The Islands are composed of two groups of islands: the “Turks islands” (Grand Turk and Salt Cay), and “The Caicos islands” (Providenciales, North Caicos, Middle Caicos, East Caicos, South Caicos, West Caicos). The groups are separated by the Turk Island Passage, a twenty-two mile wide, 7,000 feet deep channel. Of the forty islands and cays that make up this British colony, only eight are inhabited. The land mass, covering 193 square miles, is surrounded by a continuous coral reef; one of the largest in the world. The deep bodies of water and reefs create the ideal conditions for baitfish, making TCI a bluewater fishing haven. Blue marlin, wahoo, dorado, tuna and more ply these waters in their respective seasons.

Beyond the Blue airboat

Grand Turk, the capital, is the seat of government, and a scuba divers paradise, but this is not the main tourist island, and there is no good flats fishing here, although the bluewater fishing is very good. The architecture is reminiscent of Bermuda, and the town has a quaint colonial feel. The island is seven miles long by 1.5 miles wide, and the interior is laced with large creeks and lakes.

Providenciales, or “Provo” as everyone calls it, is the center of the TCI tourism industry, and in fact, Provo was created from scratch by developers in the 1980s, with Club Med being the first resort in 1981. Grace Bay Beach, a 12-mile long strip of perfect powdery white sand, is the center of resort development. The turquoise waters that lap the shore here rival any in the Caribbean for relaxed swimming, snorkeling, or pretty much any water sport you can name. Setting the idea of fishing aside, this is one of the best destinations in the Caribbean for an overall sand, sea, surf, golf (Provo Golf and Country Club) and tennis vacation for families and couples. It’s a great spot for a romantic getaway too with a variety of upscale accommodations, excellent restaurants, and miles of deserted beaches on nearby cays where you’ll never see another person.

Now toss in the fact that Provo and its neighboring cays are surrounded by bonefish flats, and you’ve got the ideal combination for anglers and non-anglers alike. If you rent a car you can fish all over the island on your own.

Also known as East Harbour, and The Big South, South Caicos is an eight square mile island of coral rock that has seen it all, from being the hideout for infamous pirates, to being part of the thriving turn-of-century salt business, to now being a quiet community of about twelve hundred people who make their living mostly from harvesting conch and lobster. Hurricane Ike devastated this island in Septebmer of 2008, but the islanders are working hard to restore the charming colonial style settlement. Today you will find some of the best scuba diving, blue water fishing, and bonefishing in the TCI’s. The hard white sand flats, ideal for wading, sprawl from Long Cay up to East Caicos hold high numbers of bonefish, and the nearby deep water drop-offs into Columbus Passage means lots of big bones too. All-inclusive bonefishing packages are available with Beyond the Blue Bonefish Charters. They take their anglers to the flats in a 24-foot 425 hp airboat that can literally skim across flats that are barely wet. This is some of the best wade fishing for bonefish anywhere, including Christmas Island or the Seychelles. This is a highly recommended trip. You can reach the island is via boat, or various puddle-jumpers from Provo.

Beyond the Blue Lodge

This destination fishery is very “under-the-radar” and has some of the world’s finest bonefishing. Some have likened it to a Zane Grey destination… very remote and untapped. This fishing is all classic wade fishing for bonefish on white sand flats. The outfitter, Beyond the Blue, has solved the problem of reaching the interior of these extensive flats… they utilize air boats that can run in inches of water, or even wet, exposed sand. This allows them to place anglers in prime areas that would take precious fishing time away to reach on foot. And to add, there currently is no other outfitter/lodge operating in this area.

Next, the lodging is an apartment-like setup with a full service staff and cook. The rooms are setup as double occupancy (w/ private bath) and the boat dock is right in front of the complex. This is a full package program that includes all meals/beverages, ground transportation, fishing licenses, and guide/boat.

South Caicos is at the southernmost end of the Bahamas, east of the Inagua Islands, and part of the Turks and Caicos Island chain.

Location (21° 29′ 15″ N, 71° 31′ 38″ W)

South Caicos, Turks & Caicos Islands in a larger map

Perched on a hillside overlooking the crystal-clear waters of the New River Lagoon, the Lamanai Outpost Lodge provides a jungle experience unlike any other. Adjacent to the spectacular Maya ruins of the Lamanai Archaeological Reserve.

Sunrise on Crab-Catcher Lagoon

‘Lamanai’ means ‘submerged crocodile’, and you only need to observe the 28 mile long spring fed lagoon next to Lamanai Outpost Lodge to find them. Here, amid the remnants of a major Maya city are an astounding variety of habitats ideal for nature adventure activities, departing directly from your cabaña’s doorstep each day.

Or try guided excursions after nightfall to delve into the mysterious nocturnal wilderness of the lagoons and jungle beyond. With most tours departing with only six or fewer guests, your choice of the two activities included per night’s stay is guaranteed to make for a rewarding and a very personal agenda.

Accommodations feature a thatched roof over hardwood interiors that are fully screened and nicely ventilated, and include electricity, refrigerator, and a private bath with hot and cold water. Most of your time at the lodge is likely to be spent leisurely enjoying your veranda.

Lamanai Outpost is one of a very select handful of Belize’s jungle lodges to have been frequently featured on shows and channels as Wild Things, Discovery, Animal Planet, National Geographic Explorer and World Gone Wild. The lodge also earned the distinction of being voted Belize’s Hotel of the Year for 1999 and 2000.

Veranda at the Lodge

Cabaña

Lamanai is all about the activities, tours and wildlife, and the staff make sure you don’t miss anything and make the absolute best use of your time. The energy of the staff and other guests will make 4 hours in an airboat spotting birds pass in a flash and leave you wishing it would never end.

Mayan Ruins

Lamanai is located on the New River Lagoon and is one of the largest sites in Belize. About a hundred buildings have been uncovered including NIO-43, which is the largest ruin of the pre-classic Mayan world. The site is spread across 950 acres.

High Temple at Lamanai

Occupied between 1500 B.C. and the 19^th century, the city of Lamanai had an extremely long lifetime. Greatness was received early as the structure NIO-43 proves. The city went along minding its own business until the first contact with the Spanish. It even lasted long enough for a Franciscan monk to record its original name Lamanay or Lamayna, thus allowing its name to remain what it always has been.

Besides the two Christian churches, reservoir and the sugar mill, most of the structures are distinctively Mayan. The most important of these is NIO-43. Built about 100 B.C, it was preserved in a modified 600 A.D. version. The discovery of this structure was extremely important. In the late classic period most of the ceremonial structures were converted to residential quarters thus slowly weakening the hierarchical order.

First discovered in 1917 it was not until 1974 that the site was seriously excavated and preserved by the Royal Ontario Museum. Before 1974 the site was left untouched except by the occasional passing archaeologist or looter.

The site can only be reached by boat down New River, or by the road from San Felipe, which is usually not accessible during the rainy season.

Lamanai spends its days in the company of the residing families of howler monkeys. The surrounding reserve is rich in wildlife due to the depletion of surrounding forest by the farmlands. There is also a richvariety of waterfowl in the surrounding lagoon. The Lamanai ruins have become a sanctuary for wildlife and history.

Belize

Belize (formerly British Honduras) is a constitutional monarchy, and the northernmost Central American nation. In fact, it straddles the south-eastern rim of Mexico’s famous Yucatan peninsula, due south of Cancun. Belize has a diverse society, comprising many cultures and languages. Even though Kriol and Spanish are spoken among the population, Belize is the only country in Central America where English is the official language. Belize is bordered to the north by Mexico, south and west by Guatemala, and to the east by the Caribbean Sea. Culturally unique among its Central American neighbors, Belize is the only nation in the region with a British colonial heritage.

Location (17° 45′ 51″ N, 85° 44′ 14″ W)

Lamanai Outpost Lodge, Belize in a larger map

An agile wallaby is one of the cutest marsupials you’re likely to see. These little bounders with wide-open eyes and a curious gaze are gathering around my verandah as I try to sleep. The frogs are croaking and the dingoes are baying.

Wildman Wilderness Lodge, 170 km from Darwin, provides a collection of luxury African-style tents and cabins on the edge of the Mary River wetlands

This is Wildman Wilderness Lodge, a collection of luxury African-style tents and cabins with a central lodge and infinity swimming pool that has opened recently on the edge of the Mary River wetlands between Darwin and Kakadu National Park.

In the wetlands, irritable buffalo and pigs are wallowing in the mud. These feral beasts are in the cross-hairs of a shoot-to-kill eradication program aimed at protecting this 8000-square-kilometre flood plain. They trample among lily pads in ankle-deep water that has the largest concentration of crocodiles in Australia and teems with jabiru, magpie geese and loud, screeching black cockatoos.

One of the crocs here is a five-metre salty named Big Arse, who might be aged 40 years to 60 years and lives in Wildman’s home billabong. Just in case you don’t see him during a resort boat cruise, he is captured in a photo hanging in the main lodge.

I have my tent zipped up tight, not to keep out these wild things but as protection from the mosquitoes, which leave bites like sherbet bombs of itchiness, ready to explode when touched.

Wildman’s tents have polished blackbutt floors, king-size beds loaded with soft pillows and ceiling fans over the beds to stir the hot air. The tents have chic corrugated-tin bathrooms and flushing toilets and each has a writing desk, a mini bar and verandah chairs. Each tent costs about $100,000 to assemble and is finely finished and draped in the best African canvas. They are also equipped with a “survival kit” that includes a wind-up torch, hairdryer, sunscreen and insect repellent, but this is where my troubles start.

I’m too slow to apply the Wildman-issued Aeroguard during an afternoon bush amble with indigenous guide Neddy Tambling and the mosquito bites are now driving me crazy as I lie under the ceiling fan, listening to the creatures and eyeballing the agile wallabies under the outback stars.

During the walk, Tambling takes us to the soggy edges of the wetlands where termite fields, pandanus and paperbark give way to near impenetrable pools, channels, billabongs and rivers. Tambling has us tasting rosella flowers and smelling eucalyptus plants used as bush medicine. He shows us trees used for making spears and tells of hunting file snakes and turtles. He keeps an eye out for crocodiles and, half-jokingly, advises: “Run for a tree if you see a buffalo.” On a routine day, Tambling sees more buffalo than people. “I went to the footy in Melbourne last year to watch my nephew [Richard Tambling] play and I’d never seen so many people together in one place,” he says.

Walking to the edges isn’t the only way to explore the wetlands. We also hop in a helicopter and take a scenic flight, scooting low across the water as buffalo and pigs scurry off. Our pilot, Phil O’Driscoll, tells of catching a crocodile recently to relocate it somewhere safer (safer for people, I guess). “We were dragging it up the river bank with a rope but it was so muddy, we were all slipping down towards it,” he says. “We finally tied the rope to a bullbar on the four-wheel-drive and pulled it out that way.”

Crocodile stories are all around. O’Driscoll drops us in the wetlands at a waiting airboat driven by Robert Townsend. There’s mud between our toes as we scramble aboard for a joy ride, powered by a Chevy V8 that drives a big aeroplane-like propeller at the rear. As we skim across the water’s surface at high speed, small freshwater crocodiles thrash out of the way. The big saltwater crocodiles keep their cool and submerge, leaving only a trace of bubbles. We come across some horses on high ground and Townsend tells of mustering a stranded herd of eight last season with the airboat when a crocodile attacked. “They were swimming in a tight pack and the croc jumped on the back of four of them and started to bite into them but it was too small to take them down. I spent the next few days stitching up horses.”

The helicopter and airboats are in the repertoire of activities at Wildman, owned by Indigenous Business Australia and managed by tourism entrepreneur Grant Hunt, whose Anthology group also has Wilpena Pound Resort, Cradle Mountain Huts and Bay of Fires Lodge.

At a more gentle pace than the chopper and airboat, Wildman’s executive chef, Aaron Lee, provides cooking demonstrations over the outdoor fire-pit, where he cooks butter scallops and baby ocean trout with lemon myrtle, rosemary and lime.

“I’ve wrapped the fish in foil today but if we were out camping [real camping, without luxury tents, I presume], then I’d use paperbark,” he says. The open fire is a focus at the lodge and is surrounded by wraparound, sofa-style seating perfect for sunset with drinks.

To the right of us are the tents and to the left are cabins called “habitats”. They have been relocated from the defunct luxury Wrotham Park Station, 2800 kilometres away in Queensland, and provide airconditioned comfort.

As we watch the sun dip and the frogs and cicadas start their cacophony, the mosquito activity increases and I know it’s time to move inside.

Location (12° 31′ 40″ S, 131° 34′ 0″ E)

View Wildman Wilderness Lodge in a larger map

Airboat Expeditions of Costa Rica explores the tributaries of the Moin towards the channels of the Tortuguero, the Tarcoles River and the Caño Negro Nature Reserve in northern Costa Rica.

Airboat Expeditions New Year 2011

Wherever airboats have been put to work, they have shown to be highly successful. For this reason – and for the first time in Costa Rica – this company has begun operations targeting adventure tours in cooperation with Costa Rican travel agencies and tour companies.

The company’s airboats are brand new and feature the best available technology in safety and sound reduction. Designed with the same characteristics as those used in Disney World, these modern airboats represent great improvements over more traditional vessels. Most of all, they are environmentally friendly, drastically reducing impact on the area of operation. As there are no moving parts in the water, flora and fauna are protected from harm, in contrast to conventional boats. Requiring a depth of only a few inches of water to operate comfortably, airboats can take the eco-adventurer to places inaccessible to traditional boats. It is indeed possible to drive an airboat even over dry surfaces.

To Boldly Go Where No Tourist Has Gone Before

Airboat Expeditions guarantees an experience of the highest quality and safety, and at no time will guests be put in risky situations, as frequently happens when traditional craft get stuck in shallow waters.

The maximum capacity of each Airboat is 20 guests, plus guide and captain.

Commitment to the community sees the team participate in Community Support Programs, including work with the National Emergency Commission to rescue people at risk from floods or other natural disasters.

Río Grande de Tárcoles

Airboat Expeditions - Costa Rica

In Tarcoles, airboats are based at the well-known Hacienda Nosavar, part of the Doka Estate bordering the river up to it’s mouth. The estate boasts a large restaurant catering to more than 300 guests, in which visitors can enjoy snacks & lunch, or simply take in the natural surroundings and the splendid river views.

Upon arrival at the dock, guests are greeted by their guides and captains who will take them on tour. The trip will have a minimum duration of an hour and a half in which a great variety of flora and fauna are observed. The airboats, thanks to their unique capabilities, take visitors to places never before seen by other tourists.

Airboat Expeditions’ offices are located only 45 minutes out of San Jose, in Central Santa Ana, alongside Pali, in front of Multirepuestos Santa Ana.

Location (from 11° 2′ 56″ N, 85° 44′ 14″ W to 8° 4′ 12″ N, 82° 53′ 50″ W)

Costa Rica in a larger map

Carmor Plains Wildlife Reserve, operated by Australia Wide Safaris, comprises 100 000 acres of pristine outback. Only 210 km east of Darwin, a little over 2 hours driving or 30 minutes flight, the reserve is adjacent to Kakadu National Park, a World Heritage Site.

South Alligator River

Scenic flood plains are entirely submerged during the summer rain falls. The higher land is reasonably flat with a high upper canopy of indigenous trees, low shrubs and grasses, but also thick rainforests and springs in some areas. Home to native animals and introduced game, the reserve is a perfect habitat for all wildlife. Crocodiles, water buffalo, wild boar, wild horses, kangaroos, wallabies, goannas and countless varieties of wetland and forest birds are always within viewing distance. Carmor Plains is the only private coastal game reserve with Water Buffalo, Wild Boar, Water fowl and Crocodiles.

Whether it be serious trudging through the bush hunting buffalo, an airboat safari looking for crocodiles or maybe just dinner and wine out on the gazebo deck enjoying the sunset, Carmor Plains offers a unique variety of experiences.

Carmor Plains Air Boat Tours

Air Boat Tours are conducted on the vast 60 000 acres of wetlands. These tours are the most amazing way to see the flora and fauna unique to this part of Australia. The massive wetlands are similar to the Okavango Delta in Botswana or the Everglades of Florida, allowing the opportunity to view an immense range of wetland birds. Some of these are Magpie geese, Pygmy geese and several different species of duck, often in flocks exceeding a thousand individuals. Other wetland birds include various species of Egret, Ibis and Heron and the little Jacana walking on water. Large cranes known as Brolgas and Australia’s only stork, the Jabiru, plus all the predator birds such as Whistling Kites, Sea Eagles and Falcons are constantly circling overhead.

Airboats, the only way to access the grass-covered waterways – often too shallow for conventional boats – travel at over 80km per hour to get to the right spot FAST. Cruise along the edge of plains in a only a few of inches of water, or anchor right amongst the paperbark forests, take in the views and watch the crocs and water fowl in their original environment. This is one of the best ways to observe Magpie Geese rear their young, from the nesting in March until the goslings fly in August. Also, experience Whistling Ducks blacken the sky with flocks of up to 5000 birds. This is only seen in some specific areas of the Northern Territory and Carmor Plains is one of them.

free-roaming feral horses in Australia

And of course, the ever present crocodiles, herds of water buffalo or wild boar, and sometimes a brumby can be spotted.

The best time for Airboat tours is between February and September, but may vary depending on water levels. The climate is most pleasant from May until September, with very slim chances of wet weather. Winter temperatures vary from nightly 14 centigrades to 32 centigrades in the heat of the day. Summers are a little hotter, and much wetter.

Location (12° 31′ 40″ S, 131° 34′ 0″ E)

Transport to the game reserve can be by road or private air charter. We will pick you up at the airport upon your arrival or from your Hotel. Travelling time by road from Darwin to Carmor Plains is 2 and 1/2 hours. If you prefer we can charter a light aircraft for you from Darwin, direct to the hunting camp, flying time 25 minutes!

Carmor Plains Wildlife Reserve in a larger map

]]> http://www.airboatafrika.com/carmor-plains/feed/ 0 http://www.airboatafrika.com/bamurru-plains/ http://www.airboatafrika.com/bamurru-plains/#comments Mon, 23 Mar 2009 19:55:01 +0000 Chris http://www.airboatafrika.com/?p=449 [Curious? Find out more...]]]> Australia - Northern Territory

Located just to the west of Kakadu National Park on the Mary River floodplains, Bamurru Plains harbors a profusion of bird and wildlife on the doorstep of a unique bush camp that exudes ‘Wild Bush Luxury’  and brings a touch of style to a remote and beautiful wilderness. The floodplain wetlands of the Mary River catchment are the key natural feature of this area and some of the most important in the country, home to thousands of Magpie Geese, Plumed Whistling-Duck, Egrets, Ibis and a host of other birds. A morning trip out on the plains in an airboat is utterly exhilarating and the only way to truly experience this environment.

Bamurru Plains Airboat Safari

Location (12°20’24″ S, 131°35’19″ E)

Bamurru Plains in a larger map

This touring company on Lake Victoria, at the Kirumi Bridge near Musoma, provides the opportunity for visitors to also experience the wild and untamed Mara River of Tanzania. Experience all the romance and adventure of exploring an untouched wilderness river aboard the “Queen Mara”, an ecologically sound and safe airboat built in the US.

Get live video action here!

Location (1° 31′ 30.95” S, 33° 58′ 18.29” E)

Mara River Airboat Safaris in a larger map

This french-run company based in Dakar offers long-distance adventures on the Senegal River, the Niger, and is planning to explore the Oubangui Chari and the Congo. Enjoy their extraordinary airboat exploration of the Senegal River from Matam downstream to Saint-Louis, via Saldé, Gamadji, Podor, Richard Toll and the Diama dam in 7 days.

Get live video action here!

Location (15°39’48” N, 13°15’39.46″ W)

Hydropostale in a larger map