Part I There’s an old adage that one should write drunk and edit sober. This is my attempt at slightly tipsy. Why? Because I’m saying farewell to Australia, and there’s no good way to depart such a big (and big-hearted) country without a bit of tipple to send me on my way. Where to, Read More

Aborigines just aren’t visible in the larger population. From Perth to Melbourne, including in Adelaide, I rarely saw an Aborigine. And when I did, they were like the poor woman I saw today, sitting around on the margins, singly or in small groups. White Australians seemed to scarcely notice them. Even worse, in Coober Pedy, I was warned of an Aboriginal “gang” roaming the streets at night, as if they were wild dogs. I’ve never seen an Aborigine working in Australia, either as a cop, a waitress… as anyone

The numbing flatness of southern Australia and its Eyre Peninsula is beginning to get to me, not to mention the endless driving and huge distance between, well, everything. I find myself growing both more irritable and anxious to move on as I think of the mountains of New Zealand that await me in a, Read More

EUCLA, Western Australia—I realize that in all of this, I haven’t really given my impressions of Australia, particularly its wild and woolly western half. In short, it’s tremendous and awesome. I’ve been around, and I’ve never quite seen a landscape like this. On Sunday, as we headed north from Esperance toward Norseman, the forests, Read More

ESPERANCE, Western Australia—Since my last post, I’ve moved on from Perth. What to say about Perth? I’ll let a great writer take up the intro: “Now it is a strange thing, but things that are good to have and days that are good to spend are soon told about, and not much to listen, Read More