The National Trust Way to The Southern Coastline
16 days - $6,450 (twin/double) / $7,170 (single supplement)
Next tour departs Saturday 30 April, 2011
This 16 day tour departs from Adelaide – picking up at Adelaide airport those passengers who fly into that city. The route has been designed to follow the southern Australian coastline, staying on or as near as possible to the coast, all the way from Streaky Bay near the western end of the SA coast right around to Lakes Entrance in Victoria. In the final two days the route leaves the coast and travels through the Victorian Alps then up the Hume Highway back to Sydney. Joining this tour you will find some of our most spectacular southern coastline, our windswept oceans, our pristine beaches, the coastal forests of the Ottway Ranges, and much more.
The Southern Coastline Photo Gallery
Click on any photo to enlarge image.
About the Journey
The route follows almost the entire length of the Eyre and Yorke Peninsulas in SA, visiting Innes, Coffin Bay and Lincoln National Parks (two evenings in Port Lincoln). We avoids Adelaide by travelling through the wine and hill regions to the east of the city, before going to the bottom of the Fleurieu Peninsula then around past the lakes of the Coorong down to Mt Gambier and the ‘Limestone Coast’ in the south east corner of SA. Crossing into Victoria the route follows the Great Ocean Road (two evenings near Apollo Bay to allow time to explore the beauty of the forests of the Ottway Ranges). Crossing the mouth of Port Phillip on the Queenscliff/Sorrento ferry the route manages to thus avoid Melbourne. With two spectacular and seldom seen views of Wilsons Promontory in the distance (we do not travel down the Promontory) the route then passes through Gippsland for an evening at Lakes Entrance. Then departing the coast the route turns north to cross the Victorian Alps through Omeo, down to Bright and the last evening of the tour at Yacandandah. On the last day the route follows the Hume Highway back to Sydney.
Some of the highlights
Every day we are on the coast there are ‘highlight’ views of the sometimes wild, sometimes lonely, and always beautiful southern coastline. Robe is so well known on the south eastern coast of SA. But we stay instead in a nearby village with wonderful headlands and beaches that are so often missed by the passing tourist. Coffin Bay National Park is renowned as the most beautiful coastal Park on Australia’s southern coastline – a perhaps well-deserved reputation. The beauty and variety of the Eyre, Yorke, Fleurieu and Mornington Peninsulas. The lakes of the Coorong in the morning on our way from Beachport down to Mt Gambier. The entire length of the Great Ocean Road, (in fact we will travel the Torquay to Apollo Bay section in both a south and north direction). The restaurant at the tip of Phillip Island does have the most remarkable ocean view of any restaurant in Australia. See a distant Wilsons Promontory from across a huge bay- perhaps the only way to really appreciate the ‘shape’ of this promontory. The Great Alpine Road through Dinner Plains and Mt Hotham – magnificent alpine scenery before we wrap up this wonderful journey to parts of the coastline so often ignored by other tourists.