Global Travel Writers: Articles

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.

Crocodiles can raise welts

Tue, 18 Aug 2009 17:56:00 -0400

I was just a little unnerved at being nipped on the hand by a baby crocodile - one that I'd previously even patted. I thought it liked me! But such minor suffering is as nothing compared to the pain willingly undergone by those undergoing crocodile tattooing in the villages along the Sepik River in Papua New Guinea. The skin is scarified and the wound filled with mud, so that when healed the tattoo stands above the skin like a rampant crocodile. The tattoo subjects fortunately don't take on the demeanour of their crocs, like all their countrymen remaining polite and hospitable in the extreme.

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.

Inhaling the Huon

Thu, 18 Dec 2008 00:21:00 -0500

The students who make up the small group studying for a Diploma in Wooden Boat Building in Tasmania are contributing to the heritage of Tasmanian boat building. Spending between 12 and 18 months in the workshop, working with 1200 year old Huon Pine sourced from the West Coast, these students live and breath Huon Pine. Many of the vessels built by local craftsmen and student regularly cruise the Huon River and D'Entrecasteaux Channel today.

This article explores the traditional craft of wooden boat building in Tasmania and leads into a destination piece on the Huon Trail region in southern Tasmania.

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

http://www.pbase.com/fionaharper

Bridges across the Arafura Sea

Wed, 10 Dec 2008 17:34:00 -0500

Bridges across the Arafura Sea: For thousands of years, the Yolngu people of Arnhem Land traded with Makassan seafarers from Indonesia. Now, musicians at the annual Darwin Festival are rebuilding these cultural bridges. The group Tanah Merege is a groundbreaking collaboration between the Arnhem Land band Yilila and villagers from Watublapi on the Indonesian island of Flores. Yilila�s band manager Tony Gray and songwriter/lead singer Grant Nundhirribala on a recent visit to Flores found that Watublapi was used by the Macassans as a staging post on their trips to Australia. �There is still a lot more to learn in terms of shared language and culture�, says Gray. Also at the Darwin Festival, Arnhem Land singer Gurrumul Yunupingu performed on-stage with Ego Lemos of East Timor. Yunupingu, described in the Sydney Morning Herald as having �the greatest voice this continent (Australia) has ever recorded�, will be performing at Carnegie Hall in New York on January 22, 2009. See image preview: http://www.photographersdirect.com/simmons/search.asp?lb=9343

The Bird Men of Singapore

Sun, 04 May 2008 22:33:00 -0400

Joe had twenty birds once. Little silver-eyes. You know the sort. The ones we chase away from our fruit trees, but in Singapore they�re called Malaysian honey-birds and are highly prized because of their beautiful singing voices.
Now he has only three, Joe tells me, saddening as he does, so I try to match his mood. We�re standing, talking, underneath a hundred or so noisy, twittering, chirping birds, their bamboo cages hooked-up almost touching each other in the shade of a massive tree. Just metres away Singapore's early Sunday morning traffic thunders past in the still-cool sunlight.
To get the idea of what�s going on, you have to watch the men arriving, cages cloaked lest the timid small birds die of fright on the journey � no wonder, some come on the back of a motorbike � and see them gently elevated to position on a hook under the pergola; watch how tenderly these Chinese men, some of them positively ancient, fuss and croon over them.

(finishes . .) To get here just locate your nearest MRT station. This is the superfast, super-clean, super-safe train system that links all of Singapore. Head for Tiong Bahru. A short suburban walk from the station brings you to the corner of Tiong Bahru Road and Seng Poh Road, and there you'll see it, an unassuming row of shop-houses with a corner cafe. Wander in, nod to the locals, buy a coffee, sit down, and let birdsong begin your day. It will be one of the sweetest memories of Singapore you will take with you.
You can admire the birds too, of course. But don't touch them. They're busy.
�Sally Hammond 2007

Melbourne - from the Bizarre to the Surreal

Mon, 11 Feb 2008 23:18:00 -0500

Melbourne�s mind-bending urban sculptures and street art sometimes leave you wondering whether it�s you or the city that is going crazy. �Melbourne's City of Yarra has the densest concentration of galleries and public art collectives of any place on earth," says Phil Hall, artistic director and curator of the Contempora sculpture and public art festival. "Whereas cities such as London have a zero-tolerance to public art, here in Melbourne it is actively encoraged." See image preview: http://www.photographersdirect.com/simmons/search.asp?lb=7751

Geordie Land Re-invents itself

Tue, 29 Jan 2008 18:04:00 -0500

One of the oldest regions in the world has been slowly re-inventing itself to become one of the current �hottest� places to visit. Not only has northeast England won a spot on Lonely Planet�s �must visit� Blue List for 2008, but its capital, Newcastle, has for the fourth consecutive year been nominated as the country�s favourite city-break destination in The Guardian and Observer Travel Awards. This once-grimy city has cast off its stereotype image of wall-to-wall Geordie punch-ups and has become cool, chic and sophisticated.

Images are courtesy of One Northeast

Don�t worry, be happy in Havana, Cuba

Fri, 04 Jan 2008 01:15:00 -0500

The country that gave us the best cigars, top-shelf rum and rhythmic salsa music is located ideally in the middle of the Caribbean. Yet for the past 50 years it�s been considered a no-go zone � certainly for Americans - and hence is one of the most difficult countries to visit. With ex-President Fidel Castro's health failing and President Raul Castro now turned 78, there is a sense of urgency that now is the time to visit -- and soon!