go-see-do guide for adventurous travellers
The Evening Before … I gripped the railing and looked through the deep shadows down the deep RED gash of Dales Gorge. WAAAAAY down. Late afternoon at the lookout meant the sun was long gone from the gorge floor. Even though it had lit up the eastern wall quite spectacularly. Ho Hum. Another day in the Pilbara, another killer landscape[…]
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It’s the bird du jour around almost any given sub-tropical picnic area and car park, so it should have been easy to get a good shot. However, my shots of Australian Brush-turkey in the dark depths of Natural Bridge*, part of Springbrook National Park’s lushly magnificent rainforest, all had something missing. Clarity. We’d driven up the impossibly steep Border Ranges from[…]
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Risking it all at Sawn Rocks! ‘You’d be REALLY unlucky to be underneath when a rock column fell,’ the Grey Nomad to his wife as I stood, camera pointed up at the rock face directly above me, waiting for the sun. They laughed merrily. While the notoriety of being the first person killed by a falling organ-pipe column in living[…]
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The sun wasn’t that hot. The track wasn’t that long. The going wasn’t that tough. And yet, all along the short Kalbarri Natures Window walk, people were dropping like flies. Nature’s Window Warnings There are detailed warning signs above the steep staircase accessing the track below the gorge rim. But the walk to Kalbarri National Park’s favourite attraction still looks[…]
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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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‘Now we’ll see some REAL scenery!’ Doug announced, herding us away from the spectacular outlook from Coulthard’s Lookout towards our convoy of two vehicles. The Arkaroola Ridgetop tour was well underway. But I was sceptical. The ragged mountain ranges (yes, I’m channelling Aussie poet Dorothea Mackellar*) glistened and glowed in a glorious 360° panorama in the perfection of a clear Outback[…]
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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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Live on the edge from just ten bucks a night. That’s all it cost us for a powered site at Carrieton’s Horseshoe View Caravan Park with the Stay-2-nights-Get-2-nights-FREE deal. While the special deal isn’t available now, the real cost is still a small price to pay for a chance to explore Carrieton South Australia. It’s perched on the edge of[…]
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STOP PRESS: Tragically, the Sugar Pine forest was burnt in the horror bushfire season of 2019/20. The Sugar Pine walk has been closed pending removal of the trees which are a danger to visitors. I hope this glimpse into my past experience inspires readers to get out there NOW and explore Australia while you can. Don’t leave it – tomorrow[…]
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The lyrics of Aussie folk ballad Waltzing Matilda* are responsible for most people’s entire knowledge of billabongs**. So visiting a real one – like Marlgu Billabong – raises certain expectations. Visiting a real Billabong That’s why I found the unexpected lack of swagmen, coolibah trees, jolly jumbucks and troopers at the Marlgu Billabong, oasis in the Kimberley west of Kununurra,[…]
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