On arrival in Adelaide, you will be met and driven west through the vineyards of the Barossa to the dry plains that surround Australia’s greatest river, the Murray. Here, staying for 2 nights on a privately owned sheep station on the banks of the river, the river red gums, with their resident and very noisy flocks of cockatoos, provide a quintessential Australian scene. Portee is one of the oldest sheep stations on the river, originally settled by one of Australia’s most famous explorers, Edward John Eyre in 1852, and remains a working sheep station. Your host, Ian Clark, can tell you of the Australian wool industry, a “backbone” of the country’s early development, or join him and his family for a bush BBQ lunch on the property. Take a bush walk to spot some of the prolific birdlife along the Moorundie Creek, or head out on the property in the evening to search for Red kangaroos, and to spot one of Australia’s most endangered species – the hairy-nosed wombat.
From the Murray it is only a short drive to the Clare valley, whose rustic and charming towns bear witness to their first British settlers. Its vineyards remain small, privately owned and with an air of seclusion that has been lost in the larger commercial wine areas. Here you will be staying for two nights at Thorn Park a luxurious private homestead, where you can enjoy some of the best food and wine to be found anywhere in Australia.
From the Clare, your trip takes you north to the Flinders Ranges and your first taste of the real Outback. Despite its extreme aridity, the Flinders Ranges National Park harbours an immense variety of wildlife within its gorges and valleys, and you can expect to see red and grey kangaroos and emus. A picnic lunch in the shade of river red gums beside a dry creek bed is a uniquely Australian scene, with the screech of cockatoos and galahs just the noisier end of the hugely diverse bird life that inhabits this area.
Here you will be staying for 3 nights as guests of Dean & Lizzie Rasheed at their family property, Arkaba. Nestled at the foot of the Elder Range, the station country provides some of the most spectacular outback panoramas and, in the rich red of evening light, watching the sun set across the plains from the top of the ranges on Arkaba Station with a glass of chilled white wine is a memorable experience.
Your safari takes you further into the Outback to the Gawler Ranges, which provide one of the most prolific wildlife experiences in Australia – Red & Grey kangaroos (often in their hundreds) and emus, set amongst the rounded outcrops and vast clay pans of the ranges, and never a person in sight. Although the ranges are a national park, the only way to truly appreciate their natural beauty is by “roughing” it a bit. Spend the evening around a campfire, with a drop of fine Australian red, under a canopy of stars that stretch from one horizon to the other before settling down for the night in the comfort of your “swag” to the sounds of the surrounding bush.
The outback plains stop abruptly at the Great Australian Bight where the cliffs drop sharply into the seas of the Southern Ocean and where you will encounter a unique wildlife experience: watch from the cliff tops as Southern Right whales and their calves frolick in the water beneath you, or swim with dolphins and sealions in the shallow waters of Baird Bay, with one of Australia’s foremost experts on these animals. Spend two nights with Alan and Trish Payne in their beautifully appointed accommodation on the beach at Baird Bay.
Spend your final day exploring the coastline of the Eyre Peninsula before flying from Port Lincoln back to Adelaide.
