“To my mind,the greatest reward and luxury of travel is to be able to experience everyday things as if for the first time,to be in a position in which almost nothing is so familiar it is taken for granted”.Bill Bryson.Having absorbed and delighted in the beauty of the NSW coastline,it seemed hard to believe that there was something around the bay,as it were,waiting to upstage all we had seen.Much has been said and written about the Gold Coast and it does conjure up an image of something aligning with the glitter of gold.None of the hard metal there but plenty of [View Full Entry]

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“Travel is more than the seeing of sights;it is a change that goes on,deep and permanent,in the ideas of living.” Miriam Beard.With the sights of Sydney and Mudgee slowly moving into the mists of the mind,it was time to once again seek out new areas of this vast land.The journey from Mudgee down to the coastal plains took us through some magnificent farming country with sheep and cattle farming keeping most of the good farming folk of this region busy.Our destination was Newcastle,a coastal city about 200 kms from Sydney.Apart from rolling pasture land,there are a number of small t [View Full Entry]

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“No one realizes how beautiful it is to travel until he comes home and rests his head on his old,familiar pillow”.Lian Yutang.Having rested our heads on a pillow in Sydney for the last time on this epic journey,it was time to pin new co-ordinates into our trusty Navman GPS device and head off to new territory.Starting out on the north shore of Sydney heading out west in hired wheels….this was no ordinary challenge.Those of you who have braved this city’s roads will know how important it is to find the right glide offs as you thread your way over the bridge [View Full Entry]

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“We live in a wonderful world that is full of beauty,charm and adventure.There is no end to the adventures we can have if only we seek them with our eyes open”.Jawaharial Nehru.A long time ago when the earth’s land masses were being formed and oceans shaped,a mighty force must have looked down at a spot on Australia’s east coast and pondered on what to do with the craggy,cliff faced coastline.Succumbing to temptation,a mighty hand must have stretched down and prized open an entry to the land lying beyond.Then a few deft finger strokes would have formed numerous inlets w [View Full Entry]

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“Tourists don’t know where they’ve been,travelers don’t know where they’re going”.Paul Theroux.Hobart in Tasmania’s sumptuous south?Well,here’s the thing….if I were Prime Minister of this planet,I would decree that no city can exceed a population of about 500 thousand and the size of Hobart.Then we would have sane cities not dominated by expressways,high rises,incessant noise,too many people and all those pock marks of the World’s big cities.Now that’s wishful thinking and dreaming which borders on insanity but Hobart respresen [View Full Entry]

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“For my part,I travel not to go anywhere,but to go.I travel for travel’s sake.The great affair is to move”.Robert Louis Stevenson.As we moved out of yet another delightful cabin into a grey and wintery morning,it was quite apparent that the pounding heard on the roof overnight had delivered a fair amount of rain.So much so that we were now hearing reports of flooding on the east coast and that a lengthy drought was over.Our impact on Tasmania’s weather was now getting interesting……sunny,cloudless days on the west coast where it should be raining and drough [View Full Entry]

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“One’s destination is never a place,but a new way of seeing things”.Henry Miller.After the splendor of the rugged west,what was in store as we drifted down towards the coastal plains in the north?We had a destination in mind but of far greater importance was what we were likely to see in getting there.The first observation of gently rolling hills and bright green paddocks confirmed that the north is the primary farming region of Tasmania.There is a distinct neatness to the white fenced fields,the plump and recently shorn sheep and beef herds in very good condition.Small river [View Full Entry]

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This little gem from Mark Twain:”Twenty years from now you will be more disappointed by the things that you didn’t do than by the ones you did do.So throw off the bowlines,sail away from the safe harbour,catch the trade winds in your sails.Explore.Dream.Discover”.Tasmania is an island that had to be sailed to so as to be discovered and it was a Dutch navigator,Abel Tasman,who found the place in 1642.Then followed a few centuries of exploitation by Europeans killing seals and generally irritating the indigenous tribes.The British set up their second colony near present day Ho [View Full Entry]

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“A traveler without observation is a bird without wings”(Moslih Eddin Saadi).With those wise words in mind the first view of Melbourne over the wings of a Virgin Blue flight confirmed that this was a city worthy of it’s ranking in the “Big 3”.Sprawling in all directions and looking like a large jig saw puzzle,it was a rather dramatic change from our small town meander across WA.Also noticeable was the parched landscape which is directly linked to the fact that large parts of Victoria have been in drought mode for the last seven years.Water reserves are down to les [View Full Entry]

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A simple question….why does one hear so little about Adelaide?Any discussion about cities in Australia seems to gravitate to the “Big 3”….Sydney,Melbourne and Brisbane.All we needed was a couple of hours,after a short drive into the city and then doing a walking tour to conclude that Adelaide is an absolute gem.After all,a recent survey concluded that Adelaide is the 11th most desirable city in the World to live in.A fair question would be….“why”?Firstly,and importantly,South Australia was colonized by settlers who sailed into Holdfast Bay in Decemb [View Full Entry]

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