In “A Georgian Journey - Part Two” we visit Svaneti, high in the Caucasuses in the northwest; then for a complete contrast, Batumi on the Black Sea, Georgia’s sea, sun and gambling playground; next on to Akhaltsikhe, the jumping off point for a visit to the amazing cave city of Vardzia; before finishing our journey back in Tbilisi.

In September 2024 we spent three weeks travelling around Georgia, a country we’d been wanting to visit for some time. What did we know about Georgia before going there? We knew that Georgia is a small country sitting to the south of the Caucasus Mountains; that it had a history of winemaking going back thousands of years; that it was one of the first nations to declare Christianity as the state religion; and that it had been invaded many times by its much larger neighbours. But the Georgian people and their culture and traditions had remained resilient. We wanted to know more. Here’s what we found.

Baku, Azerbaijan’s capital, is a city of 2.3 million, which sits on the Caspian Sea. In Baku towering, eye-catching 21st century skyscrapers provide a radically contrasting backdrop to medieval alleyways and ancient fortifications. Sounds interesting? We thought so too, so we arranged to spend a few days there to see it for ourselves.

In July 2024 I was in Melbourne for a State of Origin match at the MCG. The next day I decided to check out some of Melbourne’s renowned arcades and lanes. Well known for colourful graffiti and the innumerable cafes and eateries, they are amongst the city’s most popular tourist attractions.

Along with my friend Graeme, we downloaded a map produced by the City of Melbourne entitled Melbourne Walks: Arcades and Lanes. This provides an interesting 2.5 km route. Here’s what we found.

Lake Judd is an ancient glacier-formed lake in Tasmania’s Southwest National Park, with a spectacular back-drop of 600 metre high cliffs and views of Mt Anne, SW Tasmania’s highest peak. The 16 km day walk to the lake and back traverses button grass plains peppered with pink quartzite outcrops. As the track ascends the view behind is of Lake Pedder and surrounding peaks. The first 7 kms of the 8 kms to the lake is on part of the renowned, multi-day Mt Anne Circuit Walk.  We did the Lake Judd walk in January 2024. Here’s what we found.

If Taiwan is mentioned in the news, it’s usually with reference to the question: “when will China invade?” But meanwhile, as the world waits to find the answer to this, 22 million people are getting on with living their lives on a green, mountainous island.

So, what is Taiwan like? Is it a good place to visit? Is there much to see and do? We wanted to find out for ourselves. Unfortunately, we only had one week, so we decided to split our time between three cities: Taipei, the capital; Hualien on the east coast; and Kaoshiung in the south-west. Here’s how we spent our week.

Kyushu is the most southerly of Japan’s four main islands. It is renowned for its warm climate, volcanoes, onsen (hot springs), fascinating history and excellent food; all good reasons to visit. In late August/early September 2023 we did a 10-day circuit around Kyushu. We travelled with our sons, Alex and Zac, so it was a real family affair. Here is our journey – hopefully it will inspire a visit of your own. 

We first visited Haw Par Villa (HPV) in December 2014.  It is a well-known attraction amongst local Singaporeans but doesn’t get a lot of attention in tourist literature aimed at overseas visitors. It is, for want of a better term, a Chinese Culture and Mythology theme park. In 2014 we described it as Asia’s weirdest theme park. In early 2023 we were back in Singapore and decided to revisit HPV to see how it had fared over the intervening years.

In February 2023 we did a 10 day trip to the Lao Democratic Peoples Republic (Laos). As it was a relatively short visit, we chose to go to just three locations: Vientiane (the capital), Phonsavan (the home of the evocatively named Plain of Jars), and Luang Prabang (the previous royal capital and UNESCO listed World Heritage city).  Ten days is far too short to do this fascinating and diverse country justice, but if you only have time for a brief stay, here are three places worth including on your itinerary.

Mount Kate is a little visited peak in the Cradle Mountain – Lake St Clair National Park. It is not signposted but is a relatively easy 6 km return walk from Ronny Creek. It provides great views of Cradle Mountain, with a different perspective to most of the walking tracks in the area. It is a very worthwhile day walk. Here’s how we went about it.