Happy Birthday to my blog
Ama Dablam, Nepal
This blog about my travels is now four years old.
I started this blog exactly four years ago in the dining room of my son in Sydney. He had just set up the domain name and busily went about teaching me how to blog. He was a good teacher for I was soon off and away with blog entries. And I haven’t let up in the intervening years. I try to post every day but during the last two years I have also been trying to complete my Master of Arts in Creative Writing which has impacted on how frequently I have been able to write articles here. I’m also in the last stages of completing the writing of a novel for children as part of those studies. It has all taken a lot of my time.
During the life of this blog I have written about many places, including a visit to Thailand and trekking in Nepal. By far the majority of the nearly 600 articles are as a result of travelling here in Australia, including New South Wales, Victoria, Australian Capital Territory and my home state of South Australia of course.
I’d like to thank all my many regular readers, those who have occasionally dipped into various pages and especially those who have taken the trouble to leave comments. I value you all – you people make this blog a worthwhile endeavour.
A special thanks to my son Sim’ who looks after the background administration of this and my other blogs, keeping them ticking over nicely.
Mt Lofty Botanic Gardens
Mystery Bay, south coast of New South Wales
Mystery Bay, south coast of New South Wales
When we travel we often watch out for local bakeries to visit. It’s an indulgence of ours – and a lot of other people I know.
To be fair we did need to get some fresh bread to make sandwiches for our lunch later in the day. We found a suitable bakery in one of the towns we passed through on our journey south along the south coast of New South Wales.
A little further on we pulled off the main road into the picnic area at Mystery Bay. This is a part of the Eurobodalla National Park. It was a lovely sojourn while we enjoyed a cup of tea and the delights of the bakery.
Morning tea at Mystery Bay, south coast of New South Wales
Mystery Bay, south coast of New South Wales
Mystery Bay, south coast of New South Wales
Duesbury Beach, Dalmeny, New South Wales
Duesbury Beach, Dalmeny, south coast of NSW
I love visiting places like Duesbury Beach at Dalmeny on the south coast of New South Wales. As you can see in the photos I managed some great shots of the coastline, the waves, the beach and the rocks.
We only stayed a few minutes as we had a long distance to travel that day. Despite this restriction I was pleased to get this group of great photos.
Duesbury Beach, Dalmeny, south coast of NSW
Duesbury Beach, Dalmeny, south coast of NSW
Bateman’s Bay, New South Wales
Batemans Bay, south coast of New South Wales
We only stayed the one afternoon and evening in the lovely seaside town of Bateman’s Bay on the south coast of New South Wales. I would like to come back here sometime in the future and spend a week or so exploring not only the town but the hinterland as well. On the drive down the escarpment from Canberra we passed through some truly spectacular mountain country. this needs further exploring. We briefly gathered a few materials from the well stocked Visitor Centre. this indicates several major national parks and other natural features in the immediate district.
The photo below shows my wife (on the left) and my daughter having afternoon tea in one of the parks. They were debated the relative merits of a book they had both just read. I forget the title.
Meanwhile, I stretched out on the grass near the beach letting the gentle sea breeze waft over me. I was so inspired I pulled out my notebook – normally reserved for making lists of the birds I see – and wrote three poems.
Life doesn’t get much better than that.
My wife and daughter enjoying afternoon tea at Batemans Bay