Wildlife Safari & Authentic Aboriginal Culture Day Tour

WHEN - 1pm daily (May - October) and returns about 8.15pm

WHERE - Departs Gagudju Lodge Cooinda (near Yellow Waters), Kakadu National Park, Northern Territory, Australia. (travel suggestions to get to Cooinda and the advantages of self-driving Kakadu and buses from Darwin).

PRICE (2011) - $189 adults, $129 children 16 years and under.

(2012 price yet to be announced)

HOW TO BOOK - Click here or on the Contact Us icon at the top

WHAT TO BRING - Hat, shoes, light covering clothing (prevents insects and sun), small water bottle, camera, insect repellant.

This is an authentic aboriginal and wilderness experience.

Authentic hands-on aboriginal experiences (bush food gathering, bush medicine, bush crafts, sunset camp fire cooking and ground oven, authentic local aboriginal stories) with a 100% bush aboriginal guide that was born in the bush and grew up in rock and bark shelters (probably the last generation of Australia's true hunter gatherers).

Family operated small business operating since 2000 at the request of Kakadu aboriginal people to fund their community meat supply.

If you liked Bush Tucker Man, Malcolm Douglas, Bear Grylls, Ray Mears, bush survival - then learn directly from the original Aboriginal experts.

Getting away from the large crowds in open sided safari vehicles with exclusive access to 170 sq km in the middle of Kakadu National Park with great wildlife viewing including the legendary Goose Camp Floodplain (one of David Attenborough's earliest documentary locations). See the Kakadu wildlife you imagined.

If you want your family to have personal easy-going interaction with bush aboriginal people come and join our day tour.

We conduct exclusive, 7 hour safaris within Kakadu National Park that combines wildlife and aboriginal bush food (bush tucker) gathering, and many other interactive aspects of aboriginal culture with a real bush aboriginal guide, culminating in a traditional aboriginal campfire bush food cook-up at sunset. This tour is for open-minded people looking for a personalised and earthy experience. We show you the Kakadu you imagined.

You may have seen us on TV shows: Getaway, Postcards, SBS Food Lovers Guide to Australia and Australian Geographic Films and in various Australian newpaper travel stories.

Our safari has exclusive access to wildlife rich wetlands and tropical savannah woodland within Kakadu National Park including exclusive access to a seasonal unbelievable bird gathering spectacle. Small groups (max. 18 persons). We provide a truly unique and authentic experience.

We stand out from the rest by providing exclusive wildlife viewing access, in an open-sided 4wd safari vehicle and extensive personal teaching from our expert aboriginal guide with a focus on hands-on activities that utilise all of your senses.

ITINERARY

At 1pm daily we depart Gagudju Lodge Cooinda, Kakadu National Park, (near Yellow Waters) in our open-sided safari vehicle. We drive a short distance to the Kakadu Buffalo Farm reserve, a wildlife rich area of 170 km. sq. that only this tour has exclusive access to visit. Our bush aboriginal guide will then join us and from there we commence our real adventure. Our aboriginal guide is searching for wildlife, bush foods of plants and animals, useful plants for making baskets, mats and shelter and we are invited to join her as we safari through the wilderness. We have many breaks for hands-on activities and photos. Under the guidance of our bush-wise aboriginal guide we hunt and gather food, experience various bush medicines, and countless other authentic activities. It is possible to view many wildlife species on this safari with the highlight being an amazing wetland called Gindjala (Goose Camp) where from roughly July to September you may watch one of the largest bird gatherings in the Australia. At sunset, we make a camp fire at a remote location/wildlife viewing point and our aboriginal guide prepares bush foods (you're welcome to assist) using traditional aboriginal cooking methods. We then enjoy billy tea, fresh hot damper, bush foods and relax to an unforgettable Kakadu sunset of wildlife and remote wilderness.

The homeward trip may yield some wildlife surprises and some good stories. We return to Cooinda about 8.15 pm.

It is truly one of Austalia's few 'Real' Safaris.

Note - The tour is suitable for everyone and don't worry, it's not too rough - walking distances are minimal, iced water and adequate bush toilets are provided.

QUALITY KAKADU DAY TOUR

ABOUT ANIMAL TRACKS SAFARIS

Directly assisting the local Kakadu aboriginal community: Our day tours commenced in Kakadu National Park, Northern Territory, in 2000. The senior aboriginal traditional owner (now deceased) requested we commence tours to enable the Kakadu Buffalo Farm to continue to provide preferred bush meats (buffalo, magpie geese, wild pig, fish etc.) to the aboriginal people of Kakadu. The tour pays a large percentage of gross tour proceeds to fund the Kakadu Buffalo Farm which has continued to provide bush food to smiling faces. The land is Aboriginal owned and Kakadu Animal Tracks tours has been granted special entry permission and other privileges that are not offered on other Northern Territory tours. We are a small, family operated business.

The Kakadu Animal Tracks Safaris has been a finalist in the Brolga Awards for the Aboriginal Culture and Heritage Category 2003, 2004 and 2005 and also for the Adventure Tourism Category 2005. You're welcome to look at our Guest Comments page for other guests opinions about this tour in Kakadu.

ABOUT OUR GUIDES

Top Tour and Guides - Our two leading guides have been named the best in the Northern Territory by winning the 2008 and 2003 Northern Territory Tourism Awards for Interpretive Guide NT. Our leading non-aboriginal guide, Sean Arnold, (2008 winner) has guided Animal Tracks safaris since it commenced in 2000.

Our main aboriginal guide Patsy 'Raichiwanga' Raglar (2003 winner) is very well-known and respected in Kakadu and Australian Aboriginal Tourism and has been guiding since 2001. She was born in the bush and lived in bark shelters for most of her growing years. She survived for long periods with her family being nomadic hunter gatherers relying 100% on bush food in remote regions away from Europeans. She is one of few Australian aboriginals alive that has lived for long periods with no contact or assistance from Europeans. Her generation of true 100% Hunter Gatherers is the last that Australia and probably the world will ever see.

It is very rare to find a person like Patsy being involved in tourism and sharing her authentic knowledge and stories with strangers from very different backgrounds especially when English is her fourth language, she hid from Europeans when growing up and she still lives by very strict rules governing her interaction with all others (kinship) and overall, her culture is vastly different from modern western culture.

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