sharing stories… sharing lessons… shoring up the future
Out of Canberra and off to the Victorian High Country. We pass through Bredbo. A neat, well-patronised Australian country town. Pie shop. Café. Pub. Pie shop. Café. Aromatherapist. No cars outside the aromatherapist. But Cooma is our destination. Its more crowded, but after much driving we find a café that could be anywhere and just…
Personal admin in army terms is a euphemism for a bit of shut-eye. But we need to do a bit more than this after some four days on the road. We’re in Canberra at Cotter campground for two nights. At night its chilly! Its valley location is a sink hole for all the cold air…
As I write this, we’re on our way to Jindabyne, Thredbo and the Victorian high country. But let me let you first about Sydney. Land Rovers seem to be a bit like magnets. They attract other Land Rovers. Chris heard about our trip, got in touch and turned up at Jeanie’s paddock with his Perentie…
Some might remember the $180 million Australian tourism TV advert that was approved by the managing director of Tourism Australia, Scott Morrison, launched in 2006 and subsequently banned in the United Kingdom for inappropriate language. Its relevance today is nothing to do with tourism, but it’s a catchy phrase that captures what you might be…
On a long drive there are always those places that you get curious about. Or, in some cases, wish you had never spotted. For visitors to Australia, thoroughly terrified by the signs on every beach, some are quite off-putting. We pass the National Reptile Park. ‘Why on earth would anybody want to go there?!’ The…
Nothing much happened yesterday – 13th April. On the road at 8.00 am with a long drive of 480 kms ahead of us. The same good roads and light traffic as we slowly cleared the Queensland-inspired rain showers. By the afternoon it was actually dry. With not much else to do, the visitors while away…
The day did not start well – for something. The upstairs bedroom contingent reported slithering and squawks as nature took its course. Then the rain started. Again. I have been wearing the butt of my ‘land of endless sunshine’ comment for a long time now! It lightened for our send-off at the Reserve at Anstead.…
I’ve always liked the way Winnie-the-Pooh books start their chapters. ‘Chapter 1: In which we learn that bears like honey’. That sort of thing. Well, this one should start: ‘In which we learn what our friends are really like now.’ The Team has assembled. Guy, from Bristol, brings his experience from a myriad of jobs…
Dorothy Mackellar’s classic poem ‘My Country’, comparing the landscapes and weather of England and Australia are a synopsis of this trip at present. For my three friends who have flown halfway across the world to spend six weeks in second-hand swags, the change from ‘ordered woods and gardens‘ to the ‘wide brown land‘ is what…
Just after lunch on a sultry, humid, Queensland Sunday afternoon a neighbour came wandering across our lawn. “I wonder if you can help. My tractor’s fallen into a hole”. Sandy’s old Massey Fergusson is a local legend and common sight in our neighbourhood, as he takes on the task of slashing his own and other…