Global Travel Writers: Articles

Civilised Seisia

Fri, 14 Aug 2009 00:58:00 -0400

Having sailed along the coast of Arnhem Land, traversing the Gulf of Carpentaria and into one of the most remote towns on the Australian coast, I hungrily anticipated a return to civilisation. Dropping anchor near the town jetty at Seisia on the western tip of Cape York, I discovered that civilisation comes in many surprising guises. We had arrived in a �dry town�, which meant slaking one�s parched throat with a beer involved a rather long taxi ride to the closest restricted liquor outlet, far down the highway.

Though fortunately we had arrived on the one day of the week when it was possible to purchase a beer. Donning a pair of shorts and t-shirt, and retrieving my best thongs from the dinghy, we walked down the beach to the Fishing Club for Friday night barefoot dancing beneath the stars with the locals.

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

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

Cotswold Gold

Tue, 25 Nov 2008 18:27:00 -0500

Exquisitely manicured, the halcyon Cotswold villages of Painswick, Broadway, Bibury and Bourton-on-the-Water could easily be stage sets, admired by coachloads of visitors. Come roam instead the streets of more substantial towns like Burford, Chipping Campden and Stow-on-the-Wold and especially such understated gems as Winchcombe, Cirencester, Tetbury or Wotton-under-Edge, well-supplied with wool merchants� imposing churches and welcoming pubs, cosy stores and fine old market halls. More images.

All that glitters is probably gold in Kanazawa

Sun, 09 Nov 2008 00:24:00 -0500

by Graham Simmons

There�s an unusually large amount of gold in Kanazawa. From golden chariots to the world�s first gold-leaf plated house, the precious metal seems to be everywhere. It�s even used as a food garnish. Maybe this gold-fetish is due to the city�s having two rivers � one male and one female; and how can there be a marriage without gold? See image preview: http://www.photographersdirect.com/simmons/search.asp?lb=9563

Life IS art in Japan�s Hida district

Tue, 21 Oct 2008 05:45:00 -0400

by Graham Simmons

A trip from Japan�s manufacturing hub Nagoya northwest to the Hida district is not just a trip through some of the country�s most picturesque scenery. It�s also a trip back through time, to a somehow still-existing era when/where life proceeds at a slower and gentler pace.

In Hida no Sato village, 91 year-old Suezo Yamaguti demonstrates the ancient craft of shingle-making. He painstakingly shaves a hardwood slab using a hand-adze, using precise and steady strokes as befits a master craftsman. The 22^nd Century may have already arrived in Tokyo, but in this part of Japan, the old ways of doing things linger on.. See image preview: http://www.photographersdirect.com/simmons/search.asp?lb=9564

Harley Heaven

Sun, 22 Jun 2008 23:53:00 -0400

by Philip Game

At first glance the hell-raising Harley-Davidson ethos doesn�t quite fit with the family holiday ambience of the Mornington Peninsula. This, after all, is the sort of place where families set up shop at their favourite beach each summer, year after year. Along the inland roads, boutique wineries flourish like the grapes on the vines themselves. But those winding, scenic roads are ideal for wind-in-your-hair motorcycle touring, letting a local worry about take care of the driving and the navigating � especially with so many wines to be tasted along the way. You�ll need those saddlebags to carry home a few more bottles�

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Misty mountains gourmet

Mon, 07 Apr 2008 03:12:00 -0400

While almost every Australian has at least heard of the Great Ocean Road, just inland lies the heart of Victoria�s prosperous grazing and dairying country. Here, in the fertile volcanic plains, innovative locals, many of them dairy farmers, ex dairy farmers and children of dairy farmers, have turned their hand to producing some of Australia�s best fruit, meat and dairy products, including top quality cheeses, gourmet ice cream, chocolate, wine, boutique beer, luscious strawberries and smoked eel. In the process, the little known townships of Camperdown and Timboon are fast gaining a reputation for their gourmet fare.

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On Basque Time

Fri, 29 Feb 2008 00:44:00 -0500

We sample rare porc Basque ham, delicious local smoked trout and farmhouse cheese, visit a duck farm, sip regional wines, and browse around the old fortified village of St Jean Pied de Port on market day during a leisurely but comprehensive nine-day �slow food� tour that lifts the lid off the gourmet pie that is the wonderful Basque region of France.

We are in the hands of Australian-based couple Robbie and Patrick Arrieula, who have been leading food and walking tours of the area for the past 12 years. Patrick is a wealth of knowledge and knows the region well since he grew up in the area. His parents live in Abos where his father is deputy mayor. He makes twice-yearly forays back to home turf, to share his passion with like minded travellers.

Roads to Damascus

Thu, 28 Feb 2008 22:27:00 -0500

From Damascus all imaginations, if not necessarily all roads, lead eastward to the mammoth Crac des Chevaliers, the Castle of the Knights. Syria has only 183km of Mediterranean coastline and the only natural break in the mountain range that runs along it, from Beirut in Lebanon to Antakya in Turkey, is the strategic Homs Gap, where sits the imposing Crusader castle that so entranced a 20 year old T.E. Lawrence that he is reputed - acting out every schoolboy's dream of his day - to have climbed its outside wall barefooted. You don't have to take your shoes off to appreciate Syria - all that's needed is a willingness to be astonished at every turn.

Built from basalt and limestone in the 12th century to garrison thousands of troops, The Crac ders Chevaliers has thirteen towers, and inner and outer walls separated by a moat. Though not long in the possession of its builders (who eventually handed it to the Turks and went home), it was famed throughout the warring world as an impregnable edifice. From its ramparts now, on a quiet day between tour groups, when sole occupancy is a not unreasonable delusion, it seem as if the known world could lay futile siege for a year without dislodging a stone.

Secret Sands

Tue, 26 Feb 2008 05:36:00 -0500

It�s a balmy 27 degrees. The warm winter sun streams through the car window. As I step on the accelerator, I watch as a congested strip of retail chains and fast food outlets shrink from sight in the rear view mirror. Soon the busyness of Cairns makes way to a sea of vivid green cane fields, with the mist shrouded peaks of the Atherton Tableland as a backdrop. I�ve come in search of Queensland�s hidden beaches. Sure we�ve all heard of the famous Four Mile Beach in Port Douglas, Whitehaven Beach in the Whitsunday�s, Noosa�s Main Beach and lovely, tropical Mission Beach, but I wanted to see the secret jewels � the ones the locals don�t always tell you about.