DOWN A DUSTY TRACK
A personally designed wilderness road trip across New South Wales. Hosted by me, shaped around you, the seasons and the country.
Every month I take a small number of people on multi-day, sometimes multi-week, journeys into the places I've spent my life discovering and earning access to.
These are hidden places.
Where the forest still meets the sapphire sea, where lyrebirds roam freely amongst vistas as old as Gondwana itself, or where, behind an unnoticed coastal mountain range, the last of the East Coast emus eke out their resistance to progress amongst paperbark billabongs and native grasslands.
You tell me what you desire, how long you have, what you'd like to see, the things you like to do and the things you don't, and I carefully craft an experience you will remember for the rest of your life.
Part road trip, part adventure; the rest unfolds. You wake when you want to and let each day be your own. No rules, just enthusiasm, great food, delicious drinks, unexpected wildlife encounters, views that will take your breath away and memories for a lifetime.
It's not a tour. There's no brochure, and many of the places we go won't turn up in a Google or ChatGPT search. Every trip is one of a kind, because it's dreamed up with the person taking it.
It's the adventure road trip for those who like the finer things in life: a comfy queen-sized bed wherever the day ends, and a beautiful meal made with love, local ingredients and laughter.
Whether we go fast or slow, we go with your flow.
Want to see it all, cover ground, squeeze out every second? I've got you.
Want to learn how to go slow, slower, and make every moment matter? I've got you. I'm well versed in forgetting the day of the week and the time of day, where hours feel like days and weeks become memories.
Feel like something you'd like to do? Send me a message, fill out this form. I'll get back to you personally, if not today, tomorrow.
We can have destinations for days and deeds to do from dawn to dusk, or we can stop, listen, hear, look, see and practise just how to ‘be’.
My attention is on your intention. If you can dream it, I believe I can weave it. Together.
Interested? Sound like fun? Send me a message, fill out this form. I’ll be back to you as soon as reception comes back into view.
Down A Dusty Track isn’t for everyone, but it might be perfect for you.
This starts with an enquiry, followed by a chat. If you like what you hear, we follow up with a video call and shape the trip together.
In case you want to know more about what's involved, how we eat, how we roll, what I know and what we can do.
Here's more.
How do we get where we're going? ‘WILDLING’ and earned luxury
We travel in style in a completely kitted-out Mercedes-Benz 4x4 Twin-Turbo V6, Diesel, Medium Wheel Base, Sprinter overlanding adventure van. No shortcuts here.
Picture this.
After a cold midwinter swim, there is hot water for an outdoor shower. After a long walk, filtered water, a kettle, heat, cold drinks and fresh linen. Dirt under your fingernails, smoke in your hair, she's got you. The sounds of the bush outside and, yes, the rear doors open.
This is my version of earned luxury. Everything you need and might want wherever we are.
Eye mask. Hot-water bottle. Ice packs. Wasabi. Whatever else you can't leave behind.
Love great food? So do I.
Food begins before the road, with a conversation about what you love to eat and how you want the days to feel.
Great ingredients come from great growers and makers. You set the direction; I design the menu and provision the pantry, freezer and fridge. We hit the road wanting only for what's best bought, caught or foraged along the way.
On the coast, that might mean an Eastern Rock Lobster split in half: a little butter, nothing else, shell-side down over ironbark coals and turned at the end to crisp the flesh. The shells stay. The next evening, I might pick through the legs, body and horns for every piece still holding the flavour, then warm it through cultured butter, Australian garlic, shallots, chilli, cherry tomatoes and spaghettini. The best lobster pasta you may ever eat.
I do not really follow recipes. I cook by feel, but I provision with intent. If I make a salad, it is almost always torn, not cut.
Days with me as your companion
I have travelled, fished, dived, cooked, camped, photographed and filmed in wild country across the world for much of my life. I am a marine scientist by education, a 30,000+ hour fisherman by obsession and an eager freediver with APNEA training. I hold a Wilderness First Aid Certificate, the required insurances, permits and passes to operate all our activities safely and legally. In my other life, I spent twenty-five years building and leading creative businesses in television, film and advertising.
I've spent a lifetime learning to read this country: a beach for where it's safe to swim or best to fish, a river for where to cast, the sky for the light, and the wind for where it will blow and where it won't.
What all that means here is simple: I prepare closely, pay attention to the details, communicate clearly, read whatever situation presents itself and navigate the day as needed. Changing the plan as the country asks us to.
Would we travel well together?
Curiosity matters and a sense of humour helps. A willingness to be outdoors in changing weather and to say honestly what you need.
You do not need to arrive knowing how to fish, read a river or cook over coals. All you need is to be open to the day becoming something neither of us could have scheduled, if that's the way it goes.
So what's next?
Every enquiry comes directly to me. Tell me what is drawing you, who might come and how much time you could make. If it feels like we would travel well together, we begin with a conversation.
From there, I start shaping a direction around you.
Your details stay with me. I don't sell lists, and I don't send noise.
