Flooding rain has dictated the weather for months in these parts and in much of Queensland. Longreach has had its share. I left a decidedly wet Brisbane on 24.3.22 in the hope of seeing blue sky and sun in the mid-west, but terrified of driving back to the mountain on my return at rush hour, in the forecast persistent rain. We arrived in Longreach early, and I had to wait for Nicole to pick me up. Thursday is usually a busy day for Simon with Council meetings. Nicole had to return to work. She has just taken up her position as General Manager of Aussie Outback Tours, a thriving Longreach-based tourism business, and I was left alone for the afternoon with Pepper, which delighted us both. We were confined to barracks next day. I didn’t venture out because I didn’t have a key. The weather was uncomfortably hot. In the evening we dined at Longreach’s much-improved premier restaurant. Nicole joined Simon and me from a reception honouring Daniel Geschwind, retiring after twenty-two years as chief executive of the Queensland Tourism Industry Council. He is a hero of mine because he has brought his Swiss grounding in tourism excellence to… Read Complete Text

I booked my flight to Longreach (October 8) and back (October 16), for our Birdsville road trip, first mooted by Nicole and Simon when we were at Uluru, after I told them that I would love to visit the Middleton Hotel, a lone and evocative haven, 170 kilometres from the nearest town, on the road between Winton and Boulia. I suggested staying overnight in Boulia, whereat Nicole said we might as well go to Birdsville. I jumped at the chance. The beauty of driving from Longreach to Birdsville and back is that the entire journey will be through essential Australia – the glorious channel country and the red centre.

My travel insurance arrived in the post. Taking Gina at her word, I phoned Suncorp, with whom I have two bank accounts plus car and contents insurance, to enquire about travel insurance. Every time the menu referred to travel insurance I hit the required number, only finally to be told that Suncorp no longer provided travel insurance. Fortunately, RACQ, the state’s premier motoring organisation of which I am a member, have a large travel business and they were able to meet all my needs for $1,365.40, which included a sizeable discount.

This morning I visited Gina, my travel agent, and booked a trip to the UK and Europe, which I last visited six years ago, an inordinate gap in my travel schedule. My preferred accommodation in London, an apartment in Belsize Park, was unavailable, so I opted for a hotel which is even closer to Belsize Park underground station, limiting my time in London to eight days instead of two weeks, given that my beloved cousin Leila is no longer alive, but sufficient time for me to catch up with family and friends and have tea ay Betty’s in Harrogate. I will be spending a week with Clive, mostly in Somerset, where he lives, but also overnighting in Cornwall.

I love train travel, so will book a Eurail pass, which now includes post-Brexit Britain, whereas previously I had to get a separate Britrail pass (go figure). I have also booked an eight day Rhine cruise between Amsterdam and Basel, from where I will return directly to Amsterdam by train, spending four nights there and using my rail pass to travel to the Hague and my favourite art gallery, the Mauritshuis, and to the many splendid old towns and cities… Read Complete Text

The other day Nicole emailed an itinerary with the latest round of Qantas Link deals from Brisbane to Longreach. The prices have reverted to pre-covid levels. Having run dates in late March past Simon & Nicole and being given the go-ahead, I today booked my flights, which cost over $200 less than the last two tickets.

Decades after being smitten by a photo of Ayer’s Rock (now named Uluru), I first glimpsed it as we landed at Connellan Airport after flying from Brisbane on October 10. Alas, cloud hid the red centre, which I longed to see. I was travelling with Simon and Nicole. Such family time is all the more precious at my age. Ayer’s Rock Resort is built below the height of the sand dunes, which, with sand plains harbouring salt pans, and the three immense rock outcrops of Uluru, Kata Tjuta and Mount Conner, define this part of Australia. An excellent guide book I bought at Ayer’s Rock Resort cited a dune height of 13 metres, whereas our helicopter pilot quoted 16 metres.  Although the terrain is semi-arid, vegetation abounds – mainly mulga and desert oak trees and spinifex grass, with mallee and river red gum trees and various other shrubs and flowering plants – giving the land a pleasingly verdant appearance. Mulga trees and bushes are noted for their ability to collect water, whereas the rolled leaf of spinifex grass reduces the amount of water lost to the atmosphere. Spinifex is not nutritious for stock but it provides a good habitat… Read Complete Text

Today I paid for my flights to Uluru, where I will stay for three nights in mid-October. I will be joining Simon and Nicole who fly in the day before, whereas I will overnight in Sydney. Ever since I saw photos of Ayer’s Rock in the 1950s, I yearned to see it up close. Other places, seen as a photo or a tv clip decades ago, have had a comparable impact. It has been my great good fortune to visit a majority of them since I moved to Australia over thirty four years ago. It’s just that they are all overseas. My travel in Australia has been limited, largely confined to coastal Queensland as far north as the Daintree, and to Longreach and Tasmania’s Tamar Valley.

This afternoon I got back from my annual visit to Simon, Nicole and their blue cattle dog Pepper. The timing of the return flight was ideal, as it enabled me to buy essential food items, including vegetables for tonight’s supper. I always love being in Longreach and staying with Simon and Nicole in their spacious, comfortable home. They are busy at work and continue to flourish. They have already had their first covid jab. Pepper, who has the silkiest coat, licked me to death whenever I allowed her to. Because of Longreach’s remoteness, all eligible adults who wanted the vaccine were given it. 

Whether seen from the air or the ground, the country looks green, but much of the tall vegetation is weed and not grass. Still, there was unusually little roadkill on the road to Ilfracombe and from Ilfracombe to the 12 Mile Stone Pitching, a noteworthy hydrological construction which we visited.

The bird life in town during my stay was plentiful, with flocks of kites, little corellas and galahs filling the sky. Regulars at the feeder and bath in the backyard included sparrows, apostle birds, yellow-throated miners and peaceful, diamond and crested doves. Unlike last… Read Complete Text

For someone who enjoys travel as much as I do, it was especially good, during these covid times, to fly to Tasmania on February 9, after too long an interval. Suellen met me at Launceston airport, an hour’s journey from her home at Clarence Point, as the light was fading.  The house Craig and Suellen have bought is even more beautiful than their mountain eyrie. Its Japanese garden, planted by previous owners, is widely known in the locality. It was overgrown and unkempt, when they moved in. Craig has spent months and a small fortune to resurrect its former glory and build a labyrinth of paths which must stretch for several hundred metres in all. They have been in Tasmania for just over a year and love living there.

The house is separated by a road and grassed area from the Tamar River, where it widens into promontories, that on the far bank concealing Bell Bay, Tasmania’s main commercial port, and the one on the near bank shielding Beauty Point from view. Beyond the river are ranges of hills and far-off mountains. The field behind the house was animated by sheep and the occasional rabbit. Flocks of masked… Read Complete Text

Jetstar sent me an email alert about changes to my flights to Launceston. Fearing the worst, I saw the travel agent who confirmed that the flight times had changed, but not the dates. Since I booked my flights, Brisbane underwent a 3 day lockdown because there was a covid transmission in the community by a cleaner who worked in a quarantine hotel. A consequence of this was that travellers to Tasmania from Brisbane were forced into hotel quarantine on arrival. PS The restriction was lifted on 22.1.21 because 14 days had passed without further community transmission.