go-see-do guide for adventurous travellers
There are only a few small obstacles standing between me and international superstardom as a painter. Things like talent, aptitude and skill. Patience. Vision. Technique and vision. Ability and patience. Artistic temperament, creativity and patience. And a pathological inability to starve in a garret. Or starve anywhere … So I got all excited when I saw how this reflection of trees in[…]
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The FAAAAAABULOUS colours of OZ make the life of a downunder blogging, photographing, writing traveller with a penchant for bakeries REALLY easy … Getting a good pic from right in front of a spectacularly AWESOME panorama, a weird and wacky BIG Thing or a KILLER sunset is what’s called, in the technical photographic terminology used by us amateurs, a SURE[…]
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Hazards of Travel in Australia Wild, rugged mountains. Ancient, arid deserts. Weird, wonderful wildlife. Magnificent beaches, lush rainforests, untamed islands. These – and other amazing wonders – are just part of everyday life in the mystical, magical land of OZ! What could possibly go wrong?? Most of the time, nothing. But road-tripping round Australia isn’t always beaches and bakeries, sunlight[…]
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The splendiferous sun sank into the shadowy waters on this balmy OZ winter’s evening with a sensational splash of colour. The superb sunset would make a good stand-alone shot. But a prop or two would turn it into a GREAT one! Luckily for me, this July 2012 Derby sunset over stunning King Sound in Australia’s North West had three: a massive[…]
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I was 4 – nearly 5! – the first time I crossed the Nullarbor. Christmas day, and we were on the Indian Pacific* heading for Adelaide. We’d spent Christmas eve in a pub somewhere in rough as guts Western Australian gold-mining town Kalgoorlie, but I don’t remember that. Maybe I had blanked it out … Many years later, I made[…]
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My liking for neatness, order and logic most likely explains my affinity for corrugated iron. Although the unkind might attribute it to control freak tendencies! Whatever it is, corrugated iron’s neat rows and precise undulations, and patterns of light and shade hold an artistic appeal. This appeal actually increases as the decay inevitable in Australia’s harsh climate starts breaking the[…]
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A Taste of the Paranormal Magnetic Hill South Australia promised to be a little bit weird. Up to now, my discovery of the Daleks of Khancoban in a remote Snowy Mountains hideaway had been the pinnacle of my paranormal participation in the world of real-life Australian sci-fi. Now, the sign in front of me detailed a strange and bizarre extrasensory[…]
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So what creative uses are there for a whacking great hole in the ground? A hole 3.8 km long, 1.5 km wide and 600 metres deep that can make a 680 tonne shovel look like a kitchen utensil?? Or a 166 tonne truck like a Matchbox toy??? A hole so large it’s colloquially known as the Super Pit Kalgoorlie? That’s[…]
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Living in a landscape populated with giant fibreglass representations of fruit and animals is quite normal to many Aussies. Irrespective of whether or not such objects are in good taste! Commemorating criminals by building statues and devoting whole tourism campaigns to the bushrangers who dominated the early days of colonialism is also an intrinsic part of Aussie-dom. Irrespective of whether[…]
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Who needs a traditional Northern Hemisphere White Christmas when we’ve got the 12 Days of Christmas Aussie Style! In the Twelve months of this year, Australia gave to me: Twelve Sunset Fishers Eleven Kayaks Paddling Ten Tathra Wildflowers Nine Outback Sign Words Eight Devils Marbles Seven Rainbow Bee Eaters Six Loo Languages Five Mulla Mullas Four Awestruck[…]
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