Tours

Day 1 – Entering the Wilderness
For my 3-day tours, we will travel via my vehicle from your pickup location to either Cooma or Adaminaby for a quick breakfast then continue to either the Tooma or the Jagungal high plains areas. There we will have a half hour training session so that I can demonstrate operation of the bikes and ensure you gain some experience and confidence before we have morning tea and transfer our equipment to the 55L backpacks and panniers before starting travelling in via bike (mostly downhill on the way in).

In both site trips, I call for a stop at least once an hour to rest and also to check on the loads and bikes on the way. This is not intended to be a strenuous trip so relax and feel free to stop and take photos if you feel the need as you will need your energy for fishing! Particularly rest your biceps - for hauling in your catch.

For a 6:00am departure, I aim to have you on the river ready for the evening hatch from 3:00pm onwards. Alpine streams do not fish well in the middle of the day due to the strong UV and lack of stream shade for the fish to take cover so this is an ideal time to start. I expect once you have had 3-4hours you will be ready to return to the camp, which will be already set up with dinner on the go, ready for an evening meal under and Alpine sunset by the fire – possibly followed by an evening of dry fly skating patterns on a nice pool.

Day 2
Exploring and fishing – I suggest morning excursion till 12:00 midday then lunch and a rest or move to recommence after 2:00pm till 5:00pm-5:00pm then return to camp for supper and sunset. You can expect to cover many different fishing areas in this day from alpine streams to true gorge country, reminiscent of the Canadian West Coast.

Day 3 – Trip home.
Fishing the morning rise till 09:00-1000am breakfast. Pack up and depart by 11:00am. On the way back there is a rest stop (possible option for up to an hours fishing en-route) before we continue on bikes back to the car and unpacked by 3:00-4:00pm then return to Canberra with a dinner/refreshment stop.
The weather can occasionally be a bit uncomfortable for early Nov as walking trails can still be lifted by the frost in the morning and later get muddy by 10:00am after the sun hits the ground. However, this season summer has come early so I expect good travelling conditions from Oct onwards.

Recording the trip
The rest stop on the final day on drive home is for two reasons. As well giving you a leg stretch, I will need both your Cameras to backload your images onto my laptop so I can burn all your images along with a video onto DVD. I will have a video of the trip to insert your imagers on but should we be short of time, I will save your images onto a CD then and send you the DVD of the trip later to show your friends and family.

Depending on whether you are driving down or flying. I recommend you fly to Canberra if you are coming from Sydney (I use bestflights.com.au to search for flights. Prices range from $70 to $240 return). This option is much quicker than driving (less than 50min and more relaxing in the long run. (Especially from a safety point of view when you are trying to drive back home after three days camping).
As to the schedule, I typically allow up to 5 hours from Canberra pick up to beginning onsite phase of the tour.

Prices

Single day tours (Canberra based) - Your choice of:

• early start (Leave from your nominated pickup address in Canberra 5:00am return 4:00pm)
• late start (Leave Canberra 11:00am return 9:00pm)
• extended (Leave Canberra 6:00am return 9:00pm) - prefered as can do two rivers in this time.
• Cost: $275 for both early or late start or $345 for extended day. For single day tours, lunch, morning and afternoon tea is supplied.

2-3 Day tours