It was a brisk -5 degrees for our early morning walk in Castlemaine along icy pathways and crunchy frozen grass. It’s such a novelty for us lads from Far North Queensland to experience sub-zero cold, wrapped as we were in multiple layers of tees, woolly jumpers and fleecy jackets. It was great to be there…
Gritty Batmania AKA, ‘Marvellous Melbourne’
There’s a lot about ‘Marvellous Melbourne’ that reminds you of fictional Gotham City, the legendary home of Batman. A large gritty metropolis with dark narrow laneways at its heart with impressive gothic architecture and gleaming modern glass towers crammed into tightly packed city blocks. Whilst Gotham is often portrayed as a place of urban decay…
In The Bleak Mid-Winter (With Glorious Sunny Bits)
We were down in Melbourne for a short winter break, a bit of culture and a catch up with friends. It’s a three-and-half hour flight from Cairns to Melbourne (direct), some 2,817 kilometres away – that’s the equivalent of London to Moscow and, let me tell you, it felt like Moscow, with an arrival temperature…
The Misty Blue Mountains – Wattle Wonderland
Next up, the Blue Mountains to see our dear friends Mr & Mrs S, A and Millie the furball for the night then onto Mr A and his mischievous pair of West Highland White terriers, Napoleon and Dougall. The Last of the Summer Wine has long gone in these misty cool parts, with chilly nights…
Last of the Summer Wine in Sydney
As most of us are aware, Sydney is often referred to as ‘The Emerald City’. But on a warm autumn day, like the day we arrived, it has to be ‘The Sapphire City’ – for the light and the sapphire blue water positively sparkled. To co-opt the title of a favourite BBC show of yesteryear,…
The Yin and Yang of Shinjuku
There’s no denying that Shinjuku is one of Tokyo’s most colourful districts, in so many ways. It’s famous for its extravagant shopping, the busiest train station in the world (with over 3.2 million people passing through on any given day). Its immense crowds thronging day and night. It’s crazy technicolour neon-bling and 3D billboards. It’s…
Sapporo Snow Festival. White-out!
Sunday in Sapporo was blanketed by heavy snow that drifted across the city in frigid waves, delivering welcome sunny moments every now and again, but which became fewer and fewer as the day wore on. As a result, the snow sculptures looked a tad bedraggled, covered in fresh powder snow so mostly losing definition (and…
Ice Ice Baby – The Sapporo Ice Festival in Susukino
There’s another aspect to the Sapporo Snow Festival, the Ice Festival in Susukino (which bizarrely translates as “Zebra Grass Fields” – go figure) the red-light district of Sapporo, one of the largest of its kind in all of Japan (again, go figure!) far away from kid-friendly Odori Park with its cutesy-pie Anime snow sculptures. Susukino…
Slip Sliding Away in Otaru, Hokkaido
We’ve paused the Sapporo Snow Festival for a day and headed out to Otaru, a charming old port town on the Sea of Japan and, believe it or not, on the same latitude as Vladivostok, which is just 766 kilometres away. Otaru is around 45 mins on a local train from Sapporo, and, on this…
Sapporo Snow Festival – Let It Snow, Let It Snow, Let It Snow!
2025 marks the 75th incarnation of the Sapporo Snow Festival, now bigger than ever with over 200 snow and ice sculptures on display in the city’s Odori Park. We’re staying in a beautifully appointed Onsen Ryokan, a few minutes’ walk from this 1.5k narrow stretch of parkland in the heart of downtown Sapporo, so it’s a…
Travels With My Ant 