The Adventure Doesn’t Stop – Australia

Why go again? Yes… I was asked. Having just done the Lap of Aus’ hubby and I are gearing up to head out again and there are those who wonder why. In a conversation with one of my professional friends, a doctor, I was asked what we plan to do next? The natural assumption in our group of mates as we sat around yarning was that we would now settle down. My friend mentioned how many of her retired patients did the lap and then just wanted to settle down and renew roots. For some this is what travelling around is and it is a wonderful life to have these choices. All part of what is Aussie retirement for so many. When I mentioned that we were off again very shortly, this on a ‘desert run’ I was met with some surprised expressions.

An Aussie Bounty – Gold and Precious Stones

It was as hot as blazes in SE Queensland last week and due to the wave of heat… we are talking 40C… we have upped camp and moved south into the back plateau country of Northern New South Wales. This is beautiful country, they call it the Northern Rivers country closer to the coast but where we are is the Clarence River Catchment, otherwise known as Gold Country.

The Great Dividing Range runs down the eastern seaboard of Aus. separating the coastline and the rolling plains beyond with the hinterland regions. Then westward it sweeps across the great western farming plains. The rivers that drain west from this dividing range had the adventurers and surveyors looking for an inland sea, which the Aboriginal people said was one of stone and sand. They should have believed them.

Amazon.com – Kindle Launches Matchbook!

Amazon.com has now launched Matchbook for its customers.

Matchbook is an innovative program where you can get an e-book version of any print book you purchase for much less than you would pay, or even for FREE.

As an Author I have come right on board for this program as I feel it is a great concept for readers. In the ‘Around the Campfire’ series there are a number of print versions available, mostly for the more popular of the series.

Free-camping around Aussie Land – Where Tourists Never Go

Cape York, Far North Queensland

I love to travel, particularly travelling about Australia. I truly love to get out into the bush or the Outback, set up camp somewhere where the skies are open and the sounds of the wilderness are all about me. Or where the sounds of the bush are a constant carol and the shade of great trees shelter you, and every other creepy crawly, hoppy or slidy creature around which you can hear move in the whisper off in the litter of the earth, deep in the forests of this land.

Aboriginal Rock Art

Having not long come back from Mount Moffatt on the Carnarvon Plateau of central Queensland having revelled in the ancient Aboriginal art sites there which are some 25,000 yrs old, older than the last ice age, I am fresh with the want to head out again. I loved visiting these story sites created by ancient man, which are as breathtaking as the magnificent rock formations created by nature and which were simply amazing.

One of the best things about travelling around Australia is one of the things most tourists to our continent and country never see. I always thought that this was strange that tourist and holiday makers never generally understood where the essence, the spirit of our land really slumbered. Hidden as it is, silent and well away from where people gathered en-mass and where it is not so easy to go.

Most people head to the coastline or the cities, or better still a city on the coastline, including most Aussies but the best of the country won’t be found there. You will not find the true spirit of Aus. in the body of people roasting their skin under our harsh sun on the crowded beaches of golden sand. Nor will you find it commonly in the many tourist places where tour companies and groups will take you. They serve tucker there that is more often haute’ cuisine and fine dining representing many lands and cultures and as lovely as it is, this is not what I know as a Aussie experience.

These places frequented by tourist serve food that is not simply good and filling pub-grub or camp-cooking served from a well used camp-oven which is dangling over a roasting fire beneath a crystal dark sky. The places where tourists generally frequent are what commerce has made of Australia and many people do enjoy such delights quite happily, including me at times.

Natural Arch, Mount Moffatt Qld

The real essence of Australia (not the industry) is where there are few people, where the horizons are vast and often bare or even rugged and endlessly mysterious. It is where the silence all around you is so deafening that you are left only with your own thoughts and the thoughts of what few companions you may have with you. It is where laughter fills the air along with song and poetry and the laugh of the kookaburra or the crack caw of the crow or cockatoo greets a crisp dawn and heralds a glorious sunset. This is the best part of Aus. and few visitors see it.

Flash Fiction – Should it Leave You with a Question?

Sitting at a table in the sun, with the son and joking fit to giggle my little flash fiction was born. I enjoy the interaction of Facebook, I enjoy hearing from friends throughout my day and I enjoy annoying the doings out of my kids. They can be so easy to annoy, so easy to inspire to a view that is irrelevantly amusing. Aghh life can be good sometimes.

However, back to Flash Fiction… I have discovered this new genre for the first time when putting fingerprint to key. I must admit I am a reader who enjoys a good lengthy saga, anything under 350 pages and I consider it a midnight read. If I find a book, or better a series that keeps me enthralled for more than four days I am in heaven. Perhaps I am hard to amuse but unfortunately this is my malady.

Which is why, when I completed my four book series, The Dreaming, I was amazed when those involved publishing advised that I split the books into a series of eight. To me it seemed inconceivable at first as each book was the story of an individual Aboriginal Shaman, a paranormal tale of love and adventure, or conflict where they seek to find their way through towards the life they choose to live, despite all else and yes… their length varies from 450-550 pages in print. The tale told in the complete series is something of a revealing saga, but an interesting one that takes you on many turns through the pages.