Family trip to Australia Part 3 – Bamurru Plains

A family trip to Bamurru Plains in Australia’s Northern Territory meant bush safaris, waking up with the wallabies and getting very close to crocodiles. The third instalment of a family holiday report that takes in some of Australia’s best known sights from Sydney Opera House to the Great Barrier Reef

Who went, where and when:Charlotte and Jonathan with their children Francesca 13 and Edward 10 visited Melbourne, Sydney, Hamilton Island and Bamurru Plains in July and August 2013.

For Part 1: the best of Melbourne and Sydney with children click here

For Part 2: the Whitsunday islands and snorkelling on the Great Barrier Reef click here

Crocodile spotting and bush safaris at Bamurru Plains

Charlotte: “From Brisbane we flew to Darwin. We left the bulk of our luggage at the airstrip and took little bags onto a private charter plane.

Bamurru Plains is a working buffalo station and staying there is like visiting a safari lodge in the bush.  All the guests eat together at one big table in the main building. The food was really special and much better than you’d expect in the middle of nowhere. The service was excellent too.  The cook was a lovely guy and the children used to go into the kitchen to help him.

In the evenings we’d have drinks and canapes by the pool with the other guests.  It was a chance to chat and compare notes about the day.  There was a well stocked bar and fridge in the lounge area and we were encouraged to help ourselves. It had a home from home feel to it that made for a very relaxing time.

We stayed in a safari bungalow – a wooden structure on stilts with see-through mesh walls. These helped to keep it cool and gave a good view of all the wild life going on outside.

We all slept in the same room – the children on campbeds – and woke up at sunrise every morning because of the daylight and all the animal noises. From first light we’d hear wallabies under our bedroom floor and see the buffalo wandering past the foot of our bed.

On a typical day we’d get up early and go out for an airboat ride. The airboats skim across the floodplains and are very very noisy and incredibly fast.

We explored creeks, swamps and mangroves and saw lots of birds. Bamurru is the local name for the magpie geese and we spotted kingfishers, rainbow lorikeets, rainbow bee eaters as well – it’s a wonderful place for bird fans.  And of course we saw crocodiles!

We’d get back in time for lunch and a swim.  The infinity pool looks out into the bush and the buffalo sometimes come right up to the edge.

In the afternoons there’d be game drives. The children were given checklists of species so they could tick off what they saw: pelicans, wallabies, termite hills, the paper bark tree… The guide stopped to show us an ant hill in close up.

One afternoon we went out on a river boat down the meanders of the Mary river.

It was teeming with crocodiles swimming in the water and basking on the banks.

In the evening the sunsets are amazing: skies like you’ve never seen before, with flocks of bamurru flying across the plains.

Singapore stopover

From Darwin we collected our luggage and flew to Singapore.  This is a great stopover: we arrived in the evening and left the following night so we had one day to look around.

There’s wonderful shopping and we went to a big market area to get lunch. It was bustling with office workers, and had every conceivable type of food stall with big communal tables in the middle. The children were amazed by some of the rigidity after Australia like the laws against litter and graffiti.  But especially the fact that it’s illegal to sell chewing gum in Singapore!

We stayed at the Shangri-La which has a lovely swimming pool.  We went up to the rooftop gardens, did some shopping and had a relaxing day before our flight home.

Planning the trip and getting around

Scott Dunn were really excellent when it came to planning this holiday. Distances are huge in Australia so we needed to work out the logistics carefully.  We eventually decided against visiting Uluru, or Ayres Rock.  It’s a long way inland in the Northern Territory so we would have needed to fly back to Sydney before heading home. It would have taken extra time and expense and would have meant our home bound flight was very long too.

For the Great Barrier Reef part of the holiday we chose Hamilton Island over Lizard Island but we heard a lot about Lizard Island when we were out there.  It’s a special place for diving apparently and could have been an alternative.

It was quite a ‘hard work’ holiday in that we were moving around a lot so we made sure we had several nights in each place – we didn’t want to move on each day.  Scott Dunn used Wilderness Australia on the ground out there who took care of all the transfers and would have sorted out any problems.

We’re repeat customers with Scott Dunn because they are excellent at discussing ideas and tailor-making itineraries to fit our needs.  Once we’re on our way they oversee the whole trip to ensure it works absolutely seamlessly.  Their attention to detail is fantastic!

Tips on flying to Australia with children

Our plan was to turn night into day through the flight and do our best to minimise jetlag.  We flew direct from Heathrow to Melbourne which took 22 hours with a brief stop in Dubai. We boarded at Heathrow around 9pm in the evening and tried to stay awake during the first leg of the journey to Dubai. The children were excited about the trip and interested in the films and food on the plane so it was relatively easy. We got off the plane briefly in Dubai, had showers and got back on again at 1 am. Then we slept reasonably well from Dubai to Melbourne – in fact Francesca fell asleep during the in-flight safety briefing!

The holiday was planned so that we would work our way across the country to Darwin.  By doing this the first leg of the homeward journey, Darwin to Singapore, was only a four hour flight. After 24 hours in Singapore we took an evening flight to the UK which takes approximately 13 hours. The way home felt so much easier than the way there!   We got on the plane in Singapore and when we woke up we were home.

Australian Family Trip

For Part 1: the best of Melbourne and Sydney with children click here

For Part 2: Whitsunday island life and snorkelling on the Great Barrier Reef click here

Photos taken by Charlotte and family are all rights reserved.  Photos may not be reproduced without prior written consent.  Image numbers 1 to 6 and 11 are courtesy of www.wildbushluxury.com

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