Day One: Melbourne - Arkaroola (Flinders Ranges)
Depart Melbourne at 7.00am with a refuelling stop at Broken Hill. Then land at Balcanoona in the northern Flinders Ranges for a drive through the rugged landscape to Arkaroola - a scenic, isolated and very comfortable village. After a relaxed lunch in the licensed restaurant, be exhilarated by the stunning Ridge Top Tour - the most spectacular mountain scenic tour in Australia. Narrow trails scramble over breath-taking mountains and along razor back ridges, plummeting periodically into deep cool valleys and gorges. Views extend across the mountains and 80 kilometres beyond Lake Frome to the horizon. The tour lasts approximately 4 hours. After dinner a tour of the Flinders Ranges Astronomical Observatory is a fascinating and worthwhile experience. Accommodation: Arkaroola Resort.

Day Two: Arkaroola - Mulloorina - Innamincka
Depart Balcanoona for Mulloorina Station just south of Lake Eyre. Enjoy morning tea with the owners Colleen and Malcolm Mitchell, and have a brief look around this busy, working outback station. Fly over Lake Eyre en route to Innamincka - an isolated, yet busy refuelling stop on the Cooper Creek abounding with history - Burke and Wills, the Dig Tree, the Australian Inland Mission etc. Spend a couple of hours canoeing the Cooper Creek, enjoying the magnificent scenery with the abundant birdlife and beautiful old river gums. This is a paradise for the keen photographer. Enjoy a chat with the locals and the passing travellers in the pub, before a tasty barbeque dinner of the local beef. Accommodation: Innamincka (self-contained units).

Day Three: Innamincka - White Cliffs - Broken Hill - Melbourne
Depart Innamincka for White Cliffs - Australia's first commercial opal field. A tour will take in the underground houses, or dugouts, opal cutting and polishing, the experimental Solar Power Station which is the first of its kind, and a visit to the unusual underground "Jock's place". Lunch at the unique PJ's Underground Motel, and then a tour of their motel and attached mines. Maybe a quick refreshing ale in the local pub before departing for Broken Hill, a town created to serve the miners in the incredibly rich silver-lead-zinc mines of the Barrier Range, in the arid outback of New South Wales. On the way we fly over the Eldee Man - a landscape painting of a stockman that can be viewed from the air. At Broken Hill, while refuelling, take the 1 hour tour of the Royal Flying Doctor Services base located on the airport. Then we depart for Melbourne - a 2½ hour flight arriving approximately 6.00pm.