An email from my cousin Leila in London proclaimed the arrival yesterday (ie the 6th of August) of a postcard I wrote at Chief’s Camp on the 10th of June. It was postmarked Botswana, July the 29th . I had given it and the two other postcards I wrote on the same day, irrevocably up for lost. I now await news of their delivery in Australia.
I was away from June 4 to 17. The journey began before I left the flat when I somewhat apprehensively took the first of a daily course of malarone anti-malaria tablets, having read the possible side effects which included vomiting. Mercifully my concern was short lived. The pill caused no problems. As you might expect, I will be writing primarily about the fauna and flora. My rapture at seeing the creatures, the vegetation and the lie of the land was identical to the feeling I get when I’m filming a species for the first time or in a new setting here on the mountain. I suggest you google the species to which I refer so that you can at least see what they look like. A warning, this article contains over 9,900 words.
My travels introduced me to four planes I had not flown in before. The first was the Avro RJ85, no longer in production, but an impressive aircraft, which took me from Johannesburg to Maun in Botswana, the southern gateway to the Okavango Delta. From there I boarded the second ‘new’ plane, a single-engine 12 seat Cessna 208 which flew me above the tree tops on… Read Complete Text
I have just got back from the travel agent’s after booking the flights for my 12 day African safari, departing Australia on June 4. I have never been to Africa but was minded to bring decades of footage of its big game to life, much as my Canadian rail journey in 1964, when we followed the shore of Lake Superior with its rafts of tree trunks, had done for my secondary school geography lessons. I shall be spending 5 nights in the Okavango Delta, 2 nights in Chobe National Park (both in Botswana) and 3 nights at a lodge on the Zambian side of Victoria falls.The allure of a huge inland delta was irresistible not only to me but to my travel agent. She took her teenage son and daughter on an identical safari during the recent Summer holidays and had an exhilarating time.
I was away from 7 August to 14 September. The UK comprised Somerset and London with a day trip to York and Europe comprised Austria and Germany. I was about to start on Germany when I inadvertantly deleted everything I wrote on Somerset and Austria which had taken me several days. No save window appeared. It seems that somehow I had over-ridden the entire document, of which my UK/Europe post was part. This has not happened to me before. I simply don’t have the will or the time to try and replicate what I wrote. Suffice to say that I had a most enjoyable stay with Clive in Somerset and with Herbert & Gil Distel in Katzelsdorf.
What had been a splendid Summer in England and Austria had vanished without trace in August so that my time in both countries involved successfully dodging the rain (it was felicitous how often rain coincided with meals, stopping once we had finished eating) and having to contend with unseasonal cold.
On my first afternoon in Somerset we went shopping in Taunton where I found yellow cotton dusters edged with red stitching, the first item on my shopping list, and a… Read Complete Text
I booked the return flight to London for my UK/Europe trip this northern summer. My original intention was to be away for the last week in July and four weeks in August but my preferred London accommodation was unavailable until the end of August. Instead of starting in London, I decided to end my travels there. This meant needing to move ultra fast and winging it. I was hoping to stay with Herbert & Gil Distel in Austria, after missing out in 2012. I was very lucky that in opting to fit in my other destinations before coming to London (a) the Distels were at home in August because they will be away in September and (b) by the time I had replies from Clive, Christina and Herbert, the accommodation was still available. I am including a few days in Berlin. It is high time I went there because of deep family connections. So far, so good.
India and Myanmar 3 – 18 November Reader be warned, I have sought to do justice to my subject. This article contains more than 6,700 words.
INDIA
I couldn’t contemplate a visit to Myanmar without going to India to catch up with family and friends. Usually this has meant staying in Gurgaon with my former in-laws with whom I have maintained a loving relationship. The fact that Kolkata is the city in India from which one flies to Yangon provided an unmissable opportunity for me to spend time with family friends I had last seen more than 30 years ago.
Sightseeing in Delhi
The day before my flight to Kolkata I booked Rajendra, the trusted driver whom the family hires for longer journeys, to take me to some outlying tombs and ruins which I had not seen on previous visits to Delhi. I urgently needed to buy more rupees. Rajendra pulled up at a money changer’s in a busy street en route to our first destination, Haus Khaz. A short external staircase led to a dingy room in which sat a shifty-looking man behind a counter. A board, listing various currencies but no rates,… Read Complete Text
Today I booked and paid for my flights to India and Burma, after initially opting to depart Brisbane on 28 October, only to receive an email from Vanessa a few days later with the exhibition dates. So I am now booked to leave Brisbane on 3 November. In India I shall stay with Maggie in Gurgaon and spend a few days In Kolkota catching up with my ex-wife’s family friends I haven’t seen in decades. I shall then spend 3 days visiting and viewing the temples at Bagan, overnighting in Rangoon (Yangon) on arrival and prior to returning home.
A week after Simon agreed the dates for me to visit him and Nicole in Longreach, I set off on the 1250km drive and fell in love with the outback all over again. My stay coincided with the last days of the tourism season, so all the local attractions were open. The Qantas Founders Museum is a fun place to visit and for that reason seems like a really good workplace. It was lovely at last being with Simon and Nicole for an extended period and seeing how much they were enjoying their married life in Longreach.
Unlike my first foray into the interior on a road trip with Simon 25 years ago, when I was new in the country, the ranges had good grass cover instead of being baked. On the journey I delighted in seeing Queensland Bottle Trees, some of wondrous girth, growing in paddocks or lining the streets of towns. Other than a number in Blackall, a faint echo of the magnificent avenues in Charleville, I did not notice them north of Auguthella. It was only well after Mitchell, where I broke my journey, that I saw my first wild emu in many years…. Read Complete Text
This trip was different from any other I have been on in that I was ill with bronchitis when I left Australia and only recovered towards the end of my 18 day stay in Londn. As far as I know I had never had bronchitis and the last time I was really ill overseas was in Israel in 1974. But enough about being ill.
London
My time in London ended up being about people and not a lot else, which was fine. I was able to catch up with nearly everyone I wanted to see among family, friends, researchers and artists. I duly delivered my copies of ‘Gravy’. I also enjoyed two of my four days of rail travel, a particular pleasure of mine, on my Britrail Pass. On the first trip I went from Kings Cross to Newcastle, stopping off at York on the way back. A few days later I went from Euston to Lancaster, an interesting place which I saw for the first time.
On the day before I left, after an off-again, on-again exchange of text messages, I met Jeremy Deller. He had been busy with… Read Complete Text
Received an email from Jeremy Deller, whom I contacted after reading a Guardian Weekly article about him, asking if we might meet during my stay in London. He requested me to email him when I’m in town.