PATHWAYS AND DOORWAYS

Absorbed into the trail, my footsteps join the collage of those who have walked before me, documenting my transient participation in deep time. My personage is enshrouded by a mystery of greatness. My thoughts centre around a vista of heroes, whose legend clings to trees, drips down rock faces, clacks on cobblestones, flows richly in rivers, and breaths in the valley-draping mist. Their stories shape direction, blaze trails and create pathways for precedent. Horizons scaped with valour, inspiration, discovery, innovation, perspicacity. They were the vanguards of…

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10/11/2019

Germany / hiking / HISTORY / long distance hiking / RAMBLINGS / TRAVEL / TRAVEL RAMBLINGS / Uncategorized / walking / wanderlust

IN A COFFEE CUP

Moving up to the Drive Thru window, I order my regular soy cappuccino. “Would you like a Wallfahrt with that? Some Bohemia? A Warsaw Pact? Honey? Bread? Or perhaps Red or White Main Water?” With no knowledge of the ingredients, I consider the options. A pinch of Bohemia requires a crash course in Kingdoms, Reichs and Republics, of noblemen and Nazis. Are the Germans, Hungarians and Austrians in or out? Can the Sudeten and Egerland Germans stay or must they go? We’d have to draw some…

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10/10/2019

discovery / Experience / Germany / hiking / long distance hiking / RAMBLINGS / Slow living / TRAVEL / TRAVEL RAMBLINGS / Uncategorized / walking / wanderlust

SIMPLY SLOWLY

Summarizing slow living: ‘You see stuff, hear stuff, learn stuff, connect stuff, appreciate stuff.’ For want of an ideologically saturated, nausea inducing attempt at describing a commonly cliched state of gratitude, mindfulness, contemplation and solace; simple is best. Simple is transparent and simple resonates. It sits well with the territory; the tractors, the old towns, the church turrets, the corn fields, village fountains and the ever - present tabby. Simple is what we have strapped to our backs, stuffed in our mouths and sets the unassuming…

4 Comments

27/09/2019

Germany / Gratitude / hiking / RAMBLINGS / TRAVEL / TRAVEL RAMBLINGS / Uncategorized / walking / wanderlust

OF HISTORY AND HOPE

“Yes, across Europe, this wall will fall. For it cannot withstand faith; it cannot withstand truth. The wall cannot withstand freedom.” Ronald Reagan, West Berlin, 1987. “The wall will be standing in 50 and even 100 years.” GDR Head of State Erich Honecker East Berlin, January 1989. “It comes into effect according to my information, immediately.” Günter Schabowski, East Berlin, November 9th, 1989. “Now what belongs together will grow together.” Willi Brandt (Berlin’s Mayor), November 10th, 1989. “The wall was not brought down by Washington, Bonn…

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21/09/2019

australia / Determination / discovery / Experience / hiking / LIFE RAMBLINGS / milestones / positive thinking / RAMBLINGS / TRAVEL / Uncategorized / walking

ARE YOU KID-DING?

“Because the teachers hate me.” Is the sweaty response from the continuously complaining 14 year old as to why he was in the most difficult hiking group on the school camp. “That way they don’t have me hanging around base camp for three days.” His athletic, teen build and energetic aura hinted at the more likely reason he’d been selected to pound the three day trail from Tidal River, to Waterloo Bay and on to Sealers Cove. Radiating heat from rugged granitic rock faces smothers conversation…

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16/02/2019

australia / friendship / RAMBLINGS / TRAVEL / TRAVEL RAMBLINGS / Uncategorized

Mangoes Make Memories

“Google Google on the wall, which is the fairest café of them all?” A modern age technological morning routine. With plenty of locals seeking refuge from the deluge in Mackay’s Dispensary Café, we get well caffeinated, drenched from crossing the street and immediately sweaty. Cranking up the aircon, the GPS is set, and we reconnect with Bruce. Fields wrapping the roadway envelop us in endless green. Low lying clouds, teeming rain and upcoming weather shroud with grey. Yesterday was bushfires, today aquaplaning. “Haven’t you had…

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16/01/2019

australia / blessing / Experience / RAMBLINGS / road trip / TRAVEL / TRAVEL RAMBLINGS / Uncategorized

Coconuts and Coal

“Just slow down, slow down. Holy crap, that’s scary”. Surrounded by smoke, front and rear vision blocked, uncertain when the road would appear; driving through a bushfire was not part of the original list of experiences. Travelling along the Bruce Highway from the volcanic coastline of Yeppoon and Capricorn National Park, the heat source shaping this part of the hinterland landscape was a grassfire. Appearing suddenly and out of nowhere, we were somehow always going to meet the same fate as Thelma and Louise. We’d just…

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13/01/2019

australia / friendship / RAMBLINGS / road trip / TRAVEL / TRAVEL RAMBLINGS / Uncategorized

Bananas?

Rising at the crack of dawn, we’re getting ready to meet Ludwig. Coffee being the best approach to any new introduction, the OK Milk Bar located near the statue of the champion race horse must be a winner, looking more like a hipster Brunswick hangout than a country café. The coffee experience is enhanced with positive quotes on the counter and on coffee lids, ‘Believe in yourself.’ A good reminder for the next 712 kilometres. I reckon we are ready to meet Ludwig. Named after the intrepid…

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08/01/2019

australia / Experience / RAMBLINGS / road trip / TRAVEL / TRAVEL RAMBLINGS / Uncategorized

Pineapple Pyjamas

“Which way?” I ask. “Not sure. Put it into Google Maps and check the options” she answers. The itinerary is scratched on a shopping receipt shoved in the side door pocket and lists five overnight destinations. “The GPS is melting down, it wants you to turn right,” I direct. “I can’t, there’s a concrete median strip, the entire length of this highway” she replies. “I think that was an illegal U-Turn.” I add constructively. “I know. I didn’t think we’d make it with our turning…

6 Comments

04/01/2019

joy / RAMBLINGS / The Netherlands / TRAVEL / TRAVEL RAMBLINGS / Uncategorized

Holy Sloot

The Netherlands -A modern day Atlantis, where Mulga Bill meets Willy Wonka. Bikes, sweets and self- confidence pile on top of dykes and delicacies while locks and levees protect this wet corner of the world from a sinking wet demise. Renowned for its liberal views, masochistic artists, boys with fingers in dikes, longstanding trading smarts, Ajax Amsterdam and the 17th century Golden Age; the country’s love of innovation, progression and unorthodoxy is refreshing. Stoic signs of Calvinism, reformational rebellion, protection of liberal freedoms and irreverent humour…

6 Comments

16/10/2018