NSW : Highland Fling Mountain Bike Marathon 

By David Ellis

WILD IDEA: CRUISE QUEEN MARY 2 TO SOUTH AFRICA’S GAME PARKS

CruiseMart have brought together two totally diverse holidaying concepts –  luxury cruising and wild animal game-viewing – into one spectacular 24-night fly, cruise and stay package from Sydney to South Africa in March next year.

Holidaymakers will depart on March 8 2010 for 17-nights aboard superliner Queen Mary 2 visiting Adelaide, Perth, Port Louis in Mauritius and then Durban and Cape Town, to be followed by 7-nights sightseeing the famed Garden Route and some of the country’s best game parks.

All meals and entertainment are included while aboard Queen Mary 2, and in Cape Town tours are included of the city, Table Mountain and Kirstenbosch and its Botanical Gardens and Boulders Penguin Colony; there are also two nights at Cape Town’s Radisson Blu Hotel Waterfront including breakfasts.

A flight to Hoedspruit is followed by four nights at the Mantobeni Luxury Tented Camp with daily morning and afternoon game viewing, all meals and local drinks; a flight to Johannesburg follows with a night at the D’oreal Grande Hotel at Emperors Palace, breakfast next morning and the flight back to Australia.

All ship/hotel/airport transfers in South Africa are included in the price that starts from $9399pp, as well as one-way air back to mainland capitals, port charges and air taxes. For full details phone CruiseMart on 1300 305 920 or check out www.cruisemart.com.au

ADDITIONAL QUEEN MARY 2 INFORMATION:

The 150,000 tonne Queen Mary 2 offers classic Cunard White Star service for her 2600 guests, with one staff member per onboard couple.

As one of the roomiest ships at sea, she incorporates a range of designer shops including Hermes and Chopard, classical plays and concerts are a feature of onboard entertainment, college-level seminars are another high-light, and there’s a planetarium, casino, West End style stage productions, and two decks of sports facilities.

She also has ten restaurants, and thirteen bars and lounges for those with a leaning towards everything from martinis and jazz, to Guinness and sing-alongs.

ON YOUR BIKE

When organisers of the annual Highland Fling Mountain Bike Marathon opened entries for this year’s event at 6am on a recent Thursday, it took just five hours to fill all 1500 available places.

And another 2000-plus keen mountain-bikers were still online hoping to enter, a record for such an event in Australia.

The Highland Fling, to be held on 7-8 November, starts and finishes in the small town of Bundanoon in the Southern Highlands of NSW.

The event, that doubles as the Australian Mountain Bike Marathon Championship, is the largest sporting spectacle in the district and two years ago was the first cycling event in Australia to go Carbon Neutral.  It winds a route through farmland, forest and villages and includes the Full Fling (110km), Half Fling (55km), 100Mile Fling (160km) and Casual Fling (15km)

Event Director Huw Kingston of Wild Horizons, said: “We knew it would sell out quickly, given it took two weeks in 2008, and we thought perhaps a week this year would see all places taken.

“When we first tried to open entries, the demand crashed our web server.  We opened again a week later with the server better-prepared, but were still taken aback by the speed the event sold out; it certainly shows the regard in which the event is held and the growing interest in cycling in general.

“We're sorry for those who did not get in this time, particularly those who had already booked flights, accommodation etc for the weekend.  As always the Bundanoon community looks forward to welcoming the mountain bike community to town for the Fling.”

Major sponsors of the 2009 Highland Fling include Ay Up, Ground Effect, Tertini Wines, GU Sports, Maxxis, Forests NSW and Mountain Biking Australia magazine.

For further information see www.wildhorizons.com.au or contact Huw Kingston on 0418 977 609 or huw@wildhorizons.com.au