It was next morning that I heard the bridge had washed away. I had hammered over it during the night – back in the 90s – a time when you could do a tad over the speed limit on country roads, with reasonable confidence nobody… Read more
Life’s Lessons on the road: hitch-hiking in West Germany
The key to hitching in West Germany, as one quickly learned, was the free booklet that you could pick up at any autobahn service station. Specifically, it was the center two pages. You could pull them out and ditch the rest. Those pages opened out… Read more
I Was Nominated For A Sunshine Blogger Award!
Thank you, ‘What A WanderFull World‘, for nominating me for a 2018 Sunshine Blogger Award! What A WanderFull World’ can be found at: https://thehoosierhistorian.wixsite.com/wanderfull What is the Sunshine Blogger Award? The Sunshine Blogger Award is awarded to bloggers who inspire sunshine in the lives of… Read more
That Bare-Foot Guy on the Overland Track, Tasmania
“Has any one seen the guy in bare feet and a track-suit? He’s mad” ++++++++++ Kate and I were reasonably experienced back-country walkers and we were expecting some bad weather on Tasmania’s Overland Track. We had carefully selected clothes, a tent, and sufficient food for… Read more
Where Mongolians fought to the last man
“Would you like to see a Museum?” We were in one of the most remote parts of Mongolia – and I wondered what my driver was talking about. Work Place Health and Safety in Mongolia really came down to you – ‘Don’t Do Stupid Stuff… Read more
Sarajevo- The Black Swan and the Trickster
At the same moment I realised I was in a mine field, two guys at a bar noticed the same thing. _________________________________________________________________________________________________ In Sarajevo, you can stand on the spot where, on June 28, 1914, Gavrilo Princip assassinated Archduke Franz Ferdinand and his wife. It’s… Read more
Gujurat, India: a lost dream, lucre and an hierloom
India, love it or hate it, so they say. Rajastan was getting me down. Its sights are amazing, but along those well-trodden tourist-routes, from the minute you head outside your room, til the time you head back at night – you are pestered. If it’s… Read more
An Ottoman Treasure in Develi, Turkey
Tourism – good thing or bad? I’ve written about Develi before –a town in central Turkey, where I was based, along with my geological colleagues. It’s a culturally conservative city, where women tend not to be on the streets. Not because they can’t, it’s just the… Read more
Travelling with Landscape-Awareness
Over ten years ago I taught visiting American classes at the University of Queensland. The itinerary of one lucky class was to be taken to a remote location for what was a pretty genuine ‘wilderness experience’. It was located on the ‘Youth Enterprise Trust’ property… Read more
The Prehistoric Songlines of Brittany, France
The French woman had parted the curtains, and was peering out into the stormy night. *** There are up-sides and down-sides to travelling in the European winter – there are, of course, less tourists, but to compensate for this, the locals tend to shut up… Read more