 26: Atherton Tablelands/Cairns
The high country and dryish waterways with flowering melaleucas is
g a good place to look for honeyeaters, including the colorful Scarlet
Honeyeater. Make your way back to Cairns today at your leisure, perhaps
going down via the Palmerston Highway and the Mamu canopy walkway
if you haven’t visited this before, which enables you to walk
in the rainforest at treetop level. Arrive back in Cairns and your
Esplanade hotel once again.
Day
14 – Monday, September 27: Great Barrier Reef
You are picked up this morning from your hotel (or you can walk, it's
about ten minutes away along the Esplanade) to begin your 3 night/4
day Great Barrier Reef liveaboard on Spirit of Freedom. Over the next
four days you will head north and dive and number of reefs, especially
the Ribbon Reefs and the world-famous Cod Hole at Lizard Island. The
Ribbon Reefs and Cod Hole are some of the best diving in North Queenlsand,
and the company and divemasters know the area well; they have been
diving here for over 20 years.
(L,D)
Days
15 & 16 – Tuesday & Wednesday, September 28 & 29:
Great Barrier Reef
Continue your liveaboard on the Great Barrier Reef. In addition to
the day dives night dives are also included during your time on board. (B,L,D)
Day
17 – Thursday, September 30: GBR/ Cairns
You return to Cairns by flying from Lizard Island, and have the rest
of the day free to catch up on laundry and take it easy. The flight
will give you a new aspect of the reef not appreciated from at and
below sea level. (B)
Day
18 – Friday, October 1: Cairns/ Adelaide/ Kangaroo Island
Fly nearly the height of Australia today, first to Adelaide and then
on to Kangaroo Island, where you will stay for the next five days
and nights. Your first night is spent at Kingscote, as one of the
features of the island is the breeding fairy penguins, but these are
restricted to the east end of the island. Due to the high wildlife
population, rental car companies don’t allow driving after dark,
and as the best place to stay for wildlife is at the west end of the
island, this single night stay enables you to watch the penguins come
ashore at dusk, just a few minutes from your hotel.
(*L,*M)
Day
19 – Saturday, October 2: Kangaroo Island
You are picked up from your hotel by your guide and first visit the
redgum forest along the Cygnet River valley to seek out koalas sleeping
in the forks of the trees, then travel through some of the best wool-producing
areas on the island to a conservation park on the north coast. Here
walk through the habitat of Kangaroo Island Kangaroos, Tammar Wallabies
and the endangered Glossy Black Cockatoo. For lunch enjoy a delicious
seafood barbeque served with fine South Australian wines before heading
to a colony of Australian Sealions. At Seal Bay Conservation Park
a walk among Sealions on a beautiful sandy beach may reveal watching
pups nursing or playing in the surf. Old bulls bear the scars of territorial
disputes, as your guide explains when he discusses their unique breeding
biology. In the afternoon visit Cape Gantheaume Conservation Park
including D'Estrees Bay - where ospreys nest, and kangaroos come out
late in the day to feed. On your return to Kingscote pick up your
rental car and drive to your accommodation for the next four nights,
Kangaroo Island Wilderness Resort, located adjacent to Flinders Chase
National Park. (L)
Day
20 – Sunday, October 3: Kangaroo Island
Flinders Chase National Park is a 74,000 hectare (190,000 acre) wilderness
which covers the entire west end of the Island. First visit Rocky
River Homestead - originally a small farm and now the Park headquarters,
where there are guides to the island and it’s wildlife. This
area is home to kangaroos, wallabies, possums, goannas, echidnas,
koalas,
platypus and many birds including the rare Cape Barren Goose. At Cape
du Couedic on the south-west tip is a New Zealand Furseal colony which
is rapidly expanding. These animals can be observed at rest on the
rocks or frolicking in the surf under Admirals Arch - a spectacular
coastal grotto. On the headland above is Cape du Couedic Lighthouse
which plays an important role in navigation. Further down the coast
are the Remarkable Rocks, huge natural granite sculptures on the cliff
top. Check with the ranger to see if the Short-tailed Shearwaters
are nesting, as when they are they stream in their thousands along
the cliff coast. Very interesting is the clifftop along the south
coast. Due to the strong prevailing winds from the ocean, the forest
miniaturizes as you get closer to the edge, eventually being just
a few inches high. However, despite the harsh conditions, turn over
the small flat rocks, as many geckoes and skinks, and even small snakes,
take shelter under them.
Days
21 to 23– Monday to Wednesday, October 4 to 6: Kangaroo Island
You have these three days to continue to explore and discover the
wildlife of the island, probably the best place in Australia to find
Echidnas. As there are also platypus here (but often harder to see),
you have the opportunity to see two of the world’s three living
monotremes. Kangaroo Island Diving Safaris operates out of Western
River on the north coast, and a day with them will give you the chance
to see and perhaps interact with some of the 270 species of fish,
as well as two species of sea dragons, seals – which are often
very friendly – and dolphins.
Day
24– Thursday, October 7: KI/ Adelaide
Today is your last day on the island. Late this afternoon return to
the airport for a 6pm flight to Adelaide, where you overnight.
Day
25 - Friday, October 8: Adelaide/Melbourne/ Los Angeles/ Salt Lake
City
You leave Australia today and fly to Melbourne, where you change to
your mid-morning flight to Los Angeles. Due to the International Dateline
you arrive back in Los Angeles early this morning, in plenty of time
for you flight to your home city. (*B,*L,*B)
B: Breakfast; L: Lunch; D: Dinner; M: Meal; S:
Snack; * in flight meal
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