HIGHLAND EXPLORER

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ABOUT THE HIGHLAND EXPLORER................


"See Australia - not the highway"

The concept of the Highland Explorer really began, for me, somewhere back in 1993. Having travelled to many corners of the globe and having experienced a wide variety of travel modes along the way, I relocated that year from my boyhood Melbourne to inner-Sydney to join a team of volunteers working with newly arrived migrants and refugees. With family weddings, etc. requiring occasional drives back to Melbourne, I soon began to realise why the Hume Highway is considered by so many to be Australia's most boring journey - 900 kilometres of truck-filled monotony.

Meanwhile, back in Sydney, the opportunity arose to make use of the welfare society's mini-bus on week-ends and, with many new arrivals super keen to escape their spartan city dwellings for a day in the spectacular Blue Mountains, my career as a tour guide began. 1994-1997 saw me living on campus at Wollongong University and working after-hours as the duty manager for my 400 or so multi-cultural fellow residents. In this capacity, I was able to organise numerous tours for our overseas and Australian students, occasionally to stunning locations like Jenolan Caves, the Snowy Mountains to climb to the highest point in Australia, and even along the Great Alpine Road in the Victorian Alps. The University was also generous enough to sponsor me through a twelve month Tour Directing and Guiding qualification.

My love of the Australian High Country (see 'The Man From Snowy River', starring Kirk Douglas to get a feel for it) probably predetermined my destiny to work as a tour guide in this beautiful part of the world and, after leaving Wollongong, I had the privilege of helping to pioneer the Melbourne-Sydney trans-alpine route for the highly respected and 1997 Australian Major Tourism Award recipient, the Wayward Bus Touring Company. After two great years with Wayward, and with that South Australian company's recent opportunity to expand onto Kangaroo Island at the expense of its more distant and logistically difficult Sydney/Melbourne route, my aim with the Highland Explorer is to see that 'open aged, open minded' travellers, from Australia and overseas alike, still have the opportunity to experience the beauty and legend of the Australian High Country - and, indeed, other parts of Victoria and south-eastern Australia - at value-packed prices.



Best wishes and happy travelling.

Chris Grafen

Highland Explorer.

Hope to see you on board soon....Happy touring!