Author: Franco

Ozzie Dawn Chorus

I managed to finagle myself into my tent. There’s little room for anything else but somethings are required. I managed to surround myself with what I thought to be the overnight essentials. You need space for the clothes you take

Posted in 2019 Australia

First Night

Yes, I know I’ve been in Australia for three nights already but this was my first night under canvas, which sounds much more romantic than “under manmade, lightweight materials”. We were awake at 05:00 for an early start at 06:00

Posted in 2019 Australia

Botanic Garden Bliss

We’ve had trouble in Brisbane up to now with some water sources being dry and others being difficult or impossible to access due to surrounding reeds. Today was different. Since our leader, Phil, was flying in at 17:30 and we

Posted in 2019 Australia

Bulimba Creek

Roy was keen on an early start, largely to investigate supply shops, so we planned to meet at 07:30. What the hell, with the jetlag induced by a 10-hour time change, I’d be awake anyway. We made a major advance

Posted in 2019 Australia

Brisbane Arrival

My Qantas flight from Hong Kong down to Brisbane showed how a business class seat should be done: 1-2-1 seating arrangement, admittedly in a smaller plane, with oceans of space, a dead flat bed and no clambering over legs by

Posted in 2019 Australia

Hong Kong Transit

It’s Saturday so it must be Hong Kong. I miscalculated: the flight was only 11 hours and not 13 as I thought. Hong Kong being 8 hrs ahead, I flew into Saturday and missed the morning. Such are the joys

Posted in 2019 Australia

Sod’s Law Strikes

It seems to be the only law that never gets broken. Some months ago I bit the bullet and did something I’ve been wanting to do for a while; I signed up for a 3-week dragonfly hunting trip in Australia.

Posted in 2019 Australia

Birdsong Revisited

Those who have read Birdsong by Sebastian Faulkes will have learned of miners being used in WWI. I certainly knew nothing of this activity until I read that book. The miners’ job was to dig tunnels several metres below ground

Posted in 2019 Germany

The Somme

Our journey back up through France, deftly avoiding a return through Belgium by crossing the Rhine at Saarbrucken, has led us along much of the 1914-18 western front. We moved on from Verdun, which was largely a French and American

Posted in 2019 Germany

More from the Sweet Shop

I must be making up for lost time. Having arrived at Albert, a centre for the bloody and senseless Battle of the Somme, yesterday, we needed supplies. It’s only a 10-minute walk from the camping municipal site to a super-U

Posted in 2019 Germany