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Enjoy exploring Australia's tropical forests and outback, see wildlife, live some heritage, and discover interesting places well off the beaten track with a friend to carry your gear.
Trained and experienced pack donkeys carry your food and home comforts across the roughest terrain fully supervised by an interperative guide.
Treks can be as short as one day, overnight, or extend to three weeks or longer, enabling you to discover explorer's trails, early mining history, learn bush skills, see wildlife, rock-art and experience a true bush adventure.
Use of pack animals enables extended journeys to discover secluded places, generally inaccessible to others, and being able to traverse terrain unsuitable for wheeled vehicles.
Participants enjoy good food, comfortable beds, insect proof tents and wine with dinner - even in the most remote campsites.
Kaye crosses the Walsh River with "Joseph" 2005
Trekkers celebrate the day's walking at 8 Mile Waterhole 2005
MacDonald MacDonald's Pack Team - West of Herberton 1890's
Pack teams enabled this vast, rugged outback landscape to be explored, prospected, settled and sustained until a network of roads and railways developed. Many of these abandoned pack and coaching roads and undefined stock routes can be retraced today and form some of our trek routes. This enables our treks to get well off the beaten track, rediscover places of interest or waterholes that have not been fished for years.
Wilderness Expeditions maintain traditional packing skills used by the early pioneers. Thes provide trekkers a challenge initially but are usually mastered within a few days.
Participation by trekkers assists the trek to run smoothly. Typical involvement around the camp may include:
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pitching and striking your own tents,
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assist with grooming, loading and unloading of donkeys,
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laying out night paddocks for the donkeys using portable electric fencing,
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collecting firewood,
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assisting in the kitchen,
- Pouring the cook a glass of wine before dinner; and
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cooking your own breakfast over an open fire.
The trek guides will prepare meals, supervise handling and loading of donkeys and attend to the safe and enjoyable conduct of the trek.
Currently we have twelve donkeys equipped with pack saddles to form up to two pack teams.The cargo capacity is in excess of 600Kg (1300 lbs or 12 cwt). That is sufficient to maintain a party for more than ten days.
The donkeys may be led individually or as a "pace" or string. Most trekkers wish to lead and care for "their" donkey.
Making Good Time along Disused Railway, Near Mt Garnet
A journey supported by a pack team becomes a satisfying, authentic, bush experience, as the pack team is self-contained and self-reliant, dispensing with any need for motor vehicle back up, and allowing independent travel throughout most our region.
Spinifex Country along Lead Creek
 We work to an internationally accepted code of practice for the care of working donkeys developed by the Donkey Protection Society, UK
We apply eco- tourism principles and practices to all our operations per Eco- Tourism Association of Australia.
Our treks are described in more detail under the Safari or Expedition navigation buttons located at the top left of this page.
Additional information is found in the Frequent Questions section of The About Us page.
Note: that our treks are bushwalking - the donkeys are not equipped for riding. Participants must be prepared to complete treks by walking.
We appreciate your comments regarding our web site - please let us know if there are errors or any information we have omitted, or any item you found interesting. Please use the link to Contact us.
Should you have any queries or wish for further information then please Contact us.
Bush Walker Donkey
by Tamilin Winlaw
Last edited
03 April 2008
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