Travel tips, stories, photography and advice

In photos: Kalbarri coastline and national park

{EAV:4965e67f495e370c}

Australia has a lot of coastline – nearly 26,000km of the stuff, according to the CIA world fact book. Driving that distance in a straight line would take you half way around the world.

Quite a lot of this coastline is spectacular. Today I’m highlighting the coastline around Kalbarri, which is about half way down the Western Australia coast, just north of Geraldton.

This stretch of coastline is reminiscent of Victora’s Great Ocean Road – and in fact, when I posted a sneak preview of these shots on my facebook page many commentators thought that this was that famous stretch of coastline.

Places I’d like to go in 2012

Northern Lights

When I was a wee lad, growing up in Cornwall (amongst other places), my parents decided one year that a trip to the Canary Islands was something that we as a family needed to undertake. Presumably for vitamin D reasons.

Three stupendously awesome burgers

I would make a terrible food blogger. Here’s a post about three phenomenal burgers, and I have no pictures of any of them to share with you.

This was probably a testament to the incredible nature of these beasts – there was simply no time for pause and reflection. It was just eat or.. well. Actually, that was just it. Eat. Instead of photos I’ve used my best Paint skills in order to recreate these burgers for you.

It doesn't matter how many filters you apply to a paint drawing. It still looks rubbish.

You’ll probably notice I’m not very good at Paint.

Chase the Sun this Winter

Byron Bay Surfers

Today’s featured guest post is from James, representing skyscanner.net. It’s that time of year where much of the Northern hemisphere is feeling, well, a bit on the grey, cold and wet side. Luckily, there’s a whole world of warm places to visit to chase those winter blues away. James shares four options below!

In photos: Wolfe Creek Meteor Crater

Wolfe Creek Meteor Crater

Out in Western Australia’s remote outback is the quite remarkable Wolfe Creek Meteor Crater. This was formed as a result of 50,000 tonnes of rock (think large battleship size) crashing into the earth around 300,000 years ago.

Made infamous as a result of a 2005 horror film, the crater is an incredible sight, set in truly stunning outback scenery. It isn’t that accessible, and you’re going to want a 4WD vehicle ideally to get out there, but the wilderness you will find is totally worth the effort.

Skiing in France

Skiers on Val Thorens Ski area

Skiing is a bit like golf. You either love it, and spend time talking about it at length, or you don’t, and wonder why your friends who do bang on about such a pointless sport, which is basically just walking interspersed with random acts of violence directed at a helpless ball.

I’ve been skiing a few times in my life. For some reason my parents saw fit to send me off to Innsbruck at the young age of fifteen to throw myself down a mountain and see if I enjoyed it.

A village of death and memory in France

Rusted Car Oradour Sur Glane - HDR B&W 3

On the 10th of June 1944, four days after D-Day, a retreating German SS Panzer division entered the town of Oradour-Sur-Glane in the Haute-Vienne region of France and killed 642 men, women and children. This was essentially the entire population of the town.

This was the worst civilian atrocity carried out in France during World War II.

Oradour-Sur-Glane has been preserved in the state that it was left in on that day, as a memorial to the hundreds of civilians who lost their lives.

We took a visit to Oradour-Sur-Glane on a gloriously sunny winter morning, to see what had been left behind.