On the trail of the Rainbow Serpent

ESCAPE.COM.AU SUNDAY OCTOBER 6 2013

FIGHT CLUB STEP INTO THE OUTBACK RING

ALL ABOARD THE KIMBERLEY REVEALS ITS GLORY

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ESCAPE 01 SUNDAY OCTOBER 6, 2013

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SUNDAY OCTOBER 6 2013 ESCAPE.COM.AU

AIR ADVENTURE

NORTHERN AUSTRALIA

On the trail of the Rainbow Serpent A flying journey over the Australian Outback reveals a canvas in keeping with the Aboriginal Dreamtime legends, writes Roderick Eime

HIGH SPIRITS: (clockwise from main) Uluru from the jet; the Kimberley; a guest and tour guide Victor in Kakadu; the Embraer jet; and desert flowers at the Olgas. Pictures: Roderick Eime

AUSTRALIA is a vast continent constructed, according to Aboriginal legend,

by Goorialla, the great Rainbow Serpent, gouging rivers and gorges, carving mountains and burrowing caves as he traversed the flat land.

From my viewpoint, 4km above the vivid landscape, Goorialla’s trail is easy to follow.

Meandering rivers – some wet, some dry, some wide, some narrow – disappear to the horizon. Sheer cliffs scythe savagely upward from the dotted plain at all angles, the descending sun setting them ablaze with orange radiance.

But how did the ancestors ever envisage this spectacle with their bare feet firmly planted in the ochre dust?

I’m jetting east from Birdsville, on the home run to Sydney after 12 spellbinding days aboard Bill Peach Journeys’ Classic Australian Aircruise, a compact and concise exploration of Australia’s world-renowned natural and cultural wonders.

Unlike the explorers of 150 years ago or the instinctive Aboriginal walkabouts dating back 20,000 years and more, we’re briskly embracing the glittering highlights once brought into Australians’ living rooms by the pioneering TV journalist who founded this company, lending his name to it.

Bill Peach – who wasn’t travelling on this journey– died in August in the middle of our

itinerary and when we paused in Broome to raise a glass to his legacy, an errant football smacked a champagne flute cleanly from our host’s hand, smashing it to pieces on the ground. Not so much as a drop spilt on her.

Was it a message? Some of us thought so. Don’t dwell, just get on with it. Life goes on. And onward we went.

Our group of 30 keen, if greying, adventurers savour every glorious vista and consume each mesmerising panorama – sometimes from the elitist perspective of our Embraer executive jet, at other times from an aluminium boat.

When the bloke from the back of Wagga launched his private escorted tours in 1983, they came packaged with that same erudite enthusiasm for Australian wilderness, history and culture that he projected on the tiny screen in many

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ESCAPE.COM.AU SUNDAY OCTOBER 6 2013

Bill Peach Journeys Great Australian Aircruise is a 12-day fully escorted tour around Australia by private jet. It costs $15,995 a person, all-inclusive, from Sydney, with no single supplement. billpeachjourneys.com.au

chicken and champagne picnic lunch. Then there are pearls aplenty in Broome, kangaroo steak under a galactic spectacle at Uluru and a dinkum beer and lamb shank at the most famous outback pub in the land.

It might be a trifle cursory for some who seek a more immersive experience, and the pace is such that you are still processing yesterday’s sensory

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The writer was a guest of Bill Peach Journeys.

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Yet our group takes it all in our stride. A prickly bus driver in Darwin doesn’t dampen our spirits nor does a coach breakdown in Alice Springs.

It’s all just a part of life’s grand adventure. God speed, Bill.

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GO2 THE TOUR

thousands of Australian homes.

And Bill’s sense of wonder was tempered in equal amount by a sense of responsibility.

He saw the need to educate and inform as well as entertain.

From that first, basic Fokker Friendship voyage, his namesake company now offers five unique Australian air tours and 25 world voyages, short breaks and bespoke journeys as far afield as Africa, the Amazon and Iceland with partners such as Silversea Cruises and Orient Express.

They are mostly all-inclusive, using the best available services and facilities at each destination.

We jet first to Longreach, then Katherine, Kakadu, Darwin, Kununurra, Broome, Yulara, Alice Springs and Birdsville. All the while, the stunning patchwork of the great Australian landscape rolls beneath us, sometimes only just so as we skim the Bungle Bungles and sweep imperiously over the ancient shores of the Buccaneer Archipelago at just a few hundred feet.

But it’s not all loftiness and high flying. We come down to earth with indigenous guides in Katherine, Kakadu and Alice Springs who share their stories with us as they have for millennia. On Lake Kununurra, we are taken by speedboat to a

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quote Telegraph

For more details visit www.cruise1st.com.au/telegraph or email enquiries@cruise1st.com.au

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* All savings shown are based against the cruise lines latest printed brochures. All prices are ‘from prices’ and are per person based on a twin share. They were correct at time of going to print and are valid for new bookings only. Prices are inclusive of taxes and port charges. Gratuities and transfers are not included in the price, unless stated otherwise or prepaid. Visas are required for certain destinations, and are the responsibility of the customer. Cruise 1st recommends all travellers purchase travel insurance at time of booking. Itineraries, including hotels, airlines and advertised prices are subject to availability and subject to change/increase at any time. Airfares are based on economy flights. T&C’s apply when using the $50 Free voucher.

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