Australia, the world’s smallest continent, is often referred to as the “Timeless Land” for it has been cut off from the rest of the world for more than sixty million years. As a result of this isolation, a remarkable and unique flora and fauna have evolved in the tremendous variety of habitats that exist throughout the country. This is Quest’s seventh trip to Australia and we consider it to be one of our most interesting and diverse land tours.

Itinerary
(Breakfast - B, Lunch - L, Dinner - D)

Day 1 Fri. Oct. 31
Depart North America
Our journey to Australia will start today as we leave North America and fly directly to Australia.

Day 2 Sat. Nov 1
Cross International Date Line
As we fly across the Pacific Ocean, we will cross over the International Dateline and lose a full day.  We will regain this lost day when we again cross the International Dateline, on our return to North America.

Day 3 Sun. Nov 2
Arrive Adelaide
On arrival at the airport, we will be met by Roger Smith and transferred to our comfortable hotel. There are no activities scheduled for the remainder of the day.  We will meet in the late afternoon and have an early dinner together and an orientation meeting. 

Please note: You may wish to arrive in Adelaide a day early so that you can rest up after your flights from North America – please call Pamela for information.
o/n Rydges South Park Hotel, or similar (D)

Day 4 Mon. Nov 3
Adelaide / Flinders Ranges / Wilpena Pound
We’ll depart Adelaide in the morningfor our drive to the Flinders Ranges.  En route, we’ll travel through little outback towns filled with character and Australian heritage.  We will stay at Wilpena Range Resort, a well-appointed lodge that sits in the shade of desert eucalyptus, beside a spring-fed creek, adjacent to Flinders Range National Park.  Rising above the resort are the ramparts of Wilpena Pound, a huge bowl of rock 16km in diameter, ringed by jagged mountain peaks.  The Pound has great significance to the Aboriginal people as they believe it was formed when two great creation serpents fought here and eventually died entwined head to tail.
o/n Wilpena Pound Resort (B, L, D)

Days 5 - 6 Tues Nov 4 – Wed. Nov 5 Flinders Ranges National Park
The geological history of the Flinders Ranges is truly awe-inspiring and has drawn visitors from all over the world to Brachina Gorge Trail, a remarkably beautiful drive through 150 million years of the earth’s pre-history.  David Attenborough came to the Brachina Gorge in 1992 to film a sea pen preserved in the rock on top of a mountain – he was stunned by the beauty and history of the region.

Wildlife of the Outback abounds here and we will be looking for magnificent parrots, cockatoos, emus, doves and finches.  Members of the Kangaroo family are also in abundance, including the plains dwelling Red Kangaroo, the Western Gray Kangaroo and the rock hills resident, the Euro (also known as the Wallaroo).  A much rarer kangaroo, the Yellow-footed Rock Wallaby, also lives in the ranges.

The plants of the Flinders Ranges are the tough grasses, shrubs and trees of the Australian deserts.  Ancient gnarled eucalypts grow beside dry watercourses, tough desert pines grow elsewhere and – where neither of these trees can survive – the enigmatic Mulga, an acacia, survives by collecting desert dew.  If it has rained recently, the desert flowers will raise their blooms briefly to the sky – some of them, the rarest plants on earth.

For the photographer, the Flinders Ranges provide a bounty of scenes of unimaginable depth and clarity with colours ranging from deep purples to vibrant reds against vivid blue skies.  It is difficult to come away from the ranges with bad photographs – just point and shoot and nature will do the rest.

Finally, the Flinders Ranges have a long and important place in the Aboriginal heritage.  The region contains some of the most significant Aboriginal Rock Art and engravings in Australia.  The people of the Ranges, the Adnyamathanha, still live here and carefully nurture and protect their heritage.

During our time here, we will explore as broad section of the flora, fauna culture and geology of this true Outback – a special place in Australia we will never forget.
o/n Wilpena Pound Resort (B, L, D)

Day 7 Thurs. Nov 6
Flinders Ranges / Adelaide / Melbourne
We’ll leave Wilpena Range this morning and drive to Whyalla. We’ll fly back to Adelaide and then on to Melbourne.
o/n Eden-on-the Park Hotel (B, L, D)

Day 8 Fri. Nov 7
Melbourne / Serendip / You Yangs Range
Within easy reach from the centre of the city of Melbourne are the Serendip Sanctuary and the Brisbane Ranges, which lie to the west of the city on one of the largest volcanic plains on earth.  The last volcanic activity occurred only 4000 years ago.  Open grasslands stretch in all directions with the occasional extinct volcano or ancient mountain range rising steeply out of the plain.  There is a distinctly "Australian" feel about the region.

From Melbourne we will travel with our nature guide the short distance to the western plains.  Our first stop will be Serendip Sanctuary, an open range reservation for the rare and endangered indigenous wildlife of the Western Plains. Run by the National Parks Service, Serendip plays a pivotal role in the conservation of some of Australia's rarest birds.  Some of the birds encountered will include the Bustard, Brolga and Cape Barren Goose.  Highlights of Serendip are the large free-range mobs of the tallest kangaroo, the Eastern-grey, (the Red Kangaroo is heavier and bigger) and family groups of the world's second largest bird, the Emu.  We will also see three types of the delightful smaller hopping marsupials: the Swamp Wallaby, Red-necked Wallaby and the tiny Pademelon. 

We will have a bush lunch here before travelling a short distance to the bushlands of the You Yangs National Park.  This park has great bird watching opportunities.  It also contains a large population of wild Koalas. We will spot a number of these delightful creatures during a nature stroll.  We will then return to Melbourne in time to prepare for a sumptuous dinner on Melbourne’s famous Tram Car Restaurant as it travels around the city.  After dinner we will return to the hotel.
o/n Eden-on-the Park Hotel (B, L, D)

Day 9 Sat. Nov 8
East Gippsland / Croajingolong National Park
After a relaxing morning in Melbourne, we will transfer to Melbourne airport for a short flight to Merimbula on the South East corner of Australia.  Upon arrival we begin our wildlife sojourn in Croajingolong National Park in East Gippsland.  Croajingolong is considered one of the finest natural regions in Australia and has been classified by the United Nations as a World Biosphere Reserve.  It is a pristine wilderness of eucalyptus forests, coastal heathlands, ocean beaches, deep secret rivers and secluded estuaries.  (Croajingolong was the original Aboriginal name for this corner of Australia - the region is now called East Gippsland, but the national park retains the original name).  Our accommodation for the next 3 nights will be at Karbeethong Lodge, which overlooks a vast wilderness estuary near the remote coastal village of Mallacoota. 

Sunsets and sunrises over the lake system highlight the Howe Range on the tip of the continent.  At night lonely Gabo Island lighthouse flashes out its warning across the nearby Southern Ocean, and the Southern Cross hangs brilliantly overhead.  All this can be seen from the Lodge’s balcony. We will use Karbeethong as our base for viewing a bewildering array of wildlife and plants at the crossover of 3 major ecosystems - forest, esturine and oceanic.  It is worth noting that Croajingolong has one of the highest bird counts in Australia. For the rest of today and the next 2 days we will explore this beautiful, untouched region on foot and by water. 

After settling in at Karbeethong Lodge your guide will take you on an orientation walk directly into the national park next to Karbeethong beside the peaceful waters of Mallacoota Inlet. On this evening walk we may see rare pigeons, kingfishers, the Superb Lyre Bird, parrots, honeyeaters and Black Swans along with many other sightings.  Dinner tonight will be at the Lodge.
o/n Karbeethong Lodge (B, L, D))

Day 10 Sun. Nov 9
Croajingolong National Park - Forests Beside the Southern Ocean
This morning, as we awake, we will be surrounded by the call of hundreds of birds.  We may like to join our guide for a pre-breakfast bird walk, with the chance of catching site of some wallabies.  If we rise early we can watch the sun rise over Mallacoota Inlet on the south-eastern tip of Australia - a sight never to be forgotten.

The estuary is surrounded by one of the most complex forest ecosystems in Australia - hence the reason for the creation of Croajingolong National Park.  The region is at the intersection of two massive and very different oceans: to the east, the Pacific Ocean pushes warm, moist air generated in the tropics against the cool, dry air of the Southern Ocean pushing up from Antarctica.  The resultant climate nurtures a phenomenally diverse variety of plants and wildlife.  Here we see modern and complex eucalyptus forests pushing deep into ancient rainforests.  We also see species that represent the transition from the Gondwanan rainforests to the modern eucalypt and throughout all this a myriad of other plants have evolved and are hidden in the forests of Croajingolong.  Some new discoveries have been made only in the last decade!! One of Australia’s earliest and best-known botanists - Ferdinand von Mueller (he created the world famous Melbourne Botanic Gardens) - described this region as one of the most profoundly complex ecosystems he had ever seen. If you really want to know what Australia is all about this is the place to go!

Today your guide will explain Australia’s eucalyptus heritage as we walk and drive though this forest wilderness.  One of the highlights may be the orchids of Mallacoota - both terrestrial and epiphytic - we’ll see how many we can find.  We will discover the Casuarina tree that has separate male and a female plants and produces cones with tiny seeds that the Glossy-black cockatoo feeds upon - we also search for this large red and black cockatoo by listening for its tiny voice!  We’ll walk beside giant stands of Meleleuca (paper-bark trees) and search for the rare Southern Emu-wren, a profoundly shy yet sedentary bird.  In corridor rainforests we’ll discover the gene pool that created the genus Eucalyptus.  We’ll even see the crossover genus - Angophora - one of the world’s most profusely flowering trees and their first eucalyptus “children” the mighty Bloodwoods towering over everything on gnarled trunks.  We may also see the Koalas living on the edge of the rainforest - another living fossil that grew out of the rainforest and now eats only eucalyptus leaves.

If you are a birdwatcher your bird list will expand dramatically today as we move through the forest.  Our guide will help us identify as many as we can. 

Today we’ll also visit the Southern Ocean on Croajingolong’s coast - with a great curving beach stretching to the east and colourful rocky headlands to the west this is the place to bring your camera for dramatic photos.  The beaches are mostly untrodden and are home to the rare Hooded Plover, oystercatchers, gannets and other seashore and pelagic birds.
o/n Karbeethong Lodge (B, L, D)

Day 11 Mon. Nov 10
Croajingolong National Park – Birds of the Estuary
Mallacoota Inlet was formed after the last ice age when the sea drowned a coastal river system.  The lake system is comprised of a larger “bottom” lake near the sea connected to a smaller inland lake by a narrow inundated river valley.  Many smaller “arms” of water branch off these main lakes.  A large semi submerged sand bank called the Goodwin Sands, sits in the middle of the lower lake and is home to thousands of birds both migratory and local.  The Sands are famous throughout Australia for their bird life. The shoreline of the lake system and the outlet to the sea are home to a myriad of bird species.

Today is dedicated to a search for as many birds of Mallacoota as we can find.  To do this we will board the M/V Loch Ard, a beautiful timber cruising launch, to search the coves and sand flats for sea eagles and other raptors, swans, migrant waders and shorebirds, egrets, herons, spoonbills, cormorants, terns, dotterels, plovers, ibis and ducks not to mention the land birds that we will also see.  The Loch Ard will be at our full disposal for the whole day - our captain will pull up close to the Goodwin Sands.  When we tire of the water the boat will drop us at remote jetties to walk along the shoreline before picking us up again for further adventures up some of the secret wilderness arms of the lake system.  We’ll take our lunch with us so our options are as endless as the day is long.  We may even see Australian Fur seals that are a common visitor to the bottom lake.

During the day our guide will tell some of the stories of Mallacoota’s past - for this is the place that some of Australia’s most famous poets came to pen rhymes about the unparalleled beauty of the place.  E.J. Brady, one of the poets, described Mallacoota as having ”loveliness amongst the rarest in Australia.”  We may also find ourselves enchanted by Mallacoota.   Tonight we’ll dine out in the bush beside Mallacoota Inlet before boating back under the stars of the Southern Cross to our jetty at Karbeethong Lodge - if it is a quiet night we will hear the quiet honks of black swans carrying across the inlet before we head off to bed.
o/n Karbeethong Lodge (B, L, D)

Day 12 Tues. Nov 11
East Gippsland / Melbourne
This morning we will have the opportunity to enjoy a last early morning stroll before breakfast.  We’ll depart Karbeethong at 9am, driving to the airport at Merimbula in time to catch our flight back to Melbourne.  A packed lunch will be provided this day.  We should arrive at Melbourne airport about midday and will then be taken to our hotel for the night.  The afternoon will be free with the group meeting for dinner in the evening.
o/n Eden-on-the Park Hotel (B, L, D)

Day 13 Wed. Nov 12
Melbourne / Cairns / Atherton Tablelands
After breakfast we will be transferred to the airport for our flight to Cairns.  On arrival, we will be met by Jonathon Munro, our Australian guide for this region.  During our six days in Queensland, we will visit a diversity of habitats within the Cairns, Southern Tablelands / Cairns Highlands, Misty Mountains, Daintree and the Great Barrier Reef.

We’ll start our drive south through cane fields, the main agricultural product of the region, and turn inland, climbing onto the Atherton Tablelands, a plateau averaging 1000m.  Although once extensively covered by rainforests, much of the forest and wildlife remain.  We will visit Lake Barrine, formed in the cone of an extinct volcano, and home to eels, turtles and rare fish.  We should arrive at Chambers Wildlife Lodge in the late afternoon.  This evening we will enjoy a BBQ dinner at the lodge. 

After dinner, we’ll take spotlights for nocturnal viewing of the Sugar Gliders and Pademelons that live in the surrounding rainforest.
o/n Chambers Rainforest Lodge (B, L, D)

Day 14 Thurs. Nov 13
Atherton Tablelands
The Tablelands are part of the federally protected Wet Tropics World Heritage Area, notable for rare and restricted wildlife.  Considered to contain the most significant occurrence of primitive flowering plants in the world, these rainforests give scientists the ability to step back in time to the origins of all flowering plants.  On the Tablelands, we will find the highest concentration of rare and restricted species in Australia, and the greatest diversity of mammals. 

Today, we will explore the southern Tablelands and Misty Mountain region.  Much of the day will be spent on private land where we will see the Golden Bowerbird at its bower, view wild kangaroo at sunset, and “spotlight” for nocturnal wildlife when it gets dark. During our walks, we may see the world’s smallest and most primitive kangaroo, the Musky Rat Kangaroo.

After dinner we will use our spotlight to look for nocturnal wildlife at “Warrigal”, a 300acre private rainforest reserve in the Misty Mountains.  We will be especially on the lookout for the rare endemic species found here – possums, including the Black-and-White Herbert River, Lemuroid, Green Ringtail and Coppery Brushtail Possums.  The Lumholtz Tree Kangaroo is also frequently seen here, as well as Red-legged Pademelon and Bandicoot.
o/n Chambers Rainforest Lodge (B, L, D)

Day 15 Fri. Nov 14
Atherton Tablelands / Daintree
We will get up at sunrise and drive to a quiet stretch of the Barron River, where we will have the rare opportunity to view Platypus in the wild.  When initially introduced to the scientific community, this odd animal was thought to be a hoax.  Found only in Australia, this unique egg-laying mammal feeds early morning and late afternoon on small invertebrates from the river.    We return to our lodge for breakfast before heading off to Daintree, via the northern route.  Our accommodation for the next two nights will be at a very comfortable lodge, with its own restaurant and bar, located amid fine examples of Fan Palm and lowland rainforest.
o/n Daintree Heritage Lodge (B, L, D)

Day 16 Sat. Nov 15
Greater Daintree National Park
Daintree National Park, is Australia's largest remaining tropical lowland rainforest, and is believed to be the oldest rainforest anywhere in the world at over 100 million years of age. Our day in this park will be divided into two distinct parts. 

The day will begin with a Daintree River cruise aboard out private charter boat.  On previous cruises a wide variety of wildlife has been spotted including, Estuarine Crocodile, Common Tree Snake, Eastern Water Dragon, Amethystine Python, Great-billed Heron, Papuan Frogmouth, Double-eyed Fig-Parrot, Little and Azure Kingfishers and much more.

Then we will drive to Cape Tribulation NP, a promontory of land jutting out into the Coral Sea off the northern coast of Queensland and enjoy its renowned lowland rainforest, mangroves, mudflats and inter-tidal zone habitats.  Captain James Cook named Cape Tribulation, "because here began all our troubles", when his ship ran aground on what is now known as Endeavour reef off the coast in 1770.
O/n Daintree Heritage Lodge (B, L, D)

Day 17 Sun. Nov 16
Scenic Coast Road / Cairns Botanical Gardens
After a final morning in Daintree, we’ll drive southwards on the very scenic coastal road to Cairns. We’ll have lunch in the Cairns Botanical Gardens and then walk in its Feather Palm and Paperbark Forest.  Our hotel is located on the Esplanade overlooking the Coral Sea – it is within easy walking distance of shops and just a few metres from some of the best shorebird viewing mudflats in the country.
o/n Rydges Plaza Hotel, Cairns (B, L, D)

Day 18 Mon Nov 17
Michaelmas Cay / Great Barrier Reef
Today we will visit one of the natural wonders of the world – Australia’s Great Barrier Reef.  This is a series of reefs extending for about 2000 km along the coast of Queensland, nearly to Papua, New Guinea.  On our trip today we will experience two important features – a coral inner-shelf reef, and the sandy vegetated cay formed on one end of it.  Michaelmas Reef lies about 35 km off the coast, just north of Cairns, with Michaelmas Cay on its southern tip.  It is an important seabird rookery, which will become apparent as we approach the mass of birds swirling constantly above the cay.  The corals can be found in waist deep water and, for those not used to snorkelling, there is no easier introduction.  Brilliantly coloured fish, giant clams, Beche de Mer and coral outcrops can all be seen.  Easy swimming in shallow water brings us over coral “bombies”, or heads of coral, with their assortment of fishes, and hard and soft corals.  Parrot Fish glean algae from the coral, and small and medium predators search for food. 

On our trip out, one of the marine biologists on board will explain how this and other reef systems were developed and will give us an introduction to many of the animal species that we will see.  Lunch is a tropical smorgasbord.  In the afternoon, we return to Cairns, under sail if the winds are right.  Our transport to the reef is a 32-metre luxury, motor-sailing catamaran that will also have a number of other tourists on board.  On our return to Cairns, there will be time to freshen up before enjoying a short walk to our restaurant for dinner.
o/n Rydges Plaza Hotel, Cairns (B, L, D)

Day 19 Tues Nov 18
Flights Home
The tour ends with our transfer to the airport and connecting with flights to North America. If you are returning to North America, you may require an extra night in Sydney.  Since we will be crossing the International Date Line, we will be arriving in North America on the same day that we leave Australia. (B,)