Life Happens

The adventures of Nora Dunn & Kelly Bedford, Professional Hobos. Nora writes, Kelly makes music. Together, we are on a lifelong journey to...wherever.

Tags

There are [0] photos and [16] stories tagged with "australia".


Leaving Our Legacy

AUSTRALIA | Sunday, 20 Jul 2008 | Views [626] | Comments [3]

Having come through sub-tropical rainforests , learned to drive on the other side of the road , squished squeaky sand between our toes at beach towns, slept in the chilly high-altitude tablelands , fossicked for treasure in opal mining ... Read more >

Tags: black queen, lightning ridge, australia, world nomads, ambassador van


Lonely Planet Great Guidebook Moment: Great Ocean Road

AUSTRALIA | Sunday, 20 Jul 2008 | Views [684]

As the road south from the climbing and trekking Mecca of Grampians National Park spilled out onto the ocean a few hours later, we knew our World Nomads Ambassador adventure was coming to an end. But it wasn’t a sad moment, because we plan to ... Read more >

Tags: world nomads, ambassador van, great ocean road, australia, lonely planet great guidebook moment


Lonely Planet Great Guidebook Moment: Brambuk Cultural Centre

AUSTRALIA | Thursday, 17 Jul 2008 | Views [429]

Being from Canada, we feel right at home in Oz. We’ve said it before, and we’ll say it again.   Everywhere we turn, we see more and more similarities between Australia and Canada, and are amazed that two countries so far apart geographically ... Read more >

Tags: brambuk cultural centre, grampians, world nomads, ambassador van, australia, aboriginal culture


More Brilliant Caravan Parks

AUSTRALIA | Thursday, 17 Jul 2008 | Views [481] | Comments [2]

Pursuant to my earlier post on caravan parks , we have become quite acquainted with the likes of these travel stops as the weeks have progressed on our World Nomads Whirlwind Trip. And no two parks are the same, which is part of the charm of ... Read more >

Tags: caravan parks, australia, world nomads, ambassador van, grampians, mildura


The Mining Horns of Broken Hill

AUSTRALIA | Friday, 11 Jul 2008 | Views [615] | Comments [1]

A long blare of a not-too-distant horn echoed throughout Broken Hill around 6:30pm, while we were preparing dinner. Shortly thereafter, a short blare of the horn followed. Being of a volume and pitch similar to what we heard in Hawaii ... Read more >

Tags: australia, world nomads, ambassador van, broken hill, outback


Royal Flying Doctors to the Rescue!

AUSTRALIA | Thursday, 10 Jul 2008 | Views [501]

No, for once, this isn’t a story about Kelly needing medical assistance (as he did in Thailand     and Hawaii )! No, instead, this is about an incredible tour we did of the Royal Flying Doctor Base in Broken Hill. ... Read more >

Tags: australia, world nomads, ambassador van, royal flying doctors service, outback, broken hill


Outback Adventures

AUSTRALIA | Thursday, 10 Jul 2008 | Views [456]

When people told us about the colours of the outback – the stark contrast between the red of the dirt with the blue of the sky, and the silvery green of the eucalypt trees that dot the landscape – we were somewhat blasé about it. We knew it would ... Read more >

Tags: world nomads, ambassador van, australia, outback, driving


Lightning Ridge: Catching Opal Fever

AUSTRALIA | Thursday, 10 Jul 2008 | Views [1151]

“When I close my eyes, I see opals,” said Kelly, shaking his head. It seems he has a touch of opal fever. Lightning Ridge and the surrounding areas are famous for its abundance of opals, and in particular the black opal, which can basically ... Read more >

Tags: lightning ridge, world nomads, ambassador van, australia, opal mining, grawin


Lightning Ridge: The Black Queen Experience

AUSTRALIA | Wednesday, 9 Jul 2008 | Views [523]

"Outback theatre with a twist," says the flyer for Black Queen , with a picture of an oil lamp and a woman with a mysterious look. I didn’t really anticipate that this mining town would exactly have a bustling theatre community, but there ... Read more >

Tags: lightning ridge, australia, outback, theatre, world nomads, ambassador van, black queen


Lonely Planet Great Guidebook Moment: Lightning Ridge - The People, and The Appeal

AUSTRALIA | Wednesday, 9 Jul 2008 | Views [647]

When we rolled into Lightning Ridge , after a series of unfortunate and displeasing coincidences, we were ready to roll right back out the following day. I was crushed. Ever since reading about it in the Lonely Planet, I wanted to go, and was ... Read more >

Tags: australia, lightning ridge, world nomads, ambassador van, lonely planet great guidebook moment


Lightning Ridge: Past & Present, Outback & Inland

AUSTRALIA | Wednesday, 9 Jul 2008 | Views [542]

Upon first blush in Lightning Ridge, you may find an opal-mining town with very little to keep you here for more than a day or so. It reeks of an environment trying a touch too hard to be attractive to tourists. The one and only road to leading into ... Read more >

Tags: lightning ridge, australia, outback, opal mining, world nomads, ambassador van


Fishing (and Whale Watching) at Ballina and Beyond

AUSTRALIA | Tuesday, 1 Jul 2008 | Views [749] | Comments [2] | Video

Byron Bay is lovely. It is a surf town full of surf shops, surf food places, surf cafes, and more surf-y stuff. Everything is horribly over-priced, but that’s what you get in a touristy town with tons of character. It was the small towns ... Read more >

Tags: deep sea fishing, australia, ballina, world nomads, ambassador van


Night Walking With the Pro

AUSTRALIA | Thursday, 26 Jun 2008 | Views [663] | Comments [2]

“I hope you don’t mind having a corpse in the back of the van,” Wendy said in her ever-cheerful demeanor. She was loading the body of a pademelon (a small kangaroo from the looks of it) wrapped in her raincoat onto the back seat. It had been hit ... Read more >

Tags: vision walks, australia, byron bay, ballina, minion falls, world nomads, ambassador van, night walks, nature


Caravan Culture

AUSTRALIA | Thursday, 26 Jun 2008 | Views [599]

Caravans ( meaning trailers in Australian ) and caravan parks are everywhere in Oz. Trailer Parks. Tornado Bait. Trailer Trash. Drunks on welfare raising families of six kids born from three different fathers (or mothers). Lots of stained white ... Read more >

Tags: caravan parks, world nomads, ambassador van, australia, nimbin, evans head


Squeaky Sand and Screaming Trees

AUSTRALIA | Tuesday, 24 Jun 2008 | Views [584] | Video

Evans Head (about an hour south of Byron Bay) was a surprising treat and a little sample of absolute paradise. Knowing we would be kayaking the following morning , we pulled into the nearby caravan park. We were surprised to discover it ... Read more >

Tags: australia, evans head, world nomads, ambassador van, squeaky sand, loud birds, giant bats, flying foxes


Australian Differences

AUSTRALIA | Tuesday, 24 Jun 2008 | Views [739] | Comments [3]

As with Edmonton , Hawaii , and Thailand , we are always on the prowl for little differences and idiosyncrasies that add character to a place. And Australia is home to many such charming qualities.   I remember reading ... Read more >

Tags: australia, world nomads, ambassador van, unique, funny



See blue_skies's most popular tags >

About blue_skies


See all my tags


Subscribe to blue_skies's RSS feed.

Where I've been

Favourites

Photo Galleries

My trip journals


  Learn the Lingo on your iPod - Our free language guides

Find us on these social networks  Flickr YouTube Vimeo Facebook Twitter