/ Learn. Connect. Unexpect. Thu, 22 Apr 2021 12:22:21 +0000 en-AU hourly 1 https://wordpress.org/?v=5.5.3 /survivor-hiking-100km-over-the-australian-alps/ /survivor-hiking-100km-over-the-australian-alps/#respond Thu, 15 Apr 2021 12:15:02 +0000 /?p=5816 For New Years, Anna organised a 100km hike through Alpine National Park, starting with Mt Feathertop and finishing with Mt Bogong. She’d originally suggested tackling this in four days, as she’d done previous hikes of the same length in that time. When I tried explaining that topography matters (specifically: 25km each day along with a …]]> /survivor-hiking-100km-over-the-australian-alps/feed/ 0 /life-in-lockdown/ /life-in-lockdown/#comments Sun, 18 Oct 2020 07:08:38 +0000 /?p=5769 Airline tickets booked. Kayaking and canoeing trips confirmed. Engagement parties conceptualised. Family dinners planned. Then the world was rocked by a creature so small, it takes 400 of them to stretch across a single hair. Qantas surprised neither of us when they snuffed out our last glowing ember of hope by cancelling our flights. Instead …]]> /life-in-lockdown/feed/ 8 /whats-the-key-ingredient-in-most-amazing-travel-experiences/ /whats-the-key-ingredient-in-most-amazing-travel-experiences/#comments Sun, 05 Jan 2020 13:32:09 +0000 /?p=5710 Take a second and think about this: What’s your favourite memory from travelling? Many people tell me a story about something totally unplanned and unexpected. Surprises, twists of fate, well-made plans that went hopelessly awry. In short, what lies at the heart of most amazing travel experiences is serendipity. What exactly is serendipity? It was …]]> /whats-the-key-ingredient-in-most-amazing-travel-experiences/feed/ 4 /underground-russia-4/ /underground-russia-4/#comments Tue, 15 Oct 2019 10:13:52 +0000 /?p=5489 In my final story from Russia I want to show you some stuff we found while in Moscow and Saint Petersburg that’s really ‘underground’. The first area is one just discovered by my Russian photographer friend Sasha (whom I met in Burma a decade ago, but has since become a recurring character in my travel …]]> /underground-russia-4/feed/ 4 /mean-canada-russia-3/ /mean-canada-russia-3/#comments Sun, 15 Sep 2019 23:03:03 +0000 /?p=5345 All those years ago, when I was telling Sasha why I didn’t think I ever needed to visit Russia, I summarised my argument thusly: “Isn’t Russia just like Canada, but with meaner people?” Well now that I’ve been, I thought I’d report back to you all on the accuracy of that hypothesis. Russians Be All …]]> /mean-canada-russia-3/feed/ 12 /camels-and-kalashnikovs-russia-2/ /camels-and-kalashnikovs-russia-2/#comments Sun, 18 Aug 2019 12:17:13 +0000 /?p=5307 Our first stop in Russia was a village in Buryatia province, Eastern Siberia. Buryatia is special because (Intriguing Fact #1) it’s the centre of Russian Buddhism. This is something most Russians don’t even realise. This region was once a part of Mongolia, but transferred to Russia in 1689 and 1727. It’s home to the Buryats, …]]> /camels-and-kalashnikovs-russia-2/feed/ 4 /into-the-cosmos-russia-1/ /into-the-cosmos-russia-1/#respond Thu, 08 Aug 2019 22:26:54 +0000 /?p=5259 “Russia!  But why?” A question I’ve been asked many times in the months preceding this trip – and one I sometimes asked myself during it. One reason is that I promised my nomadic Russian photographer friend Sasha I would. In 2010 we travelled together in Burma after meeting on the streets of Mawlawmyine – I even wrote …]]> /into-the-cosmos-russia-1/feed/ 0 /how-to-cross-the-china-russia-border-from-manzhouli-to-zabaykalsk/ /how-to-cross-the-china-russia-border-from-manzhouli-to-zabaykalsk/#comments Tue, 30 Jul 2019 16:21:07 +0000 /?p=5232 This is not my typical post. But the internet desperately needs an update on how to cross the China-Russia border overland from Manzhouli (满洲里市) to Zabaykalsk (Забайкальск). What we read before our trip (from ThornTree, Wikitravel, and TripAdvisor) was badly outdated. Basically, 100% of it was wrong. So here we go: How to cross the …]]> /how-to-cross-the-china-russia-border-from-manzhouli-to-zabaykalsk/feed/ 2 /fresh-eyes-china-12/ /fresh-eyes-china-12/#comments Sun, 28 Jul 2019 09:43:02 +0000 /?p=5174 I’m not sure if you’ve ever been dropped into a foreign land where basically no one speaks your language. It’s a strange brew: A cup of fascination, a tablespoon of excitement, a teaspoon of frustration, and a pinch of fear. China is definitely one such place. And it’s made even more alienating by the many …]]> /fresh-eyes-china-12/feed/ 8 /prime-time-in-new-york-city-usa-2/ /prime-time-in-new-york-city-usa-2/#respond Thu, 21 Sep 2017 08:01:07 +0000 /?p=5109 The Big Apple. The City That Never Sleeps. The Empire City. New Amsterdam. Gotham. The Five Boroughs. The City So Nice They Named It Twice. New. York. City. After the west coast climbing adventure and on either side of family Christmas events, I spent a month holed up in a Toronto basement, racing to finish …]]> /prime-time-in-new-york-city-usa-2/feed/ 0 /panoramerica-eclectic-scenes-from-the-wild-west/ /panoramerica-eclectic-scenes-from-the-wild-west/#comments Wed, 28 Jun 2017 13:09:52 +0000 /?p=5015 Meet Tim, one of my oldest mates from Perth, a British-born Aussie reliably liable to quip quotably. After completing my tour of Central Asia (which you’ve surely read all about) and some family-recovery time in Canada, it was time for me to realise one of my greatest life ambitions: To become a climbing bum, living …]]> /panoramerica-eclectic-scenes-from-the-wild-west/feed/ 4 /cuba-on-the-brink/ /cuba-on-the-brink/#respond Sun, 29 Jan 2017 10:23:25 +0000 /?p=4958 At the end of 2014, Obama and Castro announced that US-Cuba relations would begin to ‘normalise’. It’s no coincidence that 2015 was Cuba’s biggest year in tourism history. Until 2016 that is, when it over-topped its own record. At the end of 2015, I was in Canada suffering from screen-overload after nearly 6 straight weeks …]]> /cuba-on-the-brink/feed/ 0