Travel

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    Art, Dolls and a Teddybear’s Picnic (4/10 in a story series from Broken Hill)

    First published for Broken Hill Tourism, October 2014

    Expecting man-sized drills, mannequins wearing headlamps and history lessons in dark spaces, Kate Hennessy is pleasantly surprised to visit a quirky mining museum run by a Broken Hill born and bred couple.  One afternoon in 1971, Kevin “Bushy” White, then a miner with Zinc Corporation, came home and said a curious thing. “It’s dark down there, Betty, but it’s beautiful,” he told his wife. The ...

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    Lane Lane: on the Garage Sale Trail (2/10 in a story series from Broken Hill)

    First published for Broken Hill Tourism, September 2014

    Garage sales are a Saturday tradition in Broken Hill, a town with a more than a few hoarders. When Kate Hennessy enters the fray, however, she finds herself outsmarted by a bunch of balloons. About nine vehicles are prowling Chapple Lane, drivers’ heads swivelling left to right, looking for the balloons that mark “the whole house” where “everything must go!” Another day, I might pause ...

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    Shamans of the Sacred Valley

    First published in Wellbeing Magazine, August 2011

    Most tourists who visit Peru’s Sacred Valley will whip around its famed capital, Cusco, then beeline it for iconic Incan ruin, Machu Picchu. Both are wondrous sights and tourists looking for photographs and souvenirs will return home satisfied. But for seekers rather than sightseers, the Sacred Valley also offers ayahuasca: a potent, hallucinogenic, shamanic healing medicine. My experience begins a month before Peru while visiting ...

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    The outback’s most iconic pub (6/10 in a story series from Broken Hill)

    First published for Broken Hill Tourism in August, 2014

    “The ones with fly dung on them have been here a long time.” Patsy Price, owner of the Silverton Hotel with her husband Peter, is pointing to the squares of cardboard dangling from the pub’s ceiling. They sport quotes from famous wits like Winston Churchill and not-so-famous wits, one of whom wrote “the odds of finding a man in Silverton are good but the goods ...

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    All aboard the train to Broken Hill

    First published for Broken Hill Tourism, August 2014

    Three hours into a 13-hour train trip through the Central West of New South Wales, warm scones with jam and cream are like fire-cooked camping food. Almost the best thing you’ve ever tasted. They’re served in the dining car of the Broken Hill Outback Explorer by an attendant who barely needs my order. “Scones, love? $6.” I must have scones written all over my face. They’ve ...

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    Party in Puno

    First published in Get Lost magazine, May 2011

    We’ve changed travel plans to come to the Virgen de la Candelaria festival in Puno, Peru, but on arrival I’m felled by altitude sickness. Puno doesn’t look or feel very high but at 3,830 metres above sea level it’s higher than both La Paz, Bolivia (at 3,640 metres) and Machu Picchu (2,430 metres). Barely in town two minutes, I barricade myself in a hotel room ...

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    The Last Wild Island

    First published in G Magazine (now Green Lifestyle), May 2011

    Ancient jungles host rare animals, headhunting remnants and grassroots conservation programs on tropical Tetepare Island, a true lost world of the South Pacific. ‘Fortune Forest’ is emblazoned along the side of a logging ship hulking just off the coast of Rendova Island. Heavy machinery sprouts from its hull and dwarves a diminutive boat that passes by carrying visitors – soaked in warm sea spray – ...

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    Dip in the Darling

    First published in the Courier Mail and The Daily Telegraph, March 2010

    It’s a hostile 43 degrees outside and even the locals are wilting. We’re at Broken Hill’s tourist information centre and having no trouble getting service. “Our quiet months are December, January and February,” says the representative. Ah, I think. You mean Summer. She needn’t dodge the obvious. Unlike most January holiday seekers who flock beachside to unwind, we’ve willingly turned toward the country’s centre, seeking a ...