Category Archives: Travel

The Hamar captivated me. A tall, good-looking people who are mostly relaxed and unselfconscious in front of a camera, the Hamar are a delight to visit and photograph. They are possibly the most distinctive of the many ethnic groups living in the far reaches of Ethiopia’s Omo Valley, near the border with South Sudan. There […]

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Porto, Portugal’s second largest city, sits nestled into the granite hills either side of the Douro River. One of Europe’s oldest centres, the early Proto-Celtic settlement of Cale dates back to at least 300 BC. It was conquered by the Romans around 136 BC. and served as the outpost city of Portus Cale (Port of […]

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Lawrence of Arabia screened on free-to air television here in Australia on Easter Saturday. It seemed an odd choice for the Easter weekend, but nothing is ‘normal’ this year. I’d forgotten what a long movie it is (four and a half hours with ad breaks!) but with the Covid-19 lock-down, it’s not as if I […]

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Papua New Guinea (PNG) is a rugged land of steep, jungle-clad mountains and fast-flowing rivers. The impenetrable terrain has not only cut the interior of the country off from outsiders, but has segmented the local population as well. PNG is one of the world’s most ethnically diverse countries, with over a thousand tribal clans across its 22 provinces, and […]

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Is there anything more uplifting than a walk in the woods with the sounds of falling water? The short walk from my accommodation outside the little village of Flåm in southwestern Norway, along the Flåmselvi (Moldåni) River, past bucolic fields and wooden farm houses, into a birch forest and up a mountainside to views over […]

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