Monday, Dec 18, 2017 at 14:26
.
Hi Batsy,
Are you suggesting that the
Hay River Track could be traversed without a permit and fee by not entering the
Batton Hill camp? That is not the impression I gained.
The bookings are managed by Australian 4x4
Tag Along Tours (Jol Fleming)
but the whole administration of the
Hay River Track excursion was somewhat confusing and required a number of emails and phone calls to organise.
Two permits were required..............
1) To the Central Land Council in
Alice Springs. Painless and free.
2) To the Atnetye Land Trust submitted via Jol Fleming. This was Titled "Entry and Transit Registration Form -- Atnetye Land Trust --
Batton Hill Camp and
Hay River Track". The provided instructions referred to the Transit Fee of $200 "to Atnetye should be paid electronically at the same time the permits are submitted." In addition, it was a requirement that each traveller was to
camp at Batton
Hill for a minimum of one night at a cost of $20 per person per night.
You can see that the permit refers to ".....and
Hay River Track".
The published information would have you believe that a a $200 permit was required to drive the "
Hay River Track" although there were no gates or signs along the track to prevent your access. Not that such is unusual.
There were additional charges for optional tours from the
camp. We had booked on two of these.
We were told that we were the only travellers booked into the
camp on our dates.There was more to come.........
On arrival at Batton
Hill we found 16 other vehicles in
camp. It transpired that they were booked to a tagalong tour (yes, sixteen) with Jol Fleming starting from
Alice Springs but were delayed in Alice for 3 days due to Jol being "not available". They were then delayed for a further 2 days at
Batton Hill camp whilst Jol attended to maintenance matters at the
camp. A couple we spoke to were "not Happy Campers"!!! We cut our losses, stayed only one night and abandoned the booked tours, which simply could not have eventuated anyway. Even so, we had to catch Jol just as he was driving out of
camp to thrust the $40 camping fee into his hand as no-one showed interest in collecting it!
The drive was good, the
camp OK, but the transit fee and organisation were poor. Maybe it is not always like this, but it was on this occasion. If you are going to run a business...... you've gotta RUN it!
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