We’d planned a 3 day ‘plonk’ holiday on Kangaroo Island. You know, the kind of holiday where you book into some pleasant accommodation with great views and spend most of your time reading and gazing at the natural beauty of the spot. After a tranquil ferry trip to Penneshaw and a 45-minute drive to Kingscote,Continue reading “Anne McKenzie: Kangaroo Island”
Category Archives: Travel and Leisure
Don Sinnott: A Holiday with a Difference: Part 1
October 2004. With funding for me to attend a three-day conference in Toulouse, in the south of France, my wife and I opted to build this into a shared four-week French holiday, including a week cycling. Cycling? What were we thinking? Neither of us was more than a very occasional cyclist but we committed toContinue reading “Don Sinnott: A Holiday with a Difference: Part 1”
Don Sinnott: The Birdsville Track: 1978. What Could Possibly Go Wrong
The bitumen stopped at Maree. We had driven our Holden Kingswood sedan, towing our camper trailer, to the only fuel outlet in town. Our friends, in their borrowed much-travelled Land Cruiser, waited behind us for their turn at the pump. We drew some comfort from travelling in company with a four-wheel drive vehicle as weContinue reading “Don Sinnott: The Birdsville Track: 1978. What Could Possibly Go Wrong”
Fran Collins: Obsession
It’s interesting how a singular activity can become an obsession. Sometimes with good outcomes. Sometimes not. My particular obsession provided all things positive. It was born in 1988 and was a personal challenge to reduce the time it took me to reach the top waterfall of Edith Falls, south of Darwin. After four years ofContinue reading “Fran Collins: Obsession”
Lawrie Stanford: News From Home
(Day 4 of COVID isolation in a caravan, July 2022) Being confined to a caravan 24/7 gives you time to reflect. Receiving a piece of news from home during this time certainly gave me cause. The news came from Melody, my daughter. She said in an email… Last Friday, I was picking up Rory fromContinue reading “Lawrie Stanford: News From Home”
Edie Eicas: Armchair Traveller
I’m an armchair traveller. I once did a great deal of travelling on my own, but found that without the company of another, some pleasures were denied. I’m also not good on water, I get seasick. I suffer with vertigo and tinnitus and a moving ship that rolls from side to side or up andContinue reading “Edie Eicas: Armchair Traveller”
Anne McKenzie: Noodling
‘Noodling,’ not to be confused with canoodling, is a must on a visit to Coober Pedy. It involves fossicking on the mullock heaps for opal the original miners missed. Mind you, canoodling under those vast Outback desert night skies has its appeal too – but I had no taker! We’d done all the other touristContinue reading “Anne McKenzie: Noodling”
Don Sinnott: Recollections of the Heysen Trail, South Australia
We’re loggers. Not the timber-cutting kind, but the kind who log their notable events in a journal. For years we’ve recorded recollections of journeys that bring a warm inner glow, peaks of joy and depths of gloom. We don’t intend to have others read our journals—although perhaps a later generation might skim them after we’veContinue reading “Don Sinnott: Recollections of the Heysen Trail, South Australia”
Sharon Apold: The Wine Dinner
The Duke and the Baroness I enjoy these evenings of food and wine pairing. Hearing a wine maker lead me into their work of art. Sure, you can teach a human to make wine, in a similar way you can teach them to cook, but it’s an art to curate raw fruits of the earthContinue reading “Sharon Apold: The Wine Dinner”
Fran Collins: An Adventure into Nature
An impulse to bend rules and indulge in some ‘risky business’, along with a big injection of hormonal lust, saw me accompany the sexy, blond-haired Sven on a trip to Banias Falls. Nineteen seventy-three. We were volunteers on Kibbutz[i] Amiad, in the Golan Heights, a stone’s throw from the Sea of Galilee and 40 kilometresContinue reading “Fran Collins: An Adventure into Nature”
David Hope: Travels in Queensland
Ian and I arrived in Croydon after a very pleasant five-hour train journey on the weekly Gulflander service from Normanton. It runs every Wednesday, returning to Normanton on Thursday. The line, 151 kilometres long, is not connected to any other line. It was built to cater for the gold finds in the Croydon area inContinue reading “David Hope: Travels in Queensland”
Lawrie Stanford: Fire Alarm
‘No, you won’t!’ Mary’s outburst was angry and insistent. ‘You’ve spent so little time with me and the kids because of your bloody devotion to work. The kids are on holidays and I’ve hired this beach shack, so you’ll damn-well stay with us.’ That was it, Mary’s outburst was compelling and there was no wayContinue reading “Lawrie Stanford: Fire Alarm”
Don Sinnott: Memories of Mongolia
‘Let’s go somewhere different this year.’ Back in 2013, with international travel an expectation of our retirement plan, and a border-closing pandemic unthinkable, I had set my wife a challenge. An hour spent surfing travel sites and she emerged from the office triumphant. ‘How does a yak trek in Mongolia sound?’ Mongolia? My blank stareContinue reading “Don Sinnott: Memories of Mongolia”
David Hope: Dubrovnik
It’s a lovely June day, warm and welcoming. After entering through the Pile Gate and ascending the stairs, we begin a circuit of the walls of the Old Town of Dubrovnik. The walls, largely intact, present a bird’s eye view of the old town as well as some insight into the mind of the cityContinue reading “David Hope: Dubrovnik”
David Hope: What is it About Deserts
The desert passes by the car window. People seem to think a desert is a sterile, barren place; an unending vista of not much, stretching to infinity. Yet, what is passing by, is an everchanging scene. There is a straggle of undersized trees meandering across the land, marking a watercourse. Strangely, there is a sandContinue reading “David Hope: What is it About Deserts”
Don Sinnott: Walkers Follow Ridge
Today’s start point for our walk is near Woolshed Flat, a whistle stop on the Pichi Richi rail line, halfway along the pass between Quorn and Port Augusta. A road, now badged the southern section of the Flinders Ranges Way, shares the pass with the rail line and crosses it at several points. Whether youContinue reading “Don Sinnott: Walkers Follow Ridge”
Burnside Writers Group 