I have only been to Australia once. I went for eight days in 2001. It was a business trip, travelling on my own, with meetings in Sydney, Melbourne, Adelaide, Brisbane, and Hobart. So quite a lot of hopping around, a map-pin in pretty much every state (except for Northern Territories and Western Australia), but tragically not much time for sightseeing. Three things stay in my memory. I did get a weekend where I took a hire-car and drove up the Gold Coast from Brisbane to a simply gorgeous seaside town called Noosa. That would be memory number one. The drive was lovely. I stopped off at Australia Zoo. I did a little bit of walking. It was fabulous. Memory number two would be the day I spent in Hobart where I drove up Mount Wellington (spectacular) and then went exploring little deserted coves in Hobart Bay. It was a tiny taste of Tasmania, but I loved it. Final memory was a casino in Melbourne. I’m not a gambler, but on the flight from London I had read Bill Bryson’s ‘Australia,’ (it was research for the trip,) and he aroused my interest. Sure enough it was a jaw-dropper. Imagine a windowless warehouse, like an Ikea, packed out on floor after floor with bug-eyed people playing endless pokie games on glaring games machines. It was like that, but bigger.
I don’t have any photos of Australia because my camera was
stolen a week or so later from the back of a car at Charles de Gaulle Airport
in Paris, and stupidly I hadn’t backed up any pictures. I don’t suppose I’ll
ever go back, so I shall have to rely on these memories. The photo I’ve posted is
the snapshot of my map pins from Google. (It isn’t difficult to build a travel
map on Google Maps – I’d recommend giving it a try.) My what3words takes you to
Mount Wellington.
One more memory. A business lunch in an al-fresco seafood restaurant
on Sydney Harbour overlooking the Opera House and the Harbour Bridge, watching commuters
zipping back and forth in ferries. Damn but it’s a good lifestyle those Aussies
have…
what3words /// The simplest way to talk about location
Please check out my website for more information on my books. https://www.johnironmonger.com
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