Following in the footsteps of an explorer whose expedition ended in the deaths of ten men might sound reckless. Pairing up with an army survival expert and a team of pack-carrying donkeys to retrace a section of Edmund Kennedy’s tragic 1848 Cape York journey is, however, a once-in-a-lifetime adventure. Every few years, Tim Daniels of Wilderness Expeditions leads a Kennedy retrace trek in the rugged and remote Walsh River gorge country west of the Atherton Tableland in far north Queensland. The 250km trek is divided into two 8- and 16-day legs and you can do either or both (recommended). This is a bushwalking Queensland adventure you will never forget.

You are signing up for an expedition proper; delicious food and a heady sense of history compensate for the lack of familiar luxuries. By day you lead your pack donkey – perhaps handsome Jack – along creeks, across rocky riverbeds, and over worn and weathered hills, following a route recreated from the few of Kennedy’s original sketch maps and notes that survived. At night you sleep in a swag beneath a night sky studded with crystalline stars.

Tim Daniels also runs day and overnight pack-donkey walks.

See and save more places to create your own itinerary or modify a Bindu itinerary.

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  Photo by Melanie Ball
• 
  Photo by Melanie Ball
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  Photo by Melanie Ball