Last night, I slept in a treehouse in the middle of the rainforest. It was pretty incredible. We were docked in Cairns, Australia and we had a rare night on shore. Having already explored the city and its environs a bit, we decided to head further afield. We rented a car and booked a place …
Continents are like people, I suppose. Leave them alone for long enough and they start to go a little crazy. Witness Australia: this remarkable land, once part of a vast supercontinent called Gondwana, has been left to drift on its own for millions of years… and what a strange diversity of life has arisen on …
Finding Nemo (and incredible corals) on beautiful Lifou, Loyalty Islands As I travel around the islands of the South Pacific, I’m becoming a bit of a coral connoisseur. At least I’d like to think I am; I still have a great deal to learn. But I became hopelessly fascinated with life on the coral reef …
Beautiful Burnie, Tasmania was an absolute smorgasbord of wildlife, and one that we weren’t really counting on. We had pulled into this small city without having made any plans, except for exploring. We walked along the shoreline enjoying the cool breezes for a while, then did what we always do when needing inspiration: found a coffee …
Traveling by cruise ship is one of the best ways on earth to see some pretty cool wildlife. There’s a whole range of animals that you can only see at sea, and pelagic birds, in particular, are a real treat. Pelagic just means ocean-going; there’s a variety of birds that are practically never seen from …
A visit to Airlie Beach, Australia. I didn’t have high hopes for a visit to Airlie Beach, Australia. I wasn’t expecting to hate it; by all reports, this town on the Queensland coast was a beautiful spot. But most of the guidebooks describe it as a party town, a “drinking village with a sailing problem.” …
…as close to perfection as I have seen in a very long time It’s early morning on the cruise ship. We’ve had two days at sea from Sydney, and people are starting to climb the walls. Our destination: Île des pins, part of New Caledonia, a small tropical territory that happens to have the highest biodiversity …
Starting From Scratch In a Wondrous New Land Long ago, when I used to write educational theatre programs, we often placed a stock character in our plays that we called the wide-eyed learner. This was a naive newcomer who acted as foil to the more experienced types in the show: a wise local bird, say, …
Read more “Into the Mallee: South Australia’s Eyre Peninsula”
Fiji’s natural and cultural history show a strong influence from the faraway subcontinent. Fiji is a jewel of a destination. Islands like these, in the far southwest Pacific, hardly seem real to Canadian eyes, with their jagged green mountain ranges sloping steeply downward into calm azure waters. Do people really live their lives in places like this, …
We went for the trees, we stayed for the birds. Arriving in Sydney, Australia by cruise ship is unforgettable. The journey takes you between the rugged cliffs of the outer harbour (“The Heads”) and into beautiful Sydney Harbour where you sidle up alongside the exquisite Sydney Opera House, to dock right at the Circular Quays …