Tropical Treks has added a five-day guided ‘Great Cooloola Walk’, covering 88 kilometres between the Noosa Northshore and Rainbow Beach, to its schedule.
The trek is via the 500,000-year-old Cooloola Sandmass, with wildlife highlights including ground parrots, feather-tailed gliders, koalas and wallabies.
Groups are limited to six and the package, which is priced at $1595, includes all camping equipment, meals and drinks along the trek. Nightly accommodation is in four walkers’ camps, which offer toilets and fresh water.
The heritage and culture of the local Gubbi Gubbi people is a major feature of the commentary provided throughout the guided trek.
A bring-your-own-gear option is available for $1095 per person.
Visit www.tropicaltreks.com.au
A new ‘Explore and Feast’ package from the Retreat Port Stephens offers a 23 per cent saving on a getaway filled with serenity and good food.
The package includes three nights in a cabin at the Retreat Port Stephens, a $15 voucher to use at Crest Birubi Beach, an eatery boasting spectacular vistas over the ocean, a welcome hamper filled with goodies, a stubby holder for each guest and a hand-picked guide to the best local dining venues.
It is pried from $369 per couple and valid for all midweek (Sunday-Thursday) bookings made until September 28, excluding March 30 to April 4 and June 6-11.
The Retreat Port Stephens is a sanctuary nestled in bushland next to Australia’s largest sand dunes.
Phone 02 4982 1244 or visit www.theretreatportstephens.com.au
Wearing his Savannah Guide cowboy hat and boots, Bram Collins looks like he has stepped out of a Dundee movie when he shows visitors around the longest lava tubes in the world.
The Undara Experience Chairman, whose cattle farming family discovered the Undara lava tubes, is proof there is more to Tropical North Queensland than its two iconic World Heritage areas, the Great Barrier Reef and the Wet Tropics rainforest.
The Outback is just a couple of hours drive from Cairns International Airport and it is brimming with exotic treasures like the lava tube remnants of a volcanic eruption some 190,000 years ago which hide patches of rainforest and are rich with wildlife.
Visit www.undara.com.au
Yee-haw! It’s nearly time to don your cowboy gear and head to Alberta, Canada, for the world’s most famous rodeo, the Calgary Stampede, which this year will be held July 6 -15.
Contestants compete in bareback, bull riding, barrel racing, saddle bronc, steer wrestling and down roping, with the action culminating in the GMC Rangeland Derby Chuckwagon event.
And, of course, it’s also time to indulge in the Stampede’s infamous carnival fare.
New additions for this year include the Cereal Monster Sandwich (a monster portion of ice cream crushed between two cereal-infused marshmallow squares) and the Clam Chowder Poutine (creamy clammy goodness on top of piping hot, cheesy french fries, garnished with crispy crab meat and parsley).
Visit www.calgarystampede.com
Once you have stood in the presence of a wild elephant, nothing is ever quite the same again. There is definitely something about these gentle giants that touches all of us. Maybe it’s their enormous size or their wise demeanour.
But whatever it is, no African safari is complete without encountering one of nature’s most magnificent beasts.
Fancy an elephant as your tour guide? Now you can live the dream with Sanctuary Retreats’ unique elephant interaction in partnership with the Living with Elephants Foundation in Botswana’s Okavango Delta.
Stay at Sanctuary Stanley’s Camp or Sanctuary Baines’s Camp and you can meet with Jabu and Morula, two semi-habituated orphaned elephants. Observe and interact with them while walking in their footsteps at a leisurely pace through the wilderness.
And book four or more nights at any of Sanctuary Retreats’ luxury camps and lodges and save up to 40 per cent.
Aurora Expeditions will inaugurate its new expedition ship, the Greg Mortimer, with a series of cruises during the 2019/20 polar season.
Deals include a free upgrade from Aurora Stateroom to Balcony Stateroom or the option to save up to $6000 per person on other selected cabin categories.
The 12-day ‘Spirit of Antarctica Expedition’, for instance, is priced from $12,500 per person twin-share, including a free upgrade to a Balcony Stateroom.
Voyage highlights include seeing penguin chicks hatch, honing ice and wildlife photography skills, listening to feeding humpbacks, camping on-shore in Antarctica, and experiencing the thrill of Antarctic kayaking, climbing, snowshoeing and ski-touring.
Phone 1800 637 688 or visit www.auroraexpeditions.com.au
