Australia, New Zealand and the South Pacific - Clean Breaks: 500 New Ways to See the World - page 347

aboriginal experiences

Whether you are keen to learn more about their art and customs, such as the many
dances of the corroboree ceremony or the songs of The Dreaming, or simply want an
authentic trip to Uluru, there are no better guides to Australia's outback than the many
Aboriginal peoples who have lived here for millennia. All the following experiences are
run by indigenous Australians and are committed to preserving and sharing one of the
world's oldest cultures.

471 go walkabout in the flinders
While it may look like a vast crater formed by
a meteor strike, Wilpena Pound is in fact an 83-
square-kilometre amphitheatre of mountains in
the arid deserts of South Australia's Flinders
Ranges. It's one of many natural highlights of
a five-day trip through the area with Bookabee
Tours, staying in remote lodges and Aboriginal
communities, taking in gorges etched with
30,000-year-old rock art, and spotting kangaroos,
echidnas, emus and many other of Australia's
endemic animals. Bookabee is run by Hadyn
Bromley, a former teacher and member of the
Adnyamathanha people, who is passionate about
sharing his people's understanding of the region.
For him this is an essential part of sustaining
his culture - for guests it is one of the best ways
of grappling with such Aboriginal concepts as
walkabout and Dreamtime.

Need to know Tours start and end in Adelaide,
where Bookabee also offers short tours of the city
from an Aboriginal perspective. For more details
see W www.bookabee.com.au; T [phone]
954.

472 Take the long road to
kooljaman
Unzip your tent early in the morning at
Kooljaman wilderness camp in the north of
western Australia, and you can watch the sun
rise over the endless white-sand beach and azure
sea. Take a short walk from your tent across the
sands at the point of Cape Leveque and you can
watch the sun set on an equally breathtaking
stretch of beach on the other side of the point.
You're so far from anything and anyone here
that you'll probably have both views to yourself.
Run by the two local Aboriginal communities,
whose members are all shareholders in the
company, Kooljaman offers a total escape into
the Australian wilderness, whatever your budget
- for those seeking a little barefoot luxury, there
are safari tents, while those with less to splash
can crash down in the rustic beach shelters.
Whatever you choose, the attractions are the
same - hunting for crabs with the locals in the
mangroves, diving off the empty reef or simply
letting your head clear in one of the most remote
places on Earth.

One of Australia's most
remote beaches, Kooljaman

Need to know Kooljaman has tents, cabins,
beach shelters and campsites available all year
round. For information on accommodation and
activities visit W www.kooljaman.com.au; T +61 (0)
891 924 970.