In 2009, ABC journalist Paul Lockyer set out to document the story of the lake. Featuring photographs by John Bean, Gary Ticehurst and endpapers by artist John Olsen, the recently published book is an amazing view of the lake and surrounding area.

Lake Eyre: A journey through the heart of the continent by Paul Lockyer, with photos by John Bean and Gary Ticehurst

An truly amazing book about a truly amazing part of the country. Lake Eyre: A journey through the heart of the country can be found in all ABC shops and online, after it’s launch in March 2012. Click here for more incredible images from the book, and details from the launch.

After reading this captivating book, Goin’ Off Safaris invites you to jump on our Lake Eyre & Outback Safaris and see the wonder of Lake Eyre in flood for yourself. Fly over some of the most stunning and secluded parts of the country and visit iconic outback pubs, such as Innamincka, Birdsville, Coober Pedy and William Creek.

For more information about our Lake Eyre Safaris, click here.

CLICK HERE FOR GOIN’ OFF SAFARIS NEWSLETTER- APRIL 2012

With our 2 and 3 Day Lake Eyre & Outback flying tours about to commence, we are offering a special deal for our Lake Eyre tours in April. With limited seats available, the 2 Day Lake Eyre & Outback Ultimate Weekender departing on April 21-22, is now priced at $2320.00 per person all inclusive.

Our 3 Day Supreme Scenic Safari across Lake Eyre & the Outback on April 27-29th is now $2975.00 per person all inclusive.

Both flights represent significant value and savings with more information including itineraries, FAQ’s, images and more information on our website.

Departing from Adelaide, places of interest include the Spencer Gulf, Flinders Ranges and Wilpena Pound, Marree, Sturt Stony Desert, the Dig Tree, Innammincka, Coongie Lakes, Cooper Creek, Birdsville, Warburton Groove, William Creek, Coober Pedy and of course the massive Lake Eyre.

Book now to secure your seat for this great opportunity! Contact us at Goin’ Off Safaris here.

If you didn’t get a chance to see it, here is a brief spiel about the doco. But basically it was a superb view nature in fine form- with millions of birds flocking to the swollen lakes and river systems, all of which are now brimming with fish.

This is such an amazing spectacle, and seldom occurs to such an extent! In fact, Lake Eyre only fills once every 200 years and Goin’ Off Safaris can take you there!

If you want the opportunity to see such a rare and remarkable event, then now is the time to check out our Lake Eyre and Outback 2 Day and 3 Day Safaris! Join us here at Goin’ Off Safaris on a truly a once in a lifetime experience!

Lake Eyre is 60%covered as of 15th March 2012

Above is another image taken by the Outback photographer Peter MacDonald or The Sentimental Bloke as he is also known. Its very coincidental that after my last blog post on the current conditions of the very wet country side in northern South Australia and Lake Eyre, he sent me his latest blog of which I subscribe to.

Peter has been up and about the countryside and gave a brief report on the scenes that he saw & quoted;

“I ran a few photographs of the result of heavy rains that recently fell in the Flinders Ranges & Outback of South Australia. It’s becoming evident that rains we have had this year will equal or exceed those that fell in the last really big wet this region had…. & that was way back in 1974.

The rain is of course transformomg the land in many ways. The vast inland water system that is the- Lake Eyre Basin, Goyders Lagoon and the Coongie Lakes will fill again for the 3rd year in arow. Lake Eyre has water again over much of its surface & is continuing to fill. Huge amounts of water are heading from the north into this region…”

Well spoken from a man who knows his stuff! If you’re keen on getting up to to see this spectacular region, check out our 2 and 3 day Lake Eyre & Outback Tours and itineraries, dates, images & videos here on Goin’ Off Safaris web page and contact us to book your seat!

Cheers!

Goyders Lagoon, 80km SW of Birdsville

What a deluge of rain that we have seen fall across nearly all parts of the country of late! There are many places that have received way too much rain across many areas but pastrolists in the Outback regions cannot hide the smiles as many of the station owners recorded their annual average rainfall over a few very wet days just 2 weeks ago.

The result from this is enormous as most have recorded very little rainfall in the last 12 months and this recent event has just encouraged more growth and feed for cattle and refilled every dam, waterhole, creek and another catchment area. As reported by South Australia’s 639 North and West Radio last Thursday,the rains have also filled Lake Eyre South and Australia’s inland sea, Lake Eyre North is all ready 60% covered with water that has been flowing in from the Cooper Creek on the eastern side of the Lake and via the Warburton Creek and Macumba River into the Warburton Groove from the northern parts!

The whole river system is amazing which extends far and wide through the top northern parts of Queensland, all the way down the Channel Country via the Diamantina, Thompson, Barcoo & Georgina Rivers (just to name a few) to the lowest part of Australia, Lake Eyre at -15m below sea level.

Our pilots Chris Pfitzner and Tony Schwerdt, have been flying around the countryside on some evacuation missions to the gas fields of Moomba and nearby outback town of Innamincka. They say that from the bottom of Lake Frome all the way to Moomba, the Sturt Stony Desert was a sheet of water! Lake Frome was full, the Cooper Creek flowing ( which it has been for 2 months now and getting fuller and faster) and between the sandhills there was water everywhere! Tony predicted back in early February that this season, due to similar weather patterns at the time,  was shaping up just like 1974- the last time Lake Eyre completely filled. I cannot argue with him as I was only just brought into the world at the time but from all the summer rains in the Eastern states, he may be well on the money.

For anyone who wants to keep an eye out on the current status of Lake Eyre, the Lake Eyre Yacht Club has a very informative page to keep you up to date and can be found here.

Our Lake Eyre and Outback  tours are all underway and it is going to be another action packed season up north. These flying safaris are exceptional and for more details, please click here to Goin’ Off Safaris web page for our itineraries, images, FAQ’s, blogs and other information.

Below are some images kindly supplied by our man on the ground (and air), Peter MacDonald- The Sentimental Bloke. His images are up stunning and up to date, to highlight the region at its best so stay tuned for more of his work.

OutbackFloods-Flinders-Ranges

Parachilna Creek

Parachilna Creek

Thunderstorm about to strike!

As we know, seeing Lake Eyre when flooded is just an added bonus to these flying safaris that we run. The outback characters that you meet, the vision and scenery from the air, the meals, the ground tours, the history and culture, the countries vastness, the planes comfort,our friendly and experienced pilots plus guide, all make these 2 and 3 day packages a weekend to remember for a long time!

The Dig Tree, Coongie Lakes, Flinders Ranges, The Cooper Creek, Spencer’s Gulf, Sturt Stony Desert are just some of the natural highlights that you will closely encounter from the air as well as checking out the classic Australian bush towns of Marree, Innamincka, Birdsville and the opal capital of the world, Coober Pedy.

If you missed out on this classic Aussie experience over the last 2 years, here’s a chance not to be missed again! Please visit our website for dates, itineraries, FAQ, images, videos and contact us for any more information that you require.

Hope to hear from you soon. Cheers!

25 fish up to 30kg were caught yesterday, 22 the day before in perfect conditions from Coffin Bay aboard GT Fishing Charters as well as a few prized Kingfish as an added bonus to the day. As the boat limit is set to 6 tuna, of course the remainder were released back to the waters of the Southern Ocean to see another day!

Whilst many think that fishing is a mans ideas of a great day out ( and correct on the subject), but there are plenty of women who also love the challenge to get out and also muscle a few of these blue rockets on board. One of these keen fisher- women, Calalou, starred yesterday after jumping on at late notice and showed the boat what she can do & did it very well indeed! Calalou is shown in the images below with a sample of her catch.

It seems most speacies are on song in the local waters with large snapper, nannagai and strangely enough we got onto a few nice gummy sharks to get the day going just last week.

So fishing action a plenty here in Coffins Bay and there’s no time like the present to get on down here to sample some of the best sports-fishing going around. For $310 per person gets you a great day on the tuna, $250pp will have you bottom bouncing for Snapper, Nannagai, Blue Morwong, big Trevally and KG Whiting, Salmon and hopefully a few more of those sharks with in shore fishing for your popular table fish priced at $220 or $160pp for half a day.

For more details, fishing options and availabilities whilst on the Eyre Peninsula, contact us at Goin’ Off Safaris.

Tight lines guys and girls!

After starting here on Monday, I have already had a very busy week booking in new trips and playing with the new iMac and today was no exception! This morning I jumped aboard the Coffin Bay Explorer for their 3 hour round trip of Coffin Bay.

Departing the Coffin Bay boat ramp at 9.30am, our guide Darian took us past some of the most pristine parts of the Coffin Bay National Park- some beaches that are only accessible by boat! The running commentary about the earliest visitors to the bay made for easy listening, as we all soaked up a bit of sun.

Our adventure around the bay continued on past two tiny islands known as ‘The Brothers’. The story behind them is truly fascinating, but I won’t spoil the tale before you get a chance to see them yourself.

Living on the Brothers are a wide variety of birds- including Cormorants, Silver Gulls, Crested Terns and Antarctic Skua’s- large, brown birds that journey here to nest on the islands. Also residing on the island are a pair of male Australian Sea Lions, as well as a spattering of smaller New Zealand Fur Seals.

Darian also has an Oyster lease, so part of the tour included a stop at the racks for a brief history about the oyster industry in Coffin Bay- and for those so inclined- a taste test of the freshest oysters you will ever taste! Delicious!!

Now as if the tour couldn’t get any better- a pod of almost 20 Bottlenose Dolphins made an appearance. As we slowly cruised by, they swam all around and under the boat in the crystal clear water- almost as though they were inviting us to come and play with them. Unfortunately Darian is not running swims with the dolphins this year due to the late breeding season of these magnificent animals last year. So instead we admired them from the boat.

We left the dolphins (reluctantly) and began the journey back home. In 3 hours we learnt amazing things about the history of the bay, tasted some of the freshest seafood you can get and saw a huge variety of land based and marine animals! And that’s all in a day’s work for the Coffin Bay Explorer!

This is only one of the many options we offer as part of our amazing tour packages around the Eyre Peninsula. For more information see our website