Downtown Vancouver is tightly packed into just 3.7 square kilometres in a typical North American grid formation, with glorious Stanley Park at the ocean end, Gastown and Chinatown at the eastern end, with the financial district, Coal Harbour, West End, Davie Village and Yaletown in between. Downtown is a heady mix of glittering skyscrapers and…
Tag: australia
A Taste of Port
We were gifted a 3-night ‘staycation’ in Port Douglas by family (thank you G&R), so we nipped up the Great Barrier Reef Drive (around 45 mins from Clifton Beach) – one of Australia’s most spectacular roads, hugging the Coral Sea with the rugged rainforest covered Macalister Ranges tumbling down to touch the reef itself. Cyclone…
Cassowary Capers
One of our ‘bucket list’ things to see and do when we moved up to Far North Queensland was to encounter a Cassowary in the wild. Well, we’ve been to the Daintree many times and sadly had no luck. We even live beneath the Macalister Mountain Ranges – a wild Cassowary protectorate… but since it’s…
José Paronella’s Dream
Paronella Park is a mystical rainforest wonderland around 130ks south of Cairns set in the foothills of the towering Mt Bartle Frere (1622m), the Wooroonooran National Park and the Wet Tropics World Heritage Area. José Paronella, an entrepreneurial and visionary Spanish immigrant arrived in the area in 1914, working hard yakka in the surrounding sugarcane…
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…
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,…
Green Island – A Rainforest Coral Cay on The Great Barrier Reef
One of the ‘bucket list’ things to do when up in Far North Queensland is to experience the Great Barrier Reef up close and personal. There’s perhaps nowhere so spectacular and readily accessible than Green Island, a stunningly beautiful rainforest covered coral cay, 28k’s and just an easy 45min Catamaran jaunt off the coast of…
Travels With My Ant 