Travelers looking for a unique and unusual way to explore Australia should look no further than the Great Victorian Bike Ride, an annual cycling event that offers a healthy dose of the legendary Aussie hospitality with an active, adventurous holiday.
Now in its 27th year, the 2010 GVBR is schedule to take place from November 27 to December 5. This year’s course will highlight some of the best scenery that the Australian state of Victoria has to offer, including gorgeous lakes and rivers, wide open scenic vistas, and stunning mountain ranges. The riders will begin in Yarrawonga and cover more than 599 kilometers (372 miles) before ending in Marysville. On average, they will cover about 70km (43 miles) per day while on the route.
Just because you’ll spend the week on a bike, cycling through the Australian countryside, doesn’t mean you’ll have to skimp on the amenities however. This ride is a full service affair with luggage transportation provide, a licensed cafe at the nightly campsite, and more. In fact, even though you’ll be sleeping in a tent along the way, you’ll still have access to a masseuse, a full featured bike repair facility, and a medical team that will be on hand to take care of those saddle sores.
The Great Victorian Bike Ride is an affordable adventure Down Under to be sure. The cost of the nine day event is just $795 AUD for adults, while kids under 17 and can ride for $595 AUD. Children under 12 are just $295 AUD, and Infants, categorized here as age 5 and under, get to come along for free.
For those who would like to ride, but think this sounds like it might be just a bit too challenging, you might want to consider the Goulburn River Explorer option. This is a shortened version of the GVBR with riders joining the peloton on Day 6 and peddling for just four days rather than the standard nine. This option costs $395 AUD, with discounts being applied for the younger crowd.
Finally, well heeled riders can also elect to take the Gourmet Peddler Ride which takes you out of the tent and puts you into a hotel instead. This package costs $3450 AUD for a 9 night twin share option. For $3950 AUS you can even have your own room.
To register for the Great Victorian Bike Ride click here. Only 5000 riders are accepted however, so if you’re looking to get a true Aussie experience with true Aussies themselves, you may want to sign up soon. As a further incentive, you can get a $100 AUD discount if you sign up before the end of July.
British ocean rower Roz Savage arrived in Madang, Papua New Guinea yesterday, completing the third, and final, stage of her solo row across the Pacific Ocean. Her arrival marked an end to an adventure that she has dedicated more than five years of her life to finishing.
Roz first came up with the idea of rowing across the Pacific after she completed a solo row across the Atlantic back in 2005. That journey took 103 days to complete and covered 2935 miles of open water. In 2007 she launched her first attempt on the Pacific but was forced to return to land a few days after getting underway. Undaunted, she returned to the water in 2008, and completed the first stage of her journey, rowing the 2324 miles from San Francisco to Hawaii in just under 100 days. In 2009, stage two took her from Hawaii to Tuvalu in the South Pacific, covering an additional 3158 miles over 104 days.
For her third, and final stage, Roz planned to row from Tuvalu to Australia, but strong ocean currents, persistent winds, and other conditions prevented her from traveling that far south. Instead, she drifted towards Papua New Guinea, where she finally stepped back onto dry land after covering an additional 2248 miles in just 45 days.
By completing this final leg, Roz has now become the first woman to row solo across the Pacific, a voyage that took a total of 249 days to complete and covered 7730 miles in total. A former management consultant for a major bank in the U.K., Roz quit her job back in 2001 to pursue a life of adventure. Since then, she has become a tireless environmental activist who has worked hard to raise awareness of the plight of the world’s oceans and is likely to continue pursuing that cause in the future. To that end, she recently launched a new website called Eco Heroes that has become a social network for the environmentally conscious set to connect.
JetStar seems to know that in-flight entertainment is nothing to scream about right now. You watch canned programming from a small screen. Fun. For a low-cost carrier, you’d think that fixing this problem isn’t a priority, but it looks like the little guys are coming up with the best ideas. The airline is getting ready to test the iPad as in-flight entertainment. Access is expected to cost A$10 ($8.40).
Strangely, internet browsing on the iPad will be disabled, because of the airline‘s policy on the use of cell phones and computers while the plane’s in the air.
Look for it to happen later this month. If it works out, the program will be extended through JetStar to the entire network of its parent company, Qantas. The trial will last two weeks and will be limited to domestic flights of less than an hour.
Enough about that other Australian reef. Ningaloo, located nearly 800 miles north of Perth in Western Australia, is where it’s at. “It” being an astonishing array of aquatic life, a lack of crowds, and plenty of budget-to-mid-range options including camping, backpackers, and smallish resorts.
In January, the Ningaloo Coast (which includes the160-mile-long reef/national marine park, Cape Range, and adjacent dune fields, marine areas, and islands) was nominated for a World Heritage listing, in recognition of the area’s “outstanding natural beauty, biological richness, and international geological significance.”
The world’s largest fringing reef (it grows directly from the shoreline, or a shallow backreef zone), Ningaloo also ranks near the top in terms of biodiversity, and the number of species found within a limited range. Unsurprising, then, that in a one-hour, offshore snorkel, I saw scads of impressive marine life (a large white-tip reef shark, giant potato cod, sea turtles, octopi, moray eels, countless fish) within arm’s reach. Depending upon the time of year, Ningaloo offers visitors the opportunity to view and/or swim with dolphins, dugongs, manta rays, sea turtles, sharks, and Humpback whales.What Ningaloo is best-known for, however, are whale sharks. The world’s largest fish, whale sharks are filter-feeders that can reach over 40 feet in length. Unlike most sharks, they swim by moving their entire bodies from side-to-side. Very little is known about these gentle, migratory creatures, in part because they don’t need to surface for air, and can remain on the ocean floor- at depths up to 2300 feet- for years at a time. They’re found in warm-temperate and tropical seas, but Ningaloo Reef is considered the most reliable spot to find them, when they congregate to feed off the coral spawn April through late June. Although listed as “vulnerable to extinction,” enabling the public to swim with whale sharks is an incredibly effective way to promote education about the species, as well as aid researchers. In Australia, the animals are protected under the Wildlife Conservation Act, and Conservation and Land Management Act. Swims are strictly regulated by the Department of Environment and Conservation, including how many swimmers are allowed in the water at one time (10), and how far they must remain from the sharks (16 feet, and behind the pectoral fins). A spotter plane is used to locate the sharks, which are usually found up to several miles offshore.
Whale sharks have a pattern of spots marking their bodies that is distinct to each animal. At Ningaloo, swimmers are encouraged to use non-flash photography to capture the spot patterns behind their gills, and note any scars or other unusual features to help scientists track migratory patterns and keep a census.
It’s been a longtime goal of mine to swim with whale sharks, so when I found out an assignment in Australia coincided with their migration, I made arrangements to fly up to Ningaloo, via Learmonth Airport outside of Exmouth. Exmouth isn’t so much a town as it is a tourist pit-stop/marina in the midst of an arid, scrubby landscape of flat red earth and termite mounds, and approximately a bajillion emus, wallabies, and kangaroos. It’s a place of eerie, desolate beauty, and a stark contrast to the turquoise waters of the reef. Don’t expect to find anything to do besides swim, fish, dive, snorkel, and enjoy the scenery. For that reason, I’d recommend staying in one of the backpackers or campgrounds outside of town. All of the snorkel and dive boat outfitters will pick you up at your accommodation, regardless of where you’re staying.
I had my swim arranged as part of a package offered by Sal Salis, a two-year-old, tented, luxury eco-camp an hour south of Exmouth. The property is in the dunes just off the beach; my epic snorkel occurred right offshore. Sal Salis works exclusively with Ocean Eco Adventures to charter full-day, 16-passenger whale shark swims/reef snorkeling. Once onboard, we were issued wetsuits and snorkeling gear, and taken for a test swim to assess our abilities.
We were given explicit instructions on how to enter the water behind our guide, and the protocol for swimming with the sharks. After an “all-clear,” we were free to break away from the group and swim on the far (right) side of the sharks. Fortunately, my group consisted of a couple of kids and their parents, which meant they tagged behind the guide, in the shark’s wake. I was literally able to swim on my own. I should add that while slow-moving, keeping pace with a 25-foot shark for distances up to a mile (I asked) is no small feat. Even with fins on, I had to power swim using a combination sidestroke the entire way, so I could watch the shark while keeping out of range of its thrashing tail.
The exertion was well worth the effort. I’m a spiritually bankrupt sort, but swimming alongside such a magnificent animal is the closest I’ve ever come to a religious experience. There is simply no way to describe the feeling of being alone with a whale shark, in the blue gloom of the open ocean. The accompanying high of pushing myself to my physical limits added to my euphoria. Watching the sharks dive, trailing a clump of hitchhiking remoras from their pale underbellies, and disappear into the murky depths is the most beautiful, haunting thing I’ve ever seen.
By day’s end, we’d had four separate swims: two shorter runs beside smaller sharks (12 to 15-footers), the last two as described above. The boat had also been surrounded by a “super pod” of spinner dolphins that entertained us with their aerial acrobatics. It’s expensive (depending upon the operator and if you observe, snorkel, or dive, expect to spend at least $265/pp) but it’s one of those once-in-a-lifetime experiences that has no equal. Just to make sure, I’m already saving up for the next time.
If you’d like to adopt a whale shark to aid with research costs, check out ECOCEAN.
Economy, be damned! Fifteen of Australia’s leading, independent luxury tourism properties have formed Luxury Lodges of Australia. The new association launched in late May to promote a distinctly Australian breed of high-end, ecologically-aware, experiential accomodations.
The group represents both long-established and new properties, ranging from wilderness lodges, vineyard retreats, and island hideaways, to outback and beach camps. Many of the properties are small- some have between four and ten rooms or luxury tents. Most are located in remote, geographically stunning, culturally-rich areas.
Depending upon location, outdoor activities may include snorkeling, diving, sea kayaking, overnight bushwalking safaris, wildlife viewing, indigenous culture, wine tasting, or swimming with dolphins or whale sharks. Some properties, such as Bamurru Plains, Sal Salis, and Southern Ocean Lodge, are located adjacent to national parks.
All of the properties share a common theme of outstanding guest service, high-end standards, and often, destination dining using locally-sourced ingredients. What separates them from other cushy resorts, however, is a definitive sense of place, combined with an eco-sensible, Aussie-contemporary style (think ultra-mod amenities, reclaimed materials, exquisite craftsmanship, and locally-sourced art and interior elements). Don’t be surprised to see solar panels or a rainwater catchment system on-site.
The properties are spread across more than a dozen diverse regions of Western Australia, South Australia, New South Wales, the Northern Territory, and Queensland. They include Wolgan Valley; Lizard and Bedarra Islands; qualia; Longitude 131; Cape Lodge; Lake House; Spicers Peak Lodge; Capella and Southern Ocean Lodges; and Wild Bush Luxury’s Arkaba Station, Bamurru Plains and Sal Salis Ningaloo Reef.