On Friday 2nd October 2009 I finally left the UK behind, after 29 and a half years. It was time to emigrate and move on. The horrors of 2009 had to be left behind (and they still haven’t been, and probably won’t ever be). I worked that day, finishing off my 4th Summer out of Read more about What You Leave Behind You Don’t Miss Anyway[…]
Or Devonport as the case may be, “where the girls are so pretty, I first set my eyes on sweet Molly Malone, as she wheeled her wheelbarrow through streets broad and narrow singing ‘cockles and mussels, alive, alive, OH!’”, basically that song, based on a supposed pretty fish seller in Dublin whether fictional or not Read more about In Dublin’s Fair City…[…]
Harvesting, fishing and farming work are the main industries on the south Australian island of Tasmania. Within a week of living in “Tassie” I had got myself one of those farming and harvest jobs – I was a broccoli picker. I stayed at first in the city of Devonport. I had looked for a flat Read more about Backpacking in Australia: Taste The Harvest Festival in Devonport, Tasmania[…]
Ulverstone is really the next town up from my current base at Devonport. Without doubt it is nothing really special, but I felt it would be worth a drive at least to suss it out. The towns and cities here (with the exception of Hobart) all seem to have low buildings and a lot of Read more about Ulverstone and Turner’s Beach, Tasmania, Australia[…]
Melbourne the city is in itself very different to Sydney and Canberra, the other two main cities we had visited up to this point. Melbourne seems to be slightly older and traditional, evident from the fact it has trams and traditional streets not dissimilar to London. There is a lot to see and do in Read more about Backpacking in Australia: Melbourne[…]
It sounds French. I’m not exactly sure what the link is there. But I’m living in Devonport, only about 10 miles from the village of Latrobe. Latrobe is the self-proclaimed world capital for the duck-billed platypus. Apparently this small village has loads of wild duck-billed platypus. Its a weird looking mammal. Not quite a fish, Read more about Backpacking in Australia: Latrobe, Tasmania – World Capital of the Duck-billed Platypus[…]
We didn’t plan to be in Hobart on Hobart Night. We didn’t even know there was such a thing as Hobart Night. I’m still not even sure why there is a Hobart Night. I mean, my capital city is Belfast and we don’t have a Belfast Night. But anyway it just meant a day off Read more about Backpacking in Australia: Hobart on Hobart Night, Tasmania[…]
It really was a trip into the cool chill of a Tasmanian wilderness in early February 2010. Ten years earlier I would have been back in Bangor, Northern Ireland stacking shelves in Tesco listening to the (then) new Oasis album, Standing On The Shoulder Of Giants. An album which never got the critical acclaim it Read more about Gordon, Huon Valley and the Southern Wilderness[…]