Yet another four-hour drive northwards along the seemingly endless Pacific Highway, past  impenetrable Eucalypt bush, although it’s gorgeous in its vastness and emptiness. It’s a wonder how the early settlers traversed this unforgiving dense terrain – I mean, it’s fine doing 110ks an hour along a modern freeway in air-conditioned comfort, listening to Spotify playlists (Guy’s…

It’s the end of an era. After a night in a local hotel, we tearily closed the door on Little Selwyn Street. We packed up the car (that’s Boswell to those in the know) and headed under the harbour (tunnel) towards the impressive 9-kilometre NorthConnex tunnel and beyond. It was an almost 5-hour drive to…

A Farewell To Sydney Well, that’s a wrap. After 15 years in our gorgeous Little Selwyn Street house and 38 years in Sydney all up, it’s time to go – and off to FAR FAR North Queensland we head. We’re driving up and taking seven days to reach our final destination, Clifton Beach. It’s a…

There’s a little town called Stanley (population 595) on the north western tip of Tasmania at the edge of the Tarkine Wilderness, the greatest expanse of temperate rain forest in Australia and one of the largest expanses of temperate rain forest in the world. (The Tongass National Forest in Alaska being the largest). It’s a…

We spent five glorious restorative reading days at a friend’s ‘shack’ at Bull Plains in the remote Cradle Mountain Valley in Tasmania – just twenty minutes by car down the road from Cradle Mountain itself. And a couple of hours drive from Launceston. It’s referred to as a ‘shack’ as, in essence, it’s an old…

June 22nd is the shortest day and longest night of the year in the southern hemisphere and marks the winter solstice. It’s also the coldest time of the year in Sydney, forcing us to delve into the back of cupboards for those long-forgotten (and sadly, occasionally moth-eaten) sweaters, scarves and overcoats… except that it’s not that…

For the second year in a row, we’ve called Mérida our home for a couple of months, so we really feel like we’ve come to know this place. Our hood of choice this time around has been Barrio Santiago, one of our favourite barrios in Mérida, a tightly packed grid of hot dusty streets that…

Just outside of Izamal is the glorious Hacienda Sacnicté, a beautifully restored 18th Century henequen (agave fibre or sisal) plantation that’s been converted into a small boutique hotel. We’re here for Ants’ birthday treat – and what a treat. The Hacienda has 10 luxurious (but astonishingly affordable) suites all with cathedral ceilings, original colonial features, four-poster…

We were in Izamal for the first time just over a year ago. One year later and we’re just as a captivated by the glowing yellow colonial architecture, the tranquil atmosphere (the lack of tourists post-Easter), the hot dusty narrow streets and, in particular, Restaurante Kinich, one of the best restaurants in the region. I’ve…

By the time the conquistadores arrived in the Yucatan in 1541, the ancient Mayan city of T’ho had been long abandoned save for around 1000 people still living in the area. According to one Spanish account at the time, “A small village of Mayan Indians settled in thatched and wooden huts and the remains of…