Global Travel Writers: Articles

Dingo: Have passport, can travel

Mon, 28 Dec 2009 17:55:00 -0500

Flopping into the gin clear water of Lake Mackenzie, the cool fresh water eased the swelling in my overheated feet. Midway through a 25km walk on Fraser Island, I wondered if we had underestimated the challenge of this trek, as we�re now weary, hot, hungry and somewhat reluctant to carry on. We lolled in the turquoise shallows beneath a cloudless blue sky. Watching a dingo trot casually out of the forest and onto the sand I was relieved that we had hung our backpacks containing lunch in a tree before we collapsed into the water.

Fraser Island has one of eastern Australia�s purest populations of wild dingoes, which, with the influx of tourists, are losing their natural fear of humans. Scavenging for food scraps has become increasingly troublesome behaviour for these cunning carnivores. Nearby, others had also noticed the dingo, amused as it idly sniffed through piles of belongings on the beach. Abruptly the dingo snatched a string bag in its teeth, bounded up the beach and disappeared into the bush with it.

�Hey that�s my bag,� one of the girls further out in the lake cried out in a German accent, while others in the group laughingly captured the dingo�s fleeing rear end on their cameras. �It�s got my passport in it!� she shrieked, as she bolted up the beach, waving her arms in pursuit of the fleet footed dingo.

Retreating to the comfort of Kingfisher Bay Lodge many hours later, my feet resemble bleeding stumps inside my inadequate shoes. Though these wounds will heal in time, I can�t help thinking of the troubles in store for a German tourist trying to explain to disbelieving authorities that a dingo stole her passport. Sounds suspiciously like the old �dog ate my homework� line. Guileful as they are, I wouldn�t be surprised at all if I saw one crafty dingo at the airport trying to board a plane to Berlin.

Looking for a humourous piece with a little tongue in cheek? Commission this piece by Fiona Harper which can run to around 600 - 800 words. Images are available. www.pbase.com/fionaharper/fraserisland

Echoes of elegance

Sun, 15 Nov 2009 23:03:00 -0500

Opened briefly during August 2009 to for the annual yachting delirium that is Audi Hamilton Race Week, the Hamilton Island Yacht Club opens its stylish, hand crafted doors to members and guests on 25 November. Cleverly designed and inspired by azure Coral Sea colours, this is one seriously well appointed club, creating an element of sophistication rarely seen in the Whitsunday Islands.

Fiona Harper checks out the uber stylish Hamilton Island Yacht Club and Hamilton Island Golf Club

Contact Fiona Harper www.fionaharper.com.au to commission this article. Images are available www.pbase.com/fionaharper/hiyc

My island home

Thu, 24 Sep 2009 00:56:00 -0400

Christine Anu comes from the saltwater people and sings about her island home, growing up in a small beachfront community in the Torres Strait. But it�s not necessary for you to venture that far to escape the ever-increasing crowds at popular island destinations. Perhaps you�re looking for a simple little piece of paradise in a world becoming ever more technical and complicated? Perhaps you�d like to slow down and actually smell those roses? Or sniff the salty scent of the sea at dawn. To awake beneath a forest canopy and listen as the wildlife erupts into its own operatic chorus. Perhaps then you�re tempted to enjoy the carefree life of a castaway on an island?

Daniel Defoe wrote a fictional autobiography based on an English castaway named Robinson Crusoe, who spent 28 years on a remote tropical island. So, while you probably don�t have 28 years to spare, possibly you do have a week or so to meld into an island existence. Where days revolve around the setting of the sun and the rising of the tide. Where evenings are spent beneath the stars watching clouds skitter across the moon. Where shoes are discarded and the only footprints on the beach are likely to be your own.

Contact Fiona Harper if you'd like to commission this article. Images are available.

www.fionaharper.com.au

Racing around the Rock

Mon, 14 Sep 2009 01:36:00 -0400

With a balmy 10 to 15 knot tropical breeze wafting across Cleveland Bay, near Townsville in north Queensland, almost 50 yachts competed in the third Sunferries Magnetic Island Race Week in September.

Join avid sailor and island resident Fiona Harper for an exciting yachting regatta on Magnetic Island, affectionately known by locals as 'the rock'.

Contact Fiona Harper if you'd like to commission this article. Images are available.

Sails and Saxophones

Mon, 14 Sep 2009 00:41:00 -0400

Now in its 13th year the Great Tropical Jazz Party is three nights and two days of cool jazz beneath the palms on Magnetic Island in north Queensland. Held annually on the second weekend in September, highly acclaimed musicans clamour to be invited to attend this unique festival created by the late Max Brown.

Held poolside amidst the tropical gardens of the All Seasons Resort Magnetic Island, the intimate venue creates an easy going ambience that brings out the best in the musicians, all of whom perform for no fee. With the jazz party following on closely from Sunferries Magnetic Island Race Week, September is a lively time on this usually laid back island of 3000 residents, just off the coast from Townsville.

Contact Fiona Harper if you'd like to commission this article. Images are available.

Making a difference

Mon, 04 May 2009 07:09:00 -0400

The town of Cunnamulla, in SW Queensland (outback Australia) is one of the most disadvantaged communities in the country. But the efforts of one remarkable teacher - Neil Spencer, who has been art teacher at Cunnamulla State School for the last 17 years - have led his talented young students to produce some quite extraordinary artworks. Spencer manages to get equally good results from both his Aboriginal and other pupils, and as a result he has succeeded as few others have in bringing the different communities of Cunnamulla together.

Outback nature-feast

Tue, 10 Mar 2009 00:05:00 -0400

Pelicans, galahs, corellas, black ducks, Major Mitchell cockatoos, topknot pigeons and a dozen other species of birds circle around the grass-rimmed dam. Brolgas step lightly through the tree-rich scrub. Beal Bluff, some seven kilometres long, is a riotously striated series of red-shale rock folds studded with caves, secret passages and sheer cliffs that drop steeply down to the plains below � in short, an explorer�s and rock-climber�s paradise. The scene is Aldville Station, between Quilpie and Cunnamulla in southwest Queensland. Visitors to this part of the Australian outback are invariably stunned by the richness and abundance of nature-treasures to be found here. See image preview: http://www.photographersdirect.com/simmons/search.asp?lb=10204

The Charm of Chartering

Sat, 10 Jan 2009 23:05:00 -0500

The noise was deafening. The roar of blood pumping through my head as we charged forward, hell bent on hitting the start line milliseconds after the gun went. The commands of the helmsman as he bawled his constantly changing manoeuvres. The subtly controlled hysteria of the tacticians tongue dominating the mayhem as he called the countdown. The aluminium hull bashing and crashing through the pre-start chop, the whir of winches grinding, Kevlar crackling and sheets slapping as we jockeyed for position. A cacophony of pandemonium, multiplied a hundred times over, as each yacht manically converged, seemingly, on the same point.

It was my first Hamilton Island Race Week in 1994 and it was exhilarating mayhem. Bobsled, a Kell Steinman pocket maxi, had been chartered by a group of keen yachtsmen intent on getting around the course as fast as possible. Having just conservatively sailed this downwind flyer gently through many thousands of miles on the return of the Brisbane � Osaka race, it was a shock to see my temporary home (affectionately known by the delivery crew as the Bobsled Hilton after four months at sea through the western Pacific) sailed so aggressively. Not that she wasn�t up to it: Bobsled had recently slashed the 308nm Brisbane � Gladstone race in just under 22 hours, averaging 14 knots. Race Week was just another opportunity to let her loose amongst a fleet of like-minded speed freaks who had chartered Bobsled for the week. But she was only one of many yachts on charter for that week.

Contact Fiona Harper to commission this article or others on a similar theme. Images are available from this yachting enthusiast.

Sand Through the Fraser Island Hourglass

Sat, 10 Jan 2009 21:35:00 -0500

Like sand through the hourglass, these are the days of our long-suffering feet. Eschewing the need for a 4WD to explore Fraser Island, Fiona Harper decides to explore by foot instead, walking the sand trails that crisscross the worlds largest sand island.

Traversing over 100km of walking trails that pass through forests, along beaches and through the lakes district, the Fraser Island Great Walk can be undertaken in short day walks or on an extended overnight trek.

Contact Fiona Harper if you'd like to commission this article. Images are available.

Scenic Rim serenity

Thu, 01 Jan 2009 22:56:00 -0500

Grazing cattle need pampering and lush pastures to produce their best. People, too, respond well to such bucolic calm; all the more so, in today�s tough times. Two premium properties in the sub-tropical hill country of southeastern Queensland�s Scenic Rim produce premium-grade beef and dairy milk, whilst hosting sublime retreats for Homo sapiens. City-dwellers can recharge their batteries � and graze on nature�s finest � within a scant hour or two of metropolitan Brisbane.

In the rugged, lushly fertile region where the Great Dividing Range meets the Darling Downs in southeastern Queensland, Hidden Vale and Spicers Peak are two associated - but quite different � boutique resorts, each based on a working cattle property. Gourmet cuisine is a feature of each property.

The history of Old Hidden Vale Station extends back to the early nineteenth century, and the property continues to produce high-grade Wagyu beef for the Japanese market. Reached by a steep, winding road, Spicers Peak is a private mountaintop lodge, surrounded on all sides by forested slopes and cloud-brushed peaks. More images