Travel

We flew into LA a few weeks ago and my first thought was tipping the staff. This is a costly consideration considering the exchange rate and the 20 per cent of the bill expected.

"Travelling – it leaves you speechless, then turns you into a  storyteller." - Ibn Battuta  This is very true of our recent trip to America and Central  America. There were many moments where we were  speechless but we now have many tales to tell...

It is day 13 of a 17-day cruise aboard the Norwegian  Jewel, a cruise liner on the Pacific side of Central America with around 2000 guests and 1000 crew, a cruise by most standards considered long.  

We picked up the ship in Los Angeles on November 7 for a 17-night voyage,  down the west coast of south America through the Panama Canal and eventually onto Florida - where there is a bit of concern about a hurricane visiting the port at the same time we dock.

I am sitting in an information centre in Puerto Rico - trying to finish The Local - after finding the promised  high speed internet on our cruise is not so high speed.  

In a move that's pleased plenty of keen mountain bikers, the Hepburn Shire Council has opened 32 kilometres of Creswick's new mountain bike trails network (Djuwang Baring) - five months ahead of schedule.

After 30 years Kyle Barnes and Donna Kelly returned to Hamilton Island, the place where they met while working on this tropical paradise.

Japan must be one of the most popular destinations for Australians, if the newspaper and magazine advertising is anything to go by. And for good reason.

Konnichi wa. Finally heading back to Japan after quite a few years away. Well, not until April but time does fly.

The inaugural Pacific Airshow Gold Coast was a sensory overload. The show sported aerobatic aircraft from the mid-sized two airplanes in one, a super loud Yak110 and the huge C-130 Hercules through to my favourite the air ripping F/A-18 Super Hornet’s handling display.

If you're planning to go bush this summer season, then filling out a trip intentions form could save your life, Victoria Police say.

TRENTHAM artist and PR legend Peter Young passed away last Thursday, July 14, after a short illness. His own Twitter handle describes him as: "Former Cricket Aust head of public affairs-turned-slow-left-arm painter. Of canvases, not houses."

I GUESS, being the travel edition and all, I should talk about the joys of hitting the road, but it's not all beer and skittles. Whatever that means.

ON THE road again. This is the first long road trip in years, weighing in at a whopping 4000 kilometre drive with an average 400km under the tyres per day, and things have changed in the 27 years since we last made the trip.

In keeping with this edition's theme of travel, here's my take on Singapore’s breathtakingly spectacular Gardens by the Bay, a 101-hectare botanical, national icon.

IT’S no secret that Aussies love a resort holiday. Thousands of us flock to tropical destinations like Fiji and Bali for family-friendly, cheap and cheerful holidays. Well, before Covid anyway. But as life and international borders start looking like pre-Covid days we start dreaming and planning our escapes.

IT MAY be a long way to Tipperary but it’s also a long way from Glenlyon to Cairns. About 4000km. You can apparently do it in four days if you really push yourself but what’s the fun in that. Road trips are about taking it easy, taking in the scenery and chatting to locals. Connecting, breathing, dropping back to a slower pace.

ORIGINALLY known as Hopwood’s Ferry, Echuca was founded by one of the most enterprising characters of the early colonial days, an ex-convict named Henry Hopwood. In 1850 he bought a small punt to transport people and goods across the mighty Murray. Hopwood died in 1869 leaving a thriving town where nothing had existed 16 years earlier, when he built his first slab wood inn.

AUGUST in the Wombat State Forest means you’ve probably been burning wood in the stove 24/7 for at least three months and are suffering from a lack of sunlight.

MY wife Sally, aka “my gal Sal” has often reminisced sentimentally about happy childhood holidays on the Murray and at Eildon in her family’s tiny plywood teardrop caravan.

IT'S been a long two and a half years. And while we are still in a pandemic most of us are vaccinated, know when to pop on a mask and distance, and are ready to either go full speed ahead into the the world, or just take some baby steps.