 Flinders Ranges, Opals, Lake Eyre (3 Days)
Short air tours of southern outback Australia...famous for opals, salt lakes
and rugged Flinders Ranges.
Day One: Melbourne - Arkaroola (Flinders Ranges)
Depart Melbourne at 7am., refuel at Broken Hill, then land at Balcanoona in
the northern Flinders Ranges. Drive through the rugged landscape to Arkaroola, a
scenic, isolated and very comfortable village. After a relaxed lunch in the
licensed restaurant, be exhilarated by the stunning RIDGE TOP TOUR, the "most
spectacular mountain scenic tour in Australia". Narrow trails scramble over
breath-taking mountains and along razor back ridges, plummeting periodically
into deep cool valleys and gorges. Views extend across the mountains and 80kms
beyond Lake Frome to the horizon. The tour lasts approx. 4hrs.
After dinner a tour of the Flinders Ranges Astronomical Observatory is a
fascinating and worthwhile experience.
ACCOM: ARKAROOLA RESORT
http://www.arkaroola.com.au
  
Day Two: Arkaroola - Mulloorina - Innamincka
Depart Balcanoona for Mulloorina Station just south of Lake Eyre. Enjoy
morning tea with the owners Colleen and Malcolm Mitchell, and have a brief look
around this busy, working outback station. Fly over Lake Eyre en route to
Innamincka, an isolated yet busy refuelling stop on the Cooper Creek abounding
with history - Burke and Wills, the Dig Tree, the Australian Inland Mission etc.
Spend a couple of hours canoeing the Cooper Creek, enjoying the magnificent
scenery with the abundant birdlife and beautiful old river gums.
A paradise for the keen photographer. Enjoy a chat with the locals and the
passing travellers in the pub, before a tasty B-B-Q dinner of the local beef.
ACCOM: INNAMINCKA (Self-contained units)...
http://www.southaustralianhistory.com.au/innamincka.htm
Day Three: Innamincka - White Cliffs - Broken Hill - Melbourne
 Depart Innamincka for White Cliffs, Australia's first commercial opal field.
A tour will take in the underground houses, or dugouts, opal cutting and
polishing, the experimental Solar Power Station which is the first of its kind,
and a visit to the unusual underground "Jock's place" .
Lunch at the unique PJ's Underground Motel, and then a tour of their motel
and attached mines. Maybe a quick refreshing ale in the local pub before
departing for Broken Hill, a town created to serve the miners in the incredibly
rich silver-lead-zinc mines of the Barrier Range, in the arid outback of NSW. On
the way fly over the Eldee Man , a landscape painting of a stockman that can be
viewed from the air. At Broken Hill , while refuelling, take the 1 hour tour of
the Royal Flying Doctor Services base located on the airport.
Then we depart for Melbourne ... a 2.5 hour flight arriving approx. 6pm.
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