It’s one of those truisms that nature doesn’t operate in straight lines but if you think about it, that’s not necessarily true. Rocks, in particular, often follow straight lines through stress and fractures. By their nature they form blocks which man then uses to build structures. Take the Great Wall of China, which is built…
Monday 5th August is a holiday here in the Northern Territory. We asked the lady at the supermarket what the occasion was, and after a quick discussion with a couple of other locals, we learned this was picnic day. Probably picnic races, a common event out in the mulga, – actually Darwin Cup day (a…
We rolled out of Winton at about 8am, having decided the local bakery (the only shop open in town) didn’t offer much in the way of breakfast. Kynuna was only about 175km away. A couple hours drive. While Pete hosed down the Pajero at the truck stop I got a few photos of the pink…
Winton is a much more interesting little place than you might imagine. While Cloncurry claims to be the original home of Qantas, Queensland and Northern Territory Air Services was actually incorporated in Winton. It is also the first place where Australia’s iconic “Waltzing Matilda”, written by Banjo Patterson on a nearby station (Ranch), was first…
We started day two with breakfast at Macca’s – raisin toast and a flat white, hoping to get onto the internet. No such luck. Wifi worked, but not internet access, so I guess their ISP had a problem. Bugger. So we were reduced to printed maps. How last century. We decided we’d stop at Longreach…
Day one – aaaaargh. It was supposed to be a simple little trip up the road to Emerald. Easy. Australia’s main highway north, west at Rocky (Rockhampton), arrive Emerald around 3:30, 4pm. Wrong. The problem, you see, is Australia’s main highway north. The Bruce Highway is a six laner out of Brisbane but well south…
I recently posted a few dioramas of the engine room (so to speak) of Stirling Castle – the kitchen and bake house. We also visited the upstairs chambers, where the gentry lived. Much of the restored part dates back to the sixteenth century. At this time, the kings of Scotland used Stirling Castle as home….
Scotland is, of course, full of Scottish history. One of the most interesting visits we made was to Stirling Castle, which stands on a rugged crag above the town of Stirling. As with all these castles, some sort of fort would have stood up there for millennia. Over the years, the walls and buildings were…