Outback Adventure

At once cultured yet cool, Adelaide attracts foodies, historians, and art aficionados in equal measure. Explore it on a city tour, before meeting a local gourmand at the legendary Central Market, before joining your Travel Director for a Welcome Dinner.

One of Australia’s oldest wine regions, the Clare Valley is all rounded hills, rippling vines and native forest. It’s the postcard-perfect setting for historic Knappstein Enterprise Winery, producing sweet-scented rieslings and mineral-rich reds. Next, enjoy a visit to artist Jeff Morgan’s gallery in Hawker, gateway to the Flinders Ranges. The best is yet to come, as you arrive at Wilpena Pound Resort in the shadows of a staggering natural amphitheatre.

The river red gums that envelop Hills Homestead will leave you lost for words. You get here on a leisurely walk along Wilpena Creek and continue to Wangarra Hill Lookout for views over the pound’s peaks and curves. The drama is echoed as you travel to Pichi Richi Pass and the historic town of Quorn, where with a Local Guide, you'll hear the importance of this town in the ANZAC's Gallipoli Campaign, before easing into Port Augusta.

The main attraction in Woomera is a former rocket-testing site, today stocked with disused rockets and missiles. Speaking of space, you’ll think you’ve landed on the moon as you travel through sun-baked country to Coober Pedy, known as ‘the opal capital of the world’. Things get deep as you travel underground to visit the town’s headscratching subterranean facilities.

Emerge from your cave and cross the border into the Northern Territory. Uluru-Kata Tjuta National Park has World Heritage status for a reason; under the gaze of the world’s mightiest monolith, toast the end of the day with a glass of bubbles and a camera full of sunset photos.

Pre-dawn wake-up calls are worth it when you get to enjoy a Red Centre sunrise. Marvel at the majesty of Uluru as you circumnavigate its base or join a guided walk to Mutitjulu Waterhole. This landscape takes you back to the beginning of time, a sacred place among the Anangu. More soul-salving landscapes await at Kata Tjuta, cool relief provided as you walk amid its domes to Walpa Gorge.

Sleep in, or you might choose to rise early for Artist Bruce Munro's Field of Light (own expense) and another special sunrise over Uluru. Next chance to stretch your legs is at Kings Creek Station, the largest exporter of wild camels in Australia. All your senses will be activated at Kings Canyon, 440-million years in the making.

Things are bigger in the NT outback, from the cattle stations to the MacDonnell Ranges, which stretch like a caterpillar toward Alice Springs. Alice Springs makes Australian history for her 1872 Telegraph Station, one of 11 along the Overland Telegraph Line between Adelaide and Darwin.

Aboriginal culture is strong in Alice Springs, as you’ll fast find on a tour of the Alice Springs Desert Park. Visit the Royal Flying Doctor Service, its base a museum that goes behind the scenes of the life-saving health services delivered to people in remote realms. One of the benefits of being this far-flung is the lack of light pollution. And at Earth Sanctuary World Nature Centre, this equates to epic stargazing. Your Be My Guest BBQ dinner here with the Falzon family is enlightening and uplifting - think stories of self-sufficient living and astronomy.

1.3 million square kilometres – that’s the eye-watering distance the School of Air’s lessons are broadcast across daily. If touring during the school term, you may be lucky enough to observe live educational sessions featuring children who otherwise may not have access to public education. Approximately an hour south of Tennant Creek is Karlu Karlu, the Devils Marbles. These boulders have formed over millions of years and continue to crack and change over time.

Since the 1930s, the Daly Waters Historic Pub has been dishing up schnitzels, barramundi burgers and hearty steaks. The walls are lined with treasures that passers-by leave behind. ‘Land of the Never Never’ awaits at Mataranka. Visit a replica of the Elsey Homestead, used in 1982 Aussie drama We of the Never Never. Or wander palm-lined walkways to take a dip in the region’s thermal springs.

The Jawoyn have called Nitmiluk (Katherine) Gorge home for millennia. Find out about the ancient story of the cicada, embodying the spiritual connection between the Jawoyn people and their land. Traversing across the land in into Kakadu National Park. The Yellow Water billabong cruise is a mesmerising journey through this ancient landscape, guided by knowledgeable locals

Decisions, decisions: a morning flight over Kakadu (own expense), or a sleep in. We vote for the former before you venture toward Ubirr and its ancient Aboriginal rock art. The night is yours in steamy Darwin, where the characters are as large as the shadows cast at sunset.

Today, go your own way. That might mean signing up for optional experiences, like explorations into Litchfield National Park. This pocket of the NT is a staggering union of magnetic termite mounds and waterfalls (swimming is seasonal). Alternatively, head north to the Tiwi Islands, where you take a deep dive into Indigenous history and art with First Nations guides (both own expense). Whichever route you go, we’ll see you at the Farewell Dinner.

Time to bid adieu and head home to sort through all those photos. Even better are the memories; two weeks of wild outback adventures.