I had just spent two weeks riding around the North and South Islands of New Zealand with close friends. We rented a car, bought a teepee, and spent our days checking out the gorgeous scenery and nights spent under the stars. We had a blast, but now my friends were gone. I was all alone. The time had come to finally start hitchhiking. New Zealand is notorious for hitchhiking. The country is filled with friendly people who are used to picking strangers up along the side of the road especially […]

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I have been to Queensland several times over the years but each time I’ve never had the chance to visit the Great Barrier Reef. It has been on my “bucket list” for a very long time. During my latest trip earlier this year I was fortunate to finally be able to visit this reef, certainly one of the planet’s most inspiring underwater and above water destinations. During my time exploring the reef I met an engaging individual, Nick Lynch. I’ve heard some interesting stories on my travels but several of […]

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I have spent the last few days exploring the Daintree Rainforest (the world’s oldest rainforest) from the ground; now it was time to see it from above the canopy level. Fortunately the Skyrail Rainforest Cableway is located just outside of Cairns. This is one of the do not miss Daintree Rainforest experiences. 7.5 Km of cable opened in 1995 and now brings passengers from near sea level up to 545 meters at its highest spot. Cable cars are becoming more innovative these days – select cars have a glass floor […]

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Billy Hansen is a first rate captain, a “salty dog” in all senses of that phrase. He comes with a number of tattoos, a scraggly long beard, at times salty language and nearly always a cigarette hanging out of the mouth. He is doing what he loves – introducing people to the world of ocean fishing on the local reefs just offshore from Port Douglas in Northern Queensland, Australia. Billy has fished all over the world from Fiji to California and up and down Queensland. Today we headed out in […]

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As you get older and experience more you innately lose some sense of youthful exuberance and excitement that is fueled at times by that awesome and rare combination of place, music, weather and experience. It has been a while since I truly felt this unique and rare inspiration on my travels, but today, Kangaroo Island certainly rekindled this for me. On such a fine day I needed music. Other genres of music have their appropriate times to create atmosphere or aline with a particular feeling. To suit the mood of […]

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“Pelican Pete” I called him. I never found out his real name or even if he has a nickname but I know that he has been feeding pelicans on Kangaroo Island for some time – “every day of the year”, he said to the tune of $40,000 AUD for food for the birds. With “pelican feeder” as a job description, one needs an appropriate nickname! We pulled in to the Pelican dock around 445pm (the pelican feeding always starts at 5pm) near the small town of Kingscote and the hungry […]

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To one who was expecting desert like conditions, extreme dry temperatures and nothing but blue skies today was a rude awakening! We spent the night camping near the Glen Helen Gorge on the banks of the barely flowing Finke River. This River is among the oldest rivers in the world – dated at a whopping 65 million years – give or take a few million! We awoke to rain falling on our tents at 4am and not letting up for several hours. After several days of getting up in the […]

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You crankily awake at some ungodly hour like 4am to get ready to head out to see the sunrise on the face of Uluru. You are tired from drinking and staying up late to watch the brilliant stars the night before. You really don’t want to roll out of bed. But when you are standing in front of this orange monolith sleep is the furthest thing from your mind. The sun slowly rises and caps Uluru in a gentle light bathing it softly then becoming stronger. Buses are parked one […]

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Garth Brooks, “Friends in Low Places” was playing at some point in the last few days in one of our tour vehicles. The trend in music among the outfitters seems to be older American Country. I’m perfectly fine with that. I didn’t hear about the incredible amount of flies in the Outback this particular year prior to my trip – probably something to do with all the rain they’ve had here. There is a cream you can dab on your face which keeps them from landing…for a bit. The best […]

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Riding Camels in Australia? I thought present day camels were native to parts of the Middle East and parts of the Horn of Africa? In fact they are, but were brought to this part of the country in 1840 from the Canary Islands. Nine camels were originally brought over – all but one died en route and that one was eventually killed – but then more arrived. More than fifteen hundred camels were released into the wild many generations ago – and they have since multiplied significantly on their own. […]

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I’m not one to enjoy rain – really, ever. Today was an exception. Joe, our driver for the day from Wayoutback Safaris pulled up nice and early at 630am, making the rounds of hotels and hostels in downtown Darwin. We were off for a day of swimming – heavy rain was not going to stop us. Our destination was Litchfield National Park located in the bush about a 90 minutes drive south of Darwin. Our first stop was the impressive Florence Falls for a swim in the very large pool […]

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What to do in Darwin on a rainy grey day? Going up in a Helicopter is perhaps not one’s first choice. It is the rainy season here. With that said, perhaps it was optimistic to think I could do a scheduled Heli Pub Crawl. Yes this is what you think! Five remote pubs accessed via helicopter – spread out over 250 miles – lasting much of the day. Meeting locals, meeting characters and perhaps making some new friends. Oh and enjoying great beer. Conveniently, the chopper lands right next to […]

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I am honored to have been selected as one of Tourism Australia’s digital corOZpondents for 2013/2014. As part of being a corOZpondent I will be making a trip to this great continent for nearly a month (I was in Sydney and vicinity earlier this year for the New Year’s fireworks). I’m on the road quite a bit each year – and every trip has its own merit – but there are few trips I have been looking forward to as much as this one. I already know it is going […]

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We are still trying to catch up on blog posts as its been a hectic past couple of weeks! Trying to avoid Bondi like the plague on the last day of 2012 we headed straight for Coogee. So did many others – there were more views of people than sand. Walking up the coastal walk I stumbled upon Wylies, boasting public swimming baths perched on the edge of the cliffs with its own sea pool built into the existing sandstone rock next to the crashing waves. These are Australia’s oldest […]

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Today we drove out to Jarvis Bay – about 190 clicks south of Sydney. We were expecting summer time temperatures and clear skies but upon arrival were greeted with heavy fog showers, wind and unseasonably cold temperatures. Needless to say, this made for a miserable picnic lunch (from the awesome Husky Bakery & Cafe in Huskisson Beach) and even more miserable swimming for those brave enough souls in the water. We swam with dolphins in Mozambique earlier this year – this time we took a dolphin cruise. We kept our […]

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