Australia’s Northern Territory with Kelley Ferro – Live like a local!

When some imagine Australia, they first picture beaches, surfing, rugby or a big bridge, but for others, the first image which comes to mind is that of the vast Australian outback. Red Sand, Blue Sky, Reptiles and Rodeos. We participated in a project to highlight everything great about the Australian Outback with Northern Territory tourism, USTOA (the United States Tour Operators Association), AFAR Magazine and Kelley Ferro at Tripfilms.com along the theme of how to ‘live like a local, where we tried to showcase how planning a trip with a company like us wasn’t all about boring, cookie-cutter day-tours, but immersive, quirky, odd and exciting experiences. The stars were the locals met along the way, from taxi drivers to cameleers, eco-guides, astrologists, reptile wranglers and Aboriginal traditionalists – there’s a pretty convincing argument that the most interesting thing about the Northern Territory is the people who live here!

The Northern Territory is an extreme and remote environment which we feel screams Australia. You can’t get more Aussie than this, and the experiences had here are the ones you always will remember. Sadly though, many travellers to Australia or even Australians themselves never take the opportunity to visit this incredible slice of the world – mainly due to perceptions of distance. While there are short flights to Alice Springs or Ayers Rock Airport, there are still some big stretches of road to cover, but when considering all of this – we still highly recommend including this region on any visit to Australia, for first-timers or multiple visitors. While there is a lot of ground to cover – the landscape is jaw-droppingly beautiful, and Kelley and her crew were active from Sunrise to Sunset. There is also a tremendous effort to educate visitors on the history of the first inhabitants of the land, the Australian Aboriginals, and their history comes to life in art, in natural monuments like Uluru (Ayers Rock), and in their age-old traditions, song and dance. Most travellers revel in this history, and opportunities allowed Kelley to go out on a bush tucker tour with an Aboriginal guide who taught the group how to make flour from certain plants, how to make jam from others, which trees were home to the wholesome ‘wichety grub‘ insect, or how to launch a spear using a ‘woomera‘

Check out the overview of the series here,

Kelley was able to create 5 separate themed videos based on her trip there, and we’ve included a link to each one below – each of these incredible experiences can only be had in the Northern Territory.

• Australia Northern Territory with Kelley Ferro – Overview
• Australia Northern Territory with Kelley Ferro – Adventure
• Australia Northern Territory with Kelley Ferro – Local Life
• Australia Northern Territory with Kelley Ferro – Food
• Australia Northern Territory with Kelley Ferro – Landscapes

Part of the same trip, travelling photographer and writer Flash Parker from AFAR magazine has created some great posts on travelling through the region with Kelley, follow his adventures here:

• Northern Territory: The Nature of Expectation
• Northern Territory: On The Big Sky Life