Uluru & Kings Canyon walking tour

country:	Australia
location:	Northern Territory, Uluru, Aboriginal tours
trip type:	Introductory walking holidays
departures:	2009: 6 Jun, 22 Jun
price:	From AU $7380 (13 days) excluding flights. This price is fixed and is all inclusive, please see below for details
offers:	Book a 2009 tour today and only pay 2008 prices. This offer closes on 31st December 2008, after which date, increased 2009 prices will apply. Don't delay as the offer is only open until tours are fully booked.

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Walking holidays

the amazing things you'll be doing

Join our small group guided journeys through the central heart of Australia, visiting up to 20 national park, nature, historic and scenic reserves in a rugged, arid environment rich in colour and profound inspiration.

Contemplate the tyrannies of remoteness and distance, the enduring sense of space, an eerie silence, clear star-filled skies by night and a timeless contorted landscape 300 million years in the making. Join guided walks around Australia’s most celebrated monolith, Uluru (Ayers Rock), through gorges, chasms, pounds, gaps and canyons, Central Australia has it all.

Many of these physical features provide waterholes and vegetation essential to the concentration and survival of bird and animal life. Follow an old Aboriginal trade route to the botanist’s paradise of Palm Valley. Inspect the site and impact of a comet which crashed to earth at 144,000 kms /hr. Visit Australia’s most remote town where pioneering history and fine Aboriginal art are proudly exhibited. You’ll travel the back tracks and even an historic dry river bed, in the comfort of a luxury, air-conditioned 4WD vehicle.

The tour is fully accommodated with all meals, experienced guides and entries provided and offered at an all inclusive price.

Price includes: Quality accommodations, meals and tea breaks, on tour transport, transfers and guides, park fees, special entries and side tours as advertised, tour briefing function and concluding dinner, wine with dinner, thoughtful tour memento and travel treats, access to reference library and field equipment, pre and post tour travel advice, contributions to carbon offset tree planting programs in Australia.

day-by-day itinerary

Day 1-3:	Time to visit the most publicised Australian icon, the world heritage listed Uluru or Ayers Rock where we will undertake a circuit base walk and savour the changing colours and moods of the rock at sunrise and sunset. Equally fascinating are The Olgas (Kata Tjuta), the Mt Connor Mesa, a visit to the Aboriginal Cultural Centre and at night the compelling pursuit of star gazing the southern galaxies with a local astronomer. At this point the nearest town services are 450 kms away making your resort facilities a true oasis in the desert.
Day 4:	A relaxed travel day takes us to Kings Canyon resort and the spectacular Canyon. We visit two remote station properties, one of a million acres, and a legendary bushman guide who will acquaint us of the realities of running a cattle property in this arid fringe desert environment.
Day 5:	Today we climb to the rim walk of the blazing red Kings Canyon with its unusual geological formations and precipitous cliffs inflamed in the morning sun. Further walking deep inside the Canyon and to other remote features of the range country will complete an energetic and inspiring day.
Day 6:	We travel the 4WD back roads to Gosse Bluff reflecting on the catastrophic event which rocked the world, causing global climate change, 140 million years ago, Tyler Pass with its rolling hills of Spinifex and maybe some air-bed rafting exploring the canyon of Redbank Gorge. Then we travel to our night’s accommodation, a remote outback resort at the head of Glen Helen Gorge.
Day 7:	An outstanding walk awaits us into the Ormiston Gorge and Pound where we are surrounded by countless millions of years of geological disturbance, weathering, brilliant colours, delightful beaches and water holes. Later a visit to Serpentine Gorge and the Ochre Piits from which centuries of overland trade by Aborigines originated.
Day 8:	We’ll embark on a full day walk over a select section of the celebrated Larapinta Trail snaking its way 223kms through the West MacDonnell Ranges National Park. We complete this day relaxing in the soothing beauty of the Ellery Creek Big Hole then travel on to our accommodation in Alice Springs.
Day 9:	We enjoy a leisurely visit to the iconic Standley Chasm and Simpsons Gap before spending an informative afternoon at the world class Desert Park to bring all our experiences, impressions and senses of the Rugged Red Heart all into one. Perhaps some time with an Aboriginal Ranger as he takes us back in time to an ancient people way of life, surviving in the desert. End of 9 day and start of 4 day sections.
Day 10:	We spend the day roaming the historic precincts of Australia’s remotest town, Alice Springs, with its fine indigenous art galleries, the resting place of our most famous Aboriginal artist, Afghan camel drivers and pioneering heroes who opened up the Centre, a visit to the historic Overland Telegraph Station and some iconic institutions providing essential educational and medical support to remote communities and families up to 700kms distant, hardy people challenged by the tyranny of distance and isolation.
Day 11:	We continue our day excursions by driving along the world’s most ancient river bed and Aboriginal trade route in 4WD to the remote Palm Valley with its rare community of palms set against the rust red walls of the gorge, then visit the old Hermannsburg Mission for an understanding of the life and times of remote Aboriginal communities yesterday and today.
Day 12-13:	Further adventure unfolds as we negotiate the remote bush tracks and roads toward the northern edges of the Simpson Desert and a remarkable sight of rich red sand ridges, the explorers sign post, Chambers Pillar an awesome monolith standing sentinel in the desert heartland. Our final day includes walks in rich burgundy gorges and gaps of the East MacDonnell Ranges before we journey to the iconic Rainbow Valley to absorb the closing impressions of Central Australia in its full sunset glory. End of 13 day journey.

how this holiday makes a difference

There will be time to visit various galleries of genuine Aboriginal Art in the central town of Alice Springs. We also visit and support with entry fees other outback institutions such as the Royal Flying Doctor , the Long Distance School of the Air in which medical and emergency services are provided to remote outback properties, and children are educated in their homes on the fringes of the desert.

We’ll visit the sites of the Hermannsburg Mission and Titjikala Community where indigenous families live today and reflect on some of the contemporary challenges now facing these peoples. It is our endeavour here not to invade or intrude but to visit the fringes, observe from an understanding aspect and to shop and create community revenue.

You will have the opportunity to browse and shop at the Aboriginal Cultural Centre, Uluru and enjoy first hand the art and culture of the desert people thereby creating economic benefit for the Centre.

We’ll engage the interpretive services of local indigenous rangers and take time to reflect on the plight of a whole generation of stolen children.

All our guests receive a written brief, pre-tour, in which they are referred to our Travel Ethic, minimising the tour impact on the environments we visit.

Compliance with the Travel Ethic and the values of Responsible Travel form part of the Terms and Conditions, when booking.

You will also receive a questionnaire, pre-tour, in which you can profile your expectations of the tour, your special interests and declare the importance of sustainable tourism and the environment to you.

Our pre-tour “meet and greet” briefing includes references to the Travel Ethic and Responsible Travel and values are highlighted spontaneously throughout the tour.

Your tour is extensively researched for local content and “authenticity” and where available local guides are engaged in support. In addition your tour leader imparts a much broader study of Australia’s evolution, land management and conservation issues and knowledge drawn from research on other tours, by the company.

Our tours also provide an extensive library of nature based field reference books, background information on local features, indigenous culture, conservation and history plus select DVD’s on these subjects for special viewings.

Glaringly orchestrated and themed, mainstream tourist traps are not featured or included in our tours.

Through annual and access fees to national park authorities we provide revenue essential to the protection and maintenance of the parks we visit. We comply with the management plans of each park and assist by reporting adverse events or special findings to the park management.

We collect and thoughtfully dispose of any rubbish sighted in the parks visited. We retain and dispose of our own rubbish in a similar manner.

We minimise the use of disposable packaging and recycle all catering items where possible.

We conduct limited departures to any one tour or destination so minimising our impact on any one pristine environment.

All catering is arranged or purchased locally or home made.

In most instances quality accommodation is chosen on the basis of local family ownership and small business management and with added practices in place, particularly saving of water and energy.

Our tour group sizes are limited to 8 to 15 people maximum, to minimise any negative impact on the environment, the enjoyment of other people, the capacity of community services, the safety and stress of wildlife. We encourage the practice of low noise bushwalking and special solo activities making our guests at one with the environment.

We minimise the use of our tour vehicle in preference for walking, travelling only on formed roads and tracks, applying the annual recorded mileage to a carbon offset program.

Vehicle fuel and service requirements are purchased locally.

We conduct our operations from a minimalist city office under a policy of recycling paper and clerical supplies, minimising power and water usage in a current drought affected environment and engaging a network of expert small business services as required.

Our operation is working toward a carbon neutral status with some proceeds from each tour directed to accredited tree planting programs to offset unavoidable CO2 emissions as well as the regeneration of degraded lands and enhancement of wildlife habitats

Tourism can be good and bad for destinations & local people.

We carefully screen every holiday against our criteria for responsible travel.

'Look behind the brochure' to find how each holiday makes a difference (see left).

We don't claim to be perfect - there is no global accreditation - but we've led the way since 2001 and screened 1000's of holidays.

We invite every traveller to write a review about their experiences and responsible tourism.

This valuable feedback is sent to the people who run the holidays. We keep a very close eye on it and take off holidays that don't live up to our standards.