"A TRAVELING WE WILL GO"

[Richie]

Though we travel the world over to find the beautiful, we must carry it with us or we find it not - Ralph Waldo Emerson

Like Mr Emerson most of us have traveled at some stage in our lives.. I know I have. Like many young Aussies I did the UK/Europe rite of passage before I was married. I spent almost two years away from home traveling, working, then traveling again around England/Wales/Scotland and the Continent. I no longer have foto memories from that time but I can recall in my mind almost all of the good and not so good times I had. From work/live in at a 200 year old pub outside London to driving around Germany, being robbed in Italy then our van breaking down to spending a week camping on a nudist beach on Corfu in Greece. Now that was a real eye opener.
Those two years were among the most enriching times of my life.
View attachment 877
Genoa, Italy a place I forgot in a hurry.

 

[Richie]

One of the most memorable places I visited back then was Greece, loved the Greeks, so friendly and hospitable. They would invite a complete stranger into their home and give them a meal and even entertain them with songs and music on the Bouzouki.
View attachment 880
Corfu, Greece where we lost our clothes..

 

[Grier]

I don't travel much anymore unless I have to.
In the past I did travel a lot about Australia, Ireland, some England and France, Cape Town, Tenerife and 3 weeks in Bali in the 80's.

 

[Richie]

Ireland,

I regret never making it to the Emerald Isle back then. Financial constraints was the main reason as the Poms paid workers peanuts and even less for those like me on a working holiday visa.

France

I picked grapes in France, down in the Burgundy region. Boy hot, hard work for little pay but they did feed us well.

Bali

When I went there at 20 they did not even have electricity so we left the city and went inland and lived in a rural bungalow resort for two weeks, pure bliss. If I recall the place was Ubud.

My bungalow looked something like this without the glass front..

 

[Grier]

When I went to Bali I had a horrible time. Staying in the white trash area of Kuta I saw racism, ugly bogan Aussies, caught Bali Belly, got slipped a strange mushroom omelette which tasted horrible so thankfully I only ate half. ... . and got hassled by customs on my return... a dreadful 3 weeks
It's worse now I hear. Never again.
The Chinese are getting in there too now and the rice paddies of Ubud are turning into crowded cheap tourist spots and squeezing out the traditional rice farmers .... An island of once mainly devout Hindus in an Muslim majority Indonesian island Nation. A good neighbour to Australia in most ways.

Even Greece and Venice are limiting the hordes of tourists to maintain their own preferred ways of lifestyle...


Cooper Pedy in the heart of Australia where the Opals are found and people live underground in cool burrowed homely caves is worth seeing, as is all of Australia, a land of sweeping plains gert by sea.
Touring around Australia in younger years by roads, tracks, cars, air, caravans, boats, tents, combie van, sleeping around a fire with the stars as a blanket, 4wds, utes, planes, buses, motor cycles, .., was the best travelling I ever did. Cities are boring.
Living in a wonderfully varied Australia is a must see, and glad I climbed the Rock with my eldest when that was allowed.

 

[Richie]

Even Greece and Venice are limiting the hordes of tourists to maintain their own preferred ways of lifestyle...

I see this as a good thing in the respect it keeps out the yobs and riff raff and only those that respect the place will wanna visit.

 

[Richie]

Cape Town, Tenerife

What about these places as I have not seen them Terry.

 

[Richie]

Living in a wonderfully varied Australia is a must see, and glad I climbed the Rock with my eldest when that was allowed.

Sorry to say I have seen virtually nil of the interior of our wonderful continent. WA, (Perth and south) for three weeks , SA (Adelaide, the Barossa for two days, Melbourne a week,N QLD twice, a month in all. , Tassie (Hobart) 10 days..
Have always enjoyed camping but missus does not, so never been once in 40 years of marriage.

 

[Grier]

What about these places as I have not seen them Terry.

I visited Cape town and Tenerife aged 14 for a few days only, but bought a packet of cigars and saw a mountain in Tenerife.
It was on a month long ship journey travelling to Oz as a £10 Pom from Ulster, N Ireland.
In Cape town I remember seeing park benches with bold signs saying 'Whites Only". Later, after dark, a gang of black street kids chased me and a ship friend through dark streets seeking to assault and rob us. Running towards the docks I grabbed my foul Tenerife cigars and threw them up in the air along with all my spare coins from said Tenerife. That stopped them with them scrabbling for the petty loot.
We got safely to the ship and next morning heard some young man from the ship had got stabbed and killed the night before when me and a ship mate ran like blazes.

I don't know what it's like nowadays.

 

[Richie]

I visited Cape town and Tenerife aged 14 for a few days only, but bought a packet of cigars and saw a mountain in Tenerife.
It was on a month long ship journey travelling to Oz as a £10 Pom from Ulster, N Ireland.
In Cape town I remember seeing park benches with bold signs saying 'Whites Only". Later, after dark, a gang of black street kids chased me and a ship friend through dark streets seeking to assault and rob us. Running towards the docks I grabbed my foul Tenerife cigars and threw them up in the air along with all my spare coins from said Tenerife. That stopped them with them scrabbling for the petty loot.
We got safely to the ship and next morning heard some young man from the ship had got stabbed and killed the night before when me and a ship mate ran like blazes.

I don't know what it's like nowadays.

Be worse I reckon. Sounds as tho you had a close shave then Terry. Quick thinking probably saved you. A Ten Pound Pom eh. Jeez we were generous back then to you Poms. Have you seen the AUSSIE T P P MINI SERIES?

 

[Grier]

Have you seen the AUSSIE T P P MINI SERIES?

No I haven't Craig, was it good?

My Irish mother hated being called a Pom.
She'd say "I didn't come to Australia with a ball and chain!"

That was then and now the term "pom" has lost its bite, more a term of endearment nowadays.