Journey Jottings

Spotted this poster on the Community Board down at the ferry terminal

Free Positive Thoughts

“The voyage of discovery is not in seeking new landscapes but in having new eyes”

Marcel Proust

Having recently written a blog post about travelling on home turf its a quote that I love!

Took the tinny over to Stradbroke Island over the weekend

Stradbroke Island

…for a walk along the beach

Walk along beach on Stradbroke Island

And saw this in a tree

Osprey in Tree

Here are some close ups

Osprey

Osprey

Osprey

I’ve seen Osprey flying overhead often enough but not being very good at panning the camera to keep up with them have never actually managed to catch one on film before!

Osprey stretching

Such a thrill

Just over a week ago I posted on our Facebook page the following:

“What was your favourite journey?”

We had such a fabulously diverse range of what makes a journey a ’favourite’ I just have to share them all with you here!

So… in the order posted…

…I put the first half up on this blog on Tuesday 13th July, here is the second half!

Paris ~ The City of Love

Photo: skgz

Katey Shaw

Oh… this is a fantastic idea! My amazing journey (whilst I have been overseas) would have to have been to Fraser Island. There are no roads, definitely must have a 4wd. The beauty of it, is it’s simplicity of life. There was very little if any internet or mobile reception, you can catch fish straight off the beach, and hang out with Dingos. It would have to be the most beautiful & peaceful place I have been!

Fraser Island

Photo: Imaxandco

Genevieve Frew
Was to the island of Santorini. As a solo backpacker I forged friendships that have survived 24 years. With these people, I sunbaked topless on the coarse black sand of Perissa beach; I sipped ouzo and lemonade in open air restaurants because I didn’t like beer; I ate thick banana yogurt whilst waiting for the bank to open in the afternoon;I rode pillion on the back of a moped to the ruins of Fira; and I swam in the gentle swell of the Aegean and told myself that this would be a journey I would always cherish.

Santorini

Photo: MarcelGermain

Emily Nicola Lynda Armitage
My travels round Australia with fellow Scouts from the UK. We went to the Australian Jamboree and I met a group of friends I will never forget. The Aussies we met were great and so welcoming. We fell in love with many things, like Creamy Soda, VB, Tooheys, Tim Tams, Smiths Chicken flavour CRISPS (not Chips )

Most of all I fell in love with the people I met, the gorgeous land and the city of Sydney. So much so, I’ll be back this year staying with the friends I made on my last trip and making more along the way.

Scout Jamboree

Photo: Steph Matthews

Manny Samaniego
In short, I traveled from NYC to Hong Kong near the end of 2002 simply to maintain frequent flyer status for 2003. After checking-in at my hotel (I needed to list one on my customs form, right?), I introduced myself to a group of English-speaking Asians in the lobby bar. I shared with them I was only in town for 14 hours… and had 11 remaining. After spending more time explaining why I would travel such a long way, they invited me to join them for a spontaneous, whirlwind tour of districts foreign to me.
I received VIP treatment with off-the-beaten path samplings of local food, culture, and entertainment. As the sun started to rise, my new friends needed sleep and I needed to catch my flight.
While we exchanged business cards and assurances we would stay in touch, we never did. But, I’ll always cherish the memories from that very brief visit where the locals embraced me as one of their own.

Hong Kong

Photo: Wenzday01

Charley Jones
So hard to choose but a 4 day horse ride into the mcleay gorge near armidale, inaccessible by vehicle it was a very steep ride down to the river. Supplies carried by pack horse, simple food, damper and steaks and lamingtons, sleeping in a swag under the stars with blue heelers for company. Washed in the river and saw lyre birds, frogs, brumbies and eagles.
The icing on the cake was when our guide having driven us all the way back to our b&b in Armidale and on discovery of my wallet at his home turned around again to bring it back to me. 4 hours of driving: classic Aussie hospitality

Horse Trekking, Macleay River NSW

Photo: Julie Miller

Jean Doorn

Aswan. Late in the afternoon on April 3th, 1987. Old Cataract Hotel on the back. Sitting on a big red rock. Fresh wind. Sun going down. The feeling of a rock radiating it’s warmth. Felluca’s sailing by. Noises. Sitting in the black and fertile world.

Looking at the other side of the river Nile, the red world of the death. Thinking about Lord Carnavon and Howard Carter. Puzzling on what’s the same and different in ancient and modern day Egypt. Wondering on Tutankaten and Tutankamun, 2 radical and different religious names for the same physical man. Felluca’s sailing by. Riverbed with water floating. The same riverbed. For ancient egyptians. For present day egyptians.
Suddenly, everything was quiet and one. The world with all it’s sounds and motions came to a standstill. For a few seconds I felt “…”, One with the universe and humanity. For a few seconds – that seemed to last forever – everything was perfect.

THAT!

Aswan

Photo: JeanD99

Melissa Stanford
At the top of Mount Tarrengower, Maldon, Victoria – no one but me and him and the ghosts of ancient deities. Can see the universe from there, hear the songs that sang that land into being. It’s from a view like that, that you know there’s a God.

Mount Tarrengower

Photo: mickramsey

Leanne Berry

My Fav Journey was our honeymoon 5 years ago – after an official wedding ceremony here in Aus which was beautiful we took off for the south coast of England to a little village called Martinstown outside of Dorchester in Devon – the whole village had been roped into the unofficial UK wedding held in a guide tent in the backyard of Ians parents next door neighbours – the theme was quite definitely Australian, lamb on spit, gum leaves and many of the villagers and Ians family and friends made this a fantastic day – we then had 5 weeks touring culminating in a visit to the new Arsenal Stadium (only open 3 weeks) to see Arsenal play Sheffield United and they won – a lifelong dream of Ians

Arsenal Stadium

Photo: Kieran Lynam

Frank Wall

The Overland Track in Tasmania – beautiful varied scenery, world heritage wilderness, excellent walking conditions, inspiring vistas, you meet great people, It can be challenging, beautiful, snowing, sunny, raining and delightful, all in 60 minutes! Highly recommend it for a great adventure trip.(biased of course, we wrote a book about it!)

Overland Track, Tasmania

Photo: frank_in_oz

And the ‘favourite journey’ that received the most votes was…

MY JOYFUL JOURNEY by Robin Dickinson

I’ve just come from a journey to Fiji where the national pastime must be smiling. Fijians are one happy bunch of people – the young, the old,
the workers, the students – everybody. Everywhere we went we experienced smiling souls. They smile the real smile – you know – the one with the eyes that look deeply and appreciatively into your heart.
Their joy is so contagious. What a lesson!

Their villages are simple compared to our ‘sophisticated’ cities. People live on less and seem not to stockpile useless possessions. They project a real interest in joyful living and sharing what they have. They dance with you, sing to you, wave to you and smile at you. It’s the happiest journeys I’ve ever made.

Joy-full Fijians

Photo: Cak-Cak

Thank you to everyone who took the time to share with us their favourite journeys ~

Fiji

Photo: Montanafish

And Robin for leaving us with such a joyful journey

Subscribe to these posts direct into your Inbox (enter email top right) or RSS ~

Just over a week ago I posted on our Facebook page the following:

“What was your favourite journey?”

We had such a fabulously diverse range of what makes a journey a ‘favourite’ I just have to share them all with you here!

So… in the order posted…

…half today, and the other half on Friday

Yvonne Adele

My first trip to New York, where I came back with a life-long souvenir – a NY yankees tattoo! The day after I got it, I sat at Yankee Stadium – forward in my seat because it was hurting my back – with my giant pretzel and giant foam hand. The regular baseball fans I was sitting next to thought I was mad. On the same trip, I went roller skating at The Roxy.

Yankee Stadium

Photo: LawrenceFung

Journey Jottings

My first trip to the Pilbara, walking through Karajini’s rugged red gorges, where the lower sections are worn smooth from water pounding down during the Wet; swimming in icey pools at the base of these chasms where the sun’s rays can only fleetingly touch each day. Then onto the Great Sandy Desert… sleeping out under the stars listening to the wind whistle through the spinifex grass ~ Magic

Karajini ~ Pilbara

Photo: NeilsPhotography

Catherine White

…finding myself in an establishment that offered more than ‘massages’ in Midtown New York (eeeek!   hehe!)

Massage?

Photo: schatz

Debbie Ellis

Spending a week on the sleepy little island of Procida, in the Bay of Naples, Italy. I was captivated by the rustic charm of the island; the fishing village with its faded pastel coloured houses clinging precariously to the cliffs, the rocky jagged coastline & the scent of lemons from the citrus groves. Exploring the labyrinth of narrow winding walled streets and colourful local piazzas, authentic & unpretenious, and a welcome respite from the chaos of Naples !

Procida

Photo: J.Salmoral

Kirsty Wilson

The climb up Mt Sinai at 3.00am to witness an inspirational sunrise. Together with a small group of backpackers who spent the night at St Catherine’s Monastery, we all set out without a guide and by torch light. We negotiated our way along what we ‘hoped’ were tracks until we could see more torch lights near the base. These torch lights were the local Bedouins selling trinkets. We made it to the summit in time to witness the most spectacular sunrise over the pink, smooth, bubble-like mountains of Sinai. It was one of the most moving and memorable moments I’ve experienced.

Mt Sinai Sunrise

Photo: bluelizardworld

Rita Maria

Travelling from Adelaide via the Flinders Ranges and along the Oodnadatta Track to Australia’s red centre to see Uluru for the first time.
We left Adelaide on 12th September 2001, still in shock about the terrible attacks which happened in the US the night before. Once we reached Marree, the tiny town at the start of the Oodnadatta Track, we felt we reached a different world. The vast and lonely desert around this little town was stunning, the craziness of the world outside dwindled. Since the horror of 9/11 a few days ago, we felt completely at ease.
Later on that trip, the magic of Uluru was captivating and spirtual, however, Marree will always be a special place for us.

Oodnadatta Track

Photo: splaTT

Susan Stubbs
My fav journey was from Brisbane to Phillip Island for the MotoGP in 2006 my first big ride on my own Motorcycle. 16 days away touring NSW and VIC, Jap Peace Gardens Cowra, Cricketers Walk Cootamundra, Great Ocean Road, Salt Lakes (Lake Corangamite) Phillip Isle Trackside, Hawkesbury River, and Nabiac Motorcycle Museum on the way home approx 5,500kms. A great expereince to see this vast land of ours

Trackside Philip Island

Photo: teliko82

Debbie Yeomans
It hasn’t happened yet but it will this Saturday when I drive to the airport to collect 3 of my boys. They have been visiting their father interstate and I have missed them so much. It will be a short trip but a very happy one

Reuniting

Photo: Jasmic

Robin Dickinson

I’ve just come from a journey to Fiji where the national pastime must be smiling. Fijians are one happy bunch of people – the young, the old, the workers, the students – everybody. Everywhere we went we experienced smiling souls. They smile the real smile – you know – the one with the eyes that look deeply and appreciatively into your heart.
Their joy is so contagious. What a lesson!

Their villages are simple compared to our ‘sophisticated’ cities. People live on less and seem not to stockpile useless possessions. They project a real interest in joyful living and sharing what they have. They dance with you, sing to you, wave to you and smile at you. It’s the happiest journeys I’ve ever made.

Joy-full Fijians

Photo: Cak-Cak

Shandel D Burns

I just came back from the UK and Italy. They were both great and what stood out was how lovely the people were in both areas.

England

Photo: Catchesthelight

More on Friday when I announce the winner!

Winner will be the ‘Favourite Journey’ voted with the most ‘Likes’ on our Facebook Page ~

To be in the competition just add your favourite journey to our page

Subscribe to these posts direct into your Inbox or RSS ~

It’s always exciting to get invitations to art gallery exhibition openings and this week I got one for an exhibition of lino-prints by Anna Curtis at ‘Framed ~ The Darwin Gallery’ that runs from the 9th July to the end of the month.

If you are lucky enough to be in Darwin (enjoying the beautiful dry season weather) I can highly recommend dropping into the Gallery to view this new body of work, which is described as ‘a feast of images that will lift your spirit and feed your soul’

Can’t wait for the new images of this exhibition to be put up on Anna’s  website, which will no doubt happen after she has had time to come up to breath… i.e. after opening night!

In the mean time, here is the link to a blog post I wrote last year about Anna that shows a few images of her work ~

And here are a couple more!

Which for now will have to suffice!

The simplest of things are so often the most enjoyable ~

Last weekend,we had the pleasure of watching the moon rise up behind Stradbroke Island during our evening walk…

And the following morning, woke up to this simply beautiful sunrise

What a weekend

Have a good one!

A few days ago I spotted this out of the window…

What? You may ask!

A Masked Lapwing (also known as a Masked Plover or the  Spur Winged Plover ~ Vanellus miles)

So I took a closer look (when the bird had gone for a walk)  and look what she was sitting on

Then on mid-winter’s day…

The parents are very defensive of their young and are known to swoop to scare intruders away, or feign a broken wing to detract attention away from their chicks

But the instinct of the young upon hearing the danger call from their parent is to duck and freeze ~ Can you see anything by the stick on the left above?

Barely visible even this close up

A camouflaged baby chick ducking out of harm’s way!

With the coming of the  school holidays here in Australia and their associated car trips with children, to help alleviate the ‘Are we there yet?‘s, I’ve created an Eye Spy game with the aid of either of our maps ~ the Map Journal, which is A2 size, or a little Mail-It Map that is A3 size.

1.  See how many animals you can spot on a Journey Jottings Map ~

(Clue: There are 27 different creatures illustrated)

Journey Jottings Map of Australia

2. When, after a period of time, only ”some’ have been found and the need for a few pointers are required ~

Click this link:  How many animals can you find LIST

and print out ready to provide either a list that can be called out one by one, or if the child can read to mark off the animals as they are found.

Some are fairly easy such as this kangaroo…

Kangaroo

3. When it gets to the point of needing a few visual clues, have the pages in this

Click link: Find the Animals

ready printed out, which offers pictures of what to look for

Such as this koala…

Koala

Some are a little more tricky to spot than others, such as this crocodile

Crocodile

Now, where could he be lurking?

There is one ‘sneaky’ animal, and that is the platypus, who is only visible by the ripples he’s making on the water’s surface, which is accurate in that that is usually all you do see of them!

Platypus

Is he too shy to show himself?

Looking for other car game ideas?

This time last year I posted the Post Office Passport game ~ For this, children have to Eye-Spy the red Australia Post Office  ”P” symbol, which then requires a pit stop so as to get your Map Journal or Mail-It Map rubber stamped with the individual postmark for that location ~

And here is a link to ’10 fun family games for travel time’

Happy travels

I had to go into Brisbane last week ~

Old & New in Brisbane, Queensland

And with business done, I couldn’t resist popping into the Queensland Art Gallery for a quick look!

Queensland Art Gallery

It always fascinates me how they are able to have such a beautiful big water feature in amongst the delicate art works! For the longevity of the exhibits the building is constantly monitored for atmospheric changes to ensure the works are never too hot nor too humid; so how, I wonder, do they keep humidity in check with all that water in the building?

I liked the juxtaposition of this display composition

Mixed Cultures

All the craft-works in this group had been made in Queensland from local timber materials about the turn of the nineteenth/twentieth centuries ~

The shields and the woven basket made by the indigenous population, and the tilt top table made by a migrant Joseph Soblusky.

Queensland timbers, European design

Such beautiful designs and patterns from two cultural perspectives ~

I’m always taken by Margaret Preston’s work ~ I particularly love her renditions of native Australian flora, so this image of Sturt Desert Peas caught my eye.

Margaret Preston

However, the obvious indigenous influences in this work, painted in 1943, has in more recent times attracted criticism of her applying cultural designs without understanding their meanings.

QR Bench

Back out of the gallery and on my way home, I thought this was a nice little detail on the South Brisbane railway station ~ The platform benches with a QR (Queensland Rail) insignia.

Journey Jottings:

Where/When/How ~ What did I See, Hear, Smell, Touch, Taste?

• Queensland Art Gallery, June 2010, quick side-visit

• native timbers organically patterned with ochres / hewn structure
• echoes of soft voices
• water
• all encompassing space
• cultural exchanges

Its funny how we clamber to travel and explore other parts of the globe, whilst travellers from other parts of the globe clamber to travel and experience our home turf! Places, that to us are merely where we go about our everyday business are to them a far off distant land worthy of exploring; areas that we think of as ‘boring back waters’ to them arouse wide-eyed interest and fascination.

So, what wonders are we missing by walking around with our eyes closed?

We obviously need to maintain the visitor’s vigilant eye of observation so details that fall on either side of our rushed daily paths don’t go unnoticed ~ I had to do some ‘travelling’ this week, having a business appointment in Brisbane on Monday, and then on Wednesday a meeting down the coast in Surfers Paradise ~

Ferry from the Moreton Bay Islands to Redland Bay

I took the ferry to the mainland, and a train into Central where I walked down Creek Street passing Koala House, which had a huge sculpture of a Koala atop it that to be honest, I’d never noticed before!

Koala House, Brisbane

At the bottom is Eagle Street where, on one of the top floors of this skyscraper, I had my first appointment for the week.

Eagle Street, Brisbane

The view from the top was of course great, looking down onto the Brisbane River…

Eagle Street Pier, Brisbane

…across to Kangaroo Point

Brisbane River

…and the Story Bridge

Story Bridge

A few days later I cruised by car down the coast on a short trip to Surfers Paradise calling in at the Coast Map Shop (to replenish our map stocks) and then onto meet up with Kirsty Wilson who produces the TravelTipsPlus website.

We met at the Marina Mirage, one of the few places on the east coast you can watch the sunset over water!

Marina Mirage, Surfers Paradise

Many people travel to new places to experience change, so I find artist Andy Goldsworthy’s comment an interesting thought ~

“I believe that change is best understood by staying in one place.”

I love ‘travelling’ on my home ground ~ It only becomes mundane and dull when you stop looking!