Romantic honeymoon destinations in the Greek Islands

This is a guest post by freelance travel writer Matthew Hawking. In the hit movie Mamma Mia!, Meryl Streep and Pierce Brosnan lit up the screen but the real star was the stunning land and seascape of the Greek Islands. The Abba-themed romp was filmed on Skopelos and Skiathos, but Greece has nearly 1400 islands [...]

Photo Friday: Time machine – Childhood holiday to Fiji

Fiji; 1987 K-K-K-K-K-Katmandu, I think that’s where I’m going to. If I ever get out of here, I’m going to Katmandu. When I was five years old, I heard this Bob Seger song and I took it into my head that I’d like to go to Kathmandu. I begged my mum to take me to [...]

Photo Friday: Pretty Portree on the Isle of Skye

Portree, Isle of Skye, Scotland; June 2009 After my trip to Orkney last summer, I travelled back south via the Scottish Highlands, the Isle of Skye and Glasgow. I was blessed with gorgeous weather while I was in Skye and went hiking, hill climbing, cycling and dolphin watching. Since I was getting around on the [...]

Photo Friday: Tidal power device on test in Orkney

Orkney, Scotland, UK; June 2009 The series on stone-age Orkney was one of my favourite things I did on the blog last year. But the day or two I spent playing tourist came after several days working on a story that is very much rooted in the modern era. The real reason I went to [...]

Video: Turtle hatchling on Heron Island

Video of a turtle hatchling crawling to the sea on Heron Island set to “Girl You Never Knew” by Georgia Wonder. Adult turtles have no natural predators, but only one in a thousand make it that far. On Heron Island in Australia’s Great Barrier Reef, I follow one newborn green turtle on its hazardous first [...]

Prize draw – Standing with Stones

Thank you to everyone who commented on my Skara Brae post to win a copy of the DVD Standing with Stones. I have used the ‘Truly Random Number Generator’ to virtually pull the names out of a hat and I have two winners, Antonia Malchik of Perceptive Travel and Maria of Fab Mums. I will [...]

Stone-age Orkney: Hobbit homes in the village of Skara Brae

See where the real-life Flintstones lived at the 5,000-year-old village of Skara Brae in the third and final post on stone-age Orkney. Plus, I am giving away two copies of the DVD Standing with Stones – for details on how to enter, please see the end of the post. When the village of Skara Brae [...]

Photo Friday: Standing Pebbles in Orkney

Orkney; June 2009 My friend and I were sightseeing around mainland Orkney when we stumbled across this circle of Standing Stones – or rather, Standing Pebbles! I don’t know who did this but it tickled my fancy as a joyful and creative response to the environment. I could imagine doing this with a child – [...]

Stone-age Orkney: Standing Stones and the Ring of Brodgar

Thousands of years ago in Britain people liked to erect giant stones in circles. Theories abound about how and why but no one is exactly sure. Was it religion? Was it science? Clearly it was a matter of some importance given that it would have taken considerable effort to achieve. Whatever the reason, the engineering [...]

Ben Southall as island caretaker: Hit or miss?

British guy Ben Southall started the so-called “best job in the world” for Tourism Queensland about a month ago. How is he doing so far? Are you reading Ben’s blog or following him on Twitter? If not, why not? If so, what do you think so far? Please let me know in the comments. In [...]

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