Tag: Travels

Pull Up A Seat

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During our travels we have found many interesting seats. They are often made into works of art which draw us in to photograph them. So recently I was excited to find a new weekly challenge to join others who enjoy similar things. Thanks to XingfuMama for hosting.

While wondering the streets of Port Lincoln we noticed this beautiful lounge display outside a church. Initially I didn’t notice all the details but as we got up close and sat down, I smiled. It was covered in mosaics and they were beautiful. The ottoman even had a game of scrabble on it. There was also an exquisite mosaic rug both on the back of the lounge and on the ground in front of it.

CFFC: The Big Galah

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To start 2023 with some excitement I am joining Cee’s Fun Foto Challenge. The challenges are divided into series which cover 5 weeks. This year starts with the series theme of Body Parts Human or What??And this weeks topic is – Eyes.

For me the answer was simple. The Big Galah. Australia has over 150 big things made specifically to attract tourists. The Big Galah is 8 metres high and is found outside a road house in Kimba. Kimba is half way between Sydney and Perth. In Australia galahs are found everywhere, often hanging out in groups. They are a type of cockatoo which is pink and grey.

I love the Big Galah. She is gorgeous. Her eyes call tourists and other travellers to stop their journey and visit. When I saw her I stood staring at her for a good 5 minutes from many angles. As I moved it felt like her eyes were following me. Thinking about her still brings a smile to my face.

CCMC: Abstract Head of Henry Moore

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We happened up this spectacular sculpture by accident. It can be found be the side of the road in the outback New South Wales town of Yeoval. Population under 300 people.

Yeoval was the childhood home of Banjo Patterson, a famous Australian poet. In an effort to attract more visitors to the town, the curator of the Banjo Patterson Museum went in search of a special piece of public artwork. In 2010, Robbie Waterhouse (Australian racing identity) donated the sculpture to the town.

The sculpture titled Abstract Head of Henry Moore was created by his protégé Drago Marin Cherina. Henry Moore was said to be the greatest sculpture of the 20th century. He created large scale abstract bronze sculptures that can be found all around the world. To honour his mentor Drago created a similar abstract sculpture of Henry’s head. This became as part of his art collection that he lost to Robbie after a failed business venture. It is reported that Drago thinks that Henry would have enjoyed his final home as he loved the country side.

The six tonne sculpture is one of the largest in Australia.

Thanks to Cee for this week’s inspiration of the letter H.

2022 A-Z Challenge: Recent Travels

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Wow I can’t believe it’s April tomorrow. Where has this year gone? For me, over a month was spent travelling around regional New South Wales and Victoria in Truby. (Our Iveco and Slide-on camper). It was our first trip and we had a great time exploring our country and learning about the grey nomad lifestyle. Despite being nearly 60 most of the places we explored I had never been to before. We found many interesting places, history stories, hidden surprises and the amazing natural beauty of Australia.

Initially our aim was to travel the Great Ocean Rd one of Australia’s and possibly one of the world’s most iconic roads. It was truly breathtaking. For our remaining two weeks we made it up as we went along and had a ball. We drove over 4500 kilometres.

Whilst travelling I decided the best way to share my experiences is by again joining the Blogging from A to Z April Challenge. This is a world wide blogging challenge that I first joined in 2015. It will be the fourth time that I have participated and each time I have grown as a blogger. The goal is to post every day in April except Sundays. Most people have a theme that connect their blog posts. This is only half of the challenge however. The other equally important part is to visit other blogs and connect through commenting. I love it and have meet some amazing people on my journey and am hoping to meet many more this year.

If you are interested in joining here is the link Blogging from A to Z April Challenge.

Who’d A-Thought It Lookout

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I loved the name of this lookout when we first drove past. How quirky I thought.

Who’d A-Thought It Lookout overlooks Quirindi. It is at the top of Ray Carter Drive, and offers 360 degree panoramic views of Quinindi, the Liverpool Plains and the Great Diving Range. The day we visited was clear and you could see for kilometres in each direction.

The surrounding area has some of Australia’s most fertile soil. Crops of the area include; sunflowers, canola, wheat, barley, sorghum, cotton, oats, flaba beans and corn. I love the vivid yellow of the canola just before harvest. You can see it in the top photo.

First Fleet Memorial Gardens

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The First Fleet Memorial Gardens are a long way from Botany Bay where they first landed. They are nearly 400 kilometres away in the small village of Wallabadah. But why? In true Australian honesty on the entry to the Gardens is a sign telling everyone that they were the only Council who would grant permission to build them.

The gardens are the brain child of Ray Collins, OAM. A stonemason who discovered he was a descendent of the First Fleet. His dream then became to build a permanent memorial to acknowledge all who first settled our beautiful county. The convicts, marines and their families alike.

The ships of the First Fleet were:

  • Sirius
  • Supply
  • Charlotte
  • Scarborough
  • Prince of Wales
  • Lady Penrhyn
  • Friendship
  • Alexander
  • Borrowdale
  • Fishburn
  • Golden Grove

To make it simple Ray has listed the members of the First Fleet in two ways. There is a large story board that lists all First Fleeters alphabetically as well as specific information about them. He has also created a winding path divided out separately for each ship. In this space was a list of everyone on the ship.

My husband and I both knew that there were people on the First Fleet with our names. We have no idea if we are related to them but were excited to find our names. We found the Scarborough had both of our names on it and I also had someone on the Charlotte. It turned out that most of the people with similar names were convicts although I think one of my husband’s namesakes was a lower ranking marine.

As luck would have it we actually met Ray Collins while staying at Quirindi. He is an interesting man happy to share his knowledge and experiences.

Ruby Tuesday # 1

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The past few months have seen my husband and I enter a new stage of our life. We bought a slide-on camper and began preparing to become grey nomads, a much more complicated task than I first realised. So many things to learn and yes we made a few rookie errors.

Over the last fortnight we took Ruby (the camper), on her maiden voyage, travelling around New South Wales. Yes, she is red. Actually she is the only red PUMA slide-on in Australia so there is no hiding. If you see us on the road stop by and have a chat.

On our first night free camping at a truck stop, we got chatting to the young lady behind the counter and she informed us that she had seen us earlier that day parked by the side of the road about 100 kilometres away. She said Ruby had made her smile as she had thought to herself how “cool” she looked.

Travelling in Australia during COVID is a weird experience, because of all by border closures. In New South Wales, we are trapped as you can’t cross the border to Queensland, Victoria or South Australia without a valid exemption, which are nearly impossible to get. Our limited travel options however, weren’t a problem to us. We just found small unusual towns to visit, now we are not limited to finding accommodation enroute.

To celebrate our new life style, I have decided to create a regular new blog feature – Ruby Tuesday – to share our adventures, interesting tidbits and learnings from our travels in Ruby. I hope you enjoy armchair travelling Australia with us.

The Ageless Paul McCartney

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Yesterday my life was changed forever. I attended Paul McCartney’s first Australian concert in Perth. Initially, I was unsure how much I would enjoy it. But hey I’m a good wife, so I’ll travel across Australia just so my husband can see his hero on his birthday.

Wow! What a great night it was and Paul even sang happy birthday to him and several others.

Titled One on One, Sir Paul’s plan was to engage with all 23,000 of us individually. Mission accomplished. For 3 hours he played and sang a well put together mix of 40 of his old, new and in between songs. He joked with us about how “he knows what we like” the old songs but he was playing his new songs and “he doesn’t care.”

His segways between songs with historical stories about them fascinated the crowd and gave us great insight into his early life. He was a master at seamlessly switching between instruments bass, guitar and piano as well as a special dedication to George Harrison on his ukulele. His other dedications were to John Lennon, George Martin, Jimi Hendrix as well as his first wife, Linda and current wife, Nancy.

Described by the media as Maccamania, everyone in the audience, young or old , felt touched by his performance. It really was like he was playing to you. The video and other special effects were like nothing I had ever seen at a concert before and for that matter I doubt I’ll ever experience again.

To make the night even more special he allowed a young man to propose to his girlfriend on stage at the end of the concert. The young couple had bonded on a Contiki tour 10 years ago because of their love for Beatles music. The ultimate in intimacy in a sell out crowd.

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Share Your World – 2016 Week 46

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Are you a traveler or a homebody? 

I love travelling. I find exploring new places, their history and culture fascinating. Unfortunately, the longest time I have traveled is 6 weeks. However, I look forward to spending my long service leave travelling to far off lands in the next few years.

PS. Most of the world is far off when you live in Australia.

What kind of TV commercial would you like to make? Describe it.

I don’t think I would want to make a TV commercial, although I have been in two and not actually paid for either. The first was planned and I was shopping for baby goods in my friends’ parents baby shop. I was young and it was fun making it.

The second commercial I was in was for the first season of The Voice in Australia. I had seen the battles being taped live and as we were leaving they asked for our opinions. I must have done a great job as suddenly people were telling me I was on TV advertising The Voice. Personally, I was never lucky enough to see me on TV but it had my family, friends, colleagues and patients talking for weeks.  Fortunately, one of my friends sent me a photo of it on her TV. Gotta love technology these days. I think that I look okay for midnight. 532702_10150695973679053_427701941_n

Describe yourself in a word that starts with the first letter of your name.

Maternal, mindful, motivated

List some fun things for a rainy day.

  • Skipping in the rain
  • Jumping in puddles
  • Sitting by an open fire reading a book
  • Playing board or card games with the family
  • Sleeping especially under a metal roof
  • Baking
  • Planning my next holiday
  • Mindful colouring-in
  • Art and craft work
  • Spending the day in a museum
  • Blogging
  • Writing
  • Playing Wi games with the family
  • Swimming but only if there is no lightening

Bonus question:  What are you grateful for from last week, and what are you looking forward to in the week coming up? 

Last week I was grateful for family time celebrating my son’s birthday.  Even though he was overseas, my husband, daughter and I went out and enjoyed his favourite food.

This week I hope to finish painting my kitchen cupboards and finally decide where things will belong permanently in my new home.

Share Your World – 2016 Week 46

Weekly Photo Challenge: Opposites

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In opposition to the modern trade of your usual busy Chinese shopping mall,  Beijing Road Pedestrian Mall, Guangzhou hides a well-kept secret, layers of China’s original trade route the Old Silk Road. Only discovered in 2002,  the remnants over 3 dynasties – Song, Ming and Yuan are encased in glass and I found them fascinating to study and ponder. I remember hearing about the Old Silk Road as a child but I don’t think I realised how much action these roads had seen since the seventh century or the Old Silk Road’s true impact in opening up the world as it was then. Now I understood why I loved reading Marco Polo when I was in primary school as it really was describing a history so different from anything Australia had ever known.

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