"I love a sunburnt country, a land of sweeping plains, of ragged mountain ranges, of drought and flooding rains." So wrote Dorothea Mackellar almost a century ago. In the Flinders Ranges and Outback of South Australia little has changed. When John first mentioned the Flinders Ranges I pictured dry, dusty and desolate. How wrong can you be! In the weeks before our trip there'd been some quite heavy rain, in fact 80mm fell in one night. Thank heavens we weren't in the tent this time! Yes, that's right, no tent. This time we towed a little caravan, a Jayco Sprite, and what a difference that made; we actually left campgrounds early! And the rain had made the dry, dusty, and desolate now an abundance of green, from the grass in the paddocks to the crops in the fields. And the wildflowers were just starting to bloom in a blaze of colour. My first visit to South Australia was nothing like I expected and a lot more than I'd bargained for. The Flinders Ranges National Park has to be one of the most beautiful, if not THE most beautiful, national park we have ever visited. I'm sure this is where the term "wow factor" was first coined. We travelled through mountains and gorges, creeks and plains, visited historical sites, wineries, and galleries, travelled on highways, back roads, and off-road, and experienced a couple of the most adrenalin-pumping tracks you're ever likely to find! The weather could have been warmer and a little less windy; I kept asking, "Are we sure this is the outback?" And in spite of the occasional rain showers we never lost our enthusiasm. It was a brilliant trip, and we'd love for you to share our memories as we ooh and ahh our way through Broken Hill, Woomera, Andamooka, and Lake Torrens, Lyndhurst, Marree, and Hawker via the Oodnadatta Track, Wilpena Pound, and Arkaroola in the magnificent Flinders Ranges, and home through Mildura and western NSW. See it as we saw it and you'll love it as much as we did!

Beyond The Black Stump - Queensland April/May 2003

The Outback was never my first choice for a holiday. I have to admit it wasn’t even my second or third. And as for sleeping in a tent – well, when John first suggested it I thought he was out of his tree! A tent, for crying out loud! A tent! However, as you will discover reading through this journal, it was a fantastic holiday and, surprise surprise, I can’t wait to do it again. I was amazed at how much I enjoyed it and John was absolutely astounded!

We discovered a whole new world out there and life will never be the same again. Living in the city you can’t appreciate what this country of ours holds. The scenery was awesome; green and lush in some places, dry and desolate in others, but every bit of it breathtakingly beautiful. And we couldn’t have asked for better weather; it rained on 2 days and 3 nights, but it wasn’t nearly enough to dampen our enthusiasm. Although I must say that I was definitely not putting up the tent on those wet days and John might have placed himself in mortal danger if he’d even suggested it! We met a lot of interesting people from all different walks of life, and points of view, along the way. Some of them were old hands at this and we never shied away from asking advice from those who had obviously “been there, done that”. Our trip was relatively short by their standards, being only 3 weeks, but it certainly whetted our appetite.

It may have been our first experience of the Outback but it was definitely not our last. So join us as we relive our memories and take you as far west as Longreach via St George, Roma, and Charleville, and back to Bulahdelah via 1770, Rainbow Beach, and Hat head and many places in between, to wineries, museums, and art galleries, and the magnificent Australian landscape. Who knows, you may even be inspired to make the trip yourselves.

Plateau to Plain, Northern NSW - January 2004

The Dorrigo Plateau in the summer. What a cool thought, literally as well as metaphorically. Could anything be prettier than the lush green slopes in the crisp, clean mountain air? Planning for this trip was a snap after the last one, no big production, just Dorrigo for a few days and then north-west to the town of Jackadgery for a few more. What’s that you say? Jackadgery? Yes, a spot on the map with a name that begged to be explored. Although what we would find there had me groaning. Was this going to be one of those “roughing it” camping trips? No indoor plumbing? No running water? So it was with some reluctance, and a little trepidation, on my part that we dusted off the tent and the camping gear, made sure that all was still in good order, and set off to enjoy a quiet break away from all the cares of the world. How was I to know that that little spot on the map would turn out to be such a terrific place? So come along with us as we visit waterfalls and rainforests in the Dorrigo Mountains and explore bush tracks and mighty rivers on the plains of Jackadgery. Discover with us yet another part of the beautiful Australian landscape.

From the Mountains to the Sea, Victoria - January 2005

"South of the border, down Mexico way" or so the song goes. Victoria in the summer just had to be brilliant and I couldn’t wait to get there. The decision to head south wasn’t a hard one; the difficult part was deciding where to go and what to see. Victoria has so much to offer but with only 2 weeks our choices were definitely limited. Travelling from the top to the bottom gave us the chance to see different areas and to experience some very diverse weather patterns. Did I say “diverse”? We went from snow on Mt Buffalo (yes, snow, in January) to 37° and swimming in Bass Strait! We visited wineries, stopped at resorts at Falls Creek, Mt Beauty, and Mt Hotham that, in the winter, are just blanketed with snow, caught fish in Bass Strait, made friends with a koala bear at Raymond Island, and discovered the beauty of the Victorian countryside.

The mountains and snowfields in the summer, the hillsides around Bright covered in pine forests, the crystal clear water of mountain streams in the Mt Buffalo National Park; there are no words that even come close to describing their beauty and splendour. We travelled on highways, mountain roads, and off-road tracks, the latter becoming a bone of contention at one point; we’re still trying to get the mud off the car! With young son, Sean, aged 14, in tow we set off to discover Victoria and had a whole lot of fun doing it.