Newsletter 25, October 2006
It may seem to be early days, but several 2007 deadlines are fast approaching.
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In This Issue... |
| 2007 -- Time Is Running Out
Time is running out???? It most certainly is! Two of our best trips cannot run unless we put out food drops before the 4WD tracks close in November. Preparing those food drops takes time. If we get a late Wet, we might be able to put off the final decision until mid to late November. If we get an early Wet, it could be all over by the beginning of that month.
Time is running out for the coming wet season. We offer seven different wet season trips in Kakadu and four in the Kimberley. These include
We can't run them all. We love them all so we give you the choice. The ones that get early bookings are the ones that run. As with the rest of our program, any trip which doesn't have any bookings two months prior to departure is cancelled. Time is running out for both of our African trips.
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| Aboriginal Guides and Culture Kakadu is Aboriginal Land. Most of the parks in the NT are, or are about to become, Aboriginal Land. Many of the parks in the Kimberley are subject to joint Aboriginal-government management. Everywhere we go, we find paintings and engravings which show just how long this land has been occupied. More and more, the local Aboriginal people are deciding that they wish to become involved in tourism. Aboriginal people who live in the areas where we operate have retained much more of their culture than is the case in southern Australia. For many, English remains a second or third language. Walking with an Aboriginal guide or two gives you an insight into Aboriginal culture that you could never get in any other way.
We offer seven different trips where we are accompanied by traditional Aboriginal guides. In Kakadu, a number of Aboriginal owned and operated short tours have begun in recent years. We are looking at the possibility of incorporating one or two of these into some of our Kakadu trips.
There are two other new operations which don't yet have websites. As they are run by senior traditional owners, they can offer insights and information you couldn't get in any other way. We would welcome your comments on any of these possibilities as well as on the general principle of more Aboriginal content in our trips. |
| Tarkine Tasmania
The Tarkine -- see it while you can. Logging continues in Tasmania's amazing Tarkine forest. The more people who see the wonder that is being lost, the more likely it is that enough pressure will be put on politicians to see that the remainder is saved. Founded by conservationists in 2001, Tarkine Trails was established to generate a practical and positive economic alternative to the logging and mining of one of the world’s great treasures, the Tarkine rainforest in Tasmania’s North West. Tarkine Trails have actively lobbied for the protection of the Tarkine since that time and has donated over $50,000 worth of walks to conservation groups aligned with this vision. Today, Tarkine Trails remains the only operator offering guided walks in this extraordinary wild area. Tarkine Trails is one of the very few companies who offer trips similar to ours. If you enjoy bushwalking, you owe it to yourself to check out their website and see what they offer. By doing one of their walks, you contribute to the growth of eco-tourism in the Tarkine and hence assist in justifying its desired transition to a National Park- World Heritage area. Help us help you and others like you. If you have already done one of the Tarkine Trails walks, I'd appreciate hearing what you thought of it. If you know of anyone else offering similar trips elsewhere in Australia, please let me know that as well. Over the years, I've watched as many of the best small tour operations in the Top End and Kimberley were taken over by major businesses who could not provide the same personal touch. Developing a network of small operators would give us a better chance of keeping niche operators like ourselves alive and well. Without feedback from people who have done trips with different operators, this network will never reach its potential. |
| 2007 New Trips & Full Program.
Our full trip list for 2007 is now available. All prices are those we charged in 2006 or based on our 2006 costs. Many of our costs have gone or are going up but I haven't yet got all the quotes but I will honour these prices for anyone who books and pays a deposit before the new prices go up on the website. The dates of some trips have changes substantially. The biggest change was to Mitchell Plateau No. 1. Helicopters arrive at the Mitchell Plateau base much earlier than they used to. By changing the date, we get to use the helicopters without having to pay for a return helicopter flight from Kununurra. This should make the trip a lot easier. Early April should still have excellent water flows. New Trips. We've added two new trips.
Several 2007 trips already have bookings. Except for Kakadu Circle No. 1, none has the booking we need to call it a definite departure. |
| Overseas Trips.
At last we win! It's taken a long time, but we have finally found insurers who will cover our overseas trips. Our Southern Africa trips will continue. If we don't get the early bookings we need to run the Great Walks of South Africa trip beginning in September, we will replace it with one more like some of our previous trips. Patagonia isn't so easy. I believe that having a Spanish speaking guide is very important. We have only two such guides and no immediate prospects of getting others -- at least not from Australia. I am now considering trying to find local English speaking guides. This would allow us to offer more trips as well as provide a back up if something happened to prevent the Australian guide from going.
I would welcome comments on this as well contacts from anyone who believes that they have all the relevant qualifications for leading one of our South America trips. |
| Pilbara and Kimberley Parks.
If more people knew what the Pilbara had to offer, we'd not only run our Pilbara trips more often, we'd add several others. The Autumn 2006 issue of the WA Parks magazine Landscope was devoted to the Pilbara. It may be available in your local library -- well worth a look if you want to learn more about the area. The WA Department of Environment and Conservation Naturebase website has a wealth of information relevant to the places we operate. Here are eight links to their pages about parks we visit.
Four parks where we spend a week or more at a time
Four parks we visit briefly on longer trips. We visit Mirima on our Green Kimberley Light trip and the others on our Gibb Road Gorges trip. |
| Birdwatching and Bushwalking.
Many of our clients are keen birdwatchers. Many other keen birdwatchers ought to consider our trips as they allow you to visit great birdwatching places which would be otherwise inaccessible. To try and get the message across, we have just added Birdwatching and Bushwalking page to our website. The new page links to bird species lists from a number of different trips in different areas. It links to information about special birdwatching trips we offered in the past and could offer again if the demand was there. It also links to a number of specialist birdwatching sites.
If you are interested in birdwatching, you owe it to yourself to have a look. Please help! I could make this page much better if I had more bird lists and some specific comments about birdwatching on our trips from people who have done them. If you can provide either, please send them in and help other birdwatchers who might think about our trips. Thank you. |
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