Arnhem Land and Far North Queensland
2017 was supposed to be a quiet year on the travelling front. Our bathroom was in serious need of renovation and that was going to take up all of our travelling funds for the year.
Then the Outback Spirit 2017 brochure arrived in the mail...
Outback Spirit (the organisation that we travelled with through the Kimberley in 2015) have worked with the traditional owners of Arnhem Land to develop a network of safari camps and lodges across Arnhem Land. This has allowed limited numbers of tourists to visit this remote area.
It only took a brief look at Outback Spirit's brochure for us to revise our plans for 2017! It was too late to defer the bathroom renovation but a trip to Arnham Land was now firmly on the agenda. In 2015 we had a very brief glimpse of western Arnhem Land from Ubirr Rock in Kakadu National Park and later visited the art centre at Gunbalanya.
We fly from Sydney to Cairns where, after a short stop over we board another fight to Nhulunbuy in eastern Arnhem Land where we meet up with the Outback Spirit tour. We spend two nights in Nhulunbuy before setting off in a 20 seat 4WD coach, travelling from east to west, finishing on the Coburg Peninsula - 11 days in total. The tour finishes with a short flight to Darwin.
And, if you're heading to Australia's far north, you might as well round off the adventure by exploring far north Queensland as well. So we will.
From Darwin we have an early (7:30am) flight back to Cairns (via Nhulunbuy), pick up a hire car and spend the next two weeks exploring north to Cooktown, west to Undara (near Mt Surprise) and south to Cardwell before returning to Cairns and our flight back to Sydney.
Internet access through Arnhem Land is likely to range from parchy to none, so updating of this travelogue might be limited until we get to Darwin. Apparently a wi-fi hotspot is available in Nhulunbuy at least. We'll see...