The travel industry, like many, has been hit hard in 2020, but local company ICON Adventures has used the downtime wisely, collaborating with other family run businesses in the outback to design much sought after, small group, micro-adventures.
Recently, a group headed from Toowoomba to Roma, spending their tourism dollars in town before heading further out for a glamping experience on Wallaroo, a 72,000 acre cattle property. From this base they went exploring the Expedition Ranges and Carnarvon Gorge.
ICON Adventures has been running hiking and cultural tours all over the world for several years, but with COVID-19 that came to a grinding halt. “It would be very easy to lose heart,” said Suzanne Holden, the owner of ICON Adventures. “But, I’m not one to give up easily. We live in an amazing part of the world; we have a great opportunity to go explore it. These short adventures tick many of the boxes which are important to travellers now,” Suzanne said.
“It is safe, with COVID-Safe plans in place; it is away from crowds and it is sustainable. We offer nature immersed experiences under the guidance of local ecologist Craig Eddie from Boobook Tours in Roma. We’ll have the joys of camping with the comfort of glamping. Enjoying sundowners with new found friends, camp oven cooking and star gazing around the fire at Wallaroo,” Suzanne said.
Another positive factor is the support for small business. There are seven local family run businesses and their staff which benefit from these adventures. There are three of these micro adventures running in September and October each with a different focus, one on ecology and indigenous history of the area, one with writing workshops and one with a yoga and wellness focus.
Readers also enjoyed our story about Garden For Good
