Cooktown, Far North Queensland

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  I have  wanted to visit Cooktown for as long as I can remember. I’m not a Captain Cook oficionado, but I have read a lot about him and his travels. His journey to Australia was epic and his ships stranding on the reef off Cooktown is a central part of his and the Australian story.

As well as my interest in Captain Cook, a trip to Cooktown provides a reason to travel through  the Daintree which is a stunning part of Australia’s landscape. To get to Cooktown from Port Douglas also took as over the Bloomfield Track which in a our previous visit to the Daintree we hadn’t taken.

Cooktown in a day makes for a long day, but we found a small tour that fitted the bill. Run by Dale Forsyth, his Air s to Cooktown 4WD Tours is his personally curated way to see the region. Our pick up at 7.45am, seemed early to us, but for those on the tour from Cairns, their trip had started an hour or so earlier.

The Daintree is north of Port Douglas and covers the area from the Daintree River to Cooktown. Bounded in one side by the sea and the other the Great Dividing Range. It is dense rainforest said to be amongst the oldest in the world.

We’d seen the Daintree on a previous visit  and had taken the opportunity on that occasion to visit the Mossman Gorge, so we were not disappointed that our first stop was the vehicle ferry across the Daintree River. To do the journey in a day a visit to the stunning Mosman Gorge is really a step too far. The ferry is the only connection to the small population that lives in the region. Without it there is a very long and difficult drive that was effectively the route of the remainder of our tour.

Thornton Beach

Thornton Peak

Our first stop was the delightful Thornton Beach. Continue reading →

Angel of My Dreams – How to find new music

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I was reading an article on a UK newspaper website, ‘How Spotify silenced rock bands’  (The Telegraph, 11 August 2024), about the small number of new bands who made it to number one, and with it the challenge of finding new music via streaming services. The article indicated the music we listen to is selected using algorithms that are driven by our listening habits and those of your cohort. 

It was something my own experience completely bore out. Overwhelmingly my listening habits are centred around the 70s and a decade either side. I have posted before about 1975 as the greatest year in music. This apart from my other passion country, an occasional dabble with Christian/Gospel and classical, pretty much reflect my preferred listening. Continue reading →

Crikey – Australia Zoo

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We hadn’t visited Australia Zoo before. It hadn’t really been on our list of things to do in Brisbane, as it’s quite a distance from the city, and our usual routine is a couple days in Brisbane to see family before heading north for some sun. This time care of a booking bungle we had a an extra day. I booked our trip to Brisbane while i was in the USA and forgot the international date line – rookie error! 


The zoo is about 80 kms from Brisbane and subject to traffic is about a 90 minute trip each way.

We booked a tour from Brisbane rather than hiring a car. It was an early start, a 7.45 pick up to get to the zoo early. Apparently the trick is to leave the zoo by 3pm to avoid the afternoon traffic. 

Continue reading →

An ode to my grandfather – Soldier Settler Vineyard

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I posted recently about my natural mother and her struggle with dementia. I mentioned in that post that I was privileged to have wonderful adoptive parents; however, in that post, I did not mention my grandparents, who on my father’s side were truly the kindest and most generous people you could ever wish to meet. As grandparents ourselves, their example is one we can only hope to match as to surpass them would be impossible.

My grandfather, who to this day remains the person I most admire,  was a World War 1 veteran, who took the opportunity to be part of the soldier settler scheme in the Riverland of South Australia. It was a vexed scheme with stories of true hardship and few of success. I am pleased to say my grandfather’s was one of moderate success. In part, I am sure, his pre-war education at Wagga Agricultural School was the major reason for this. Continue reading →

The Family Business Case Competition, Burlington Vermont

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It snowed and snowed!

Assembling our team in Vermont had been a challenge (Getting to Vermont).  The weather and flight delays meant our team weren’t able to get together to do their final preparations until less than 24 hours before their first presentation.

When I landed in LA, I found our WhatsApp phone group for our team had been in overdrive. One of our team members hadn’t even left Adelaide and found his flight was cancelled. He discovered it by accident and had to hurriedly rebook.

Church Street Burlington

Then, around lunchtime on my first full day in Burlington, WhatsApp lit up again as another team member got caught in the bedlam that is the San Francisco customs hall and missed her connection. The impact was a delay of more than 24 hours and a very rattled team member. Not an ideal start.

Fortunately, being in the US meant I could chat with her as she worked through options to get to Burlington.

Eventually, and much later than planned, she, our last team member, arrived. I met her at the hotel reception, or the card table, as we affectionately referred to it (The hotel was being renovated, and reception was crammed in next to a lift, pretty much on a card table) and helped her settle. By that time, it was less than 24 hours until the delivery of our first case presentation in the competition. It was far from ideal preparation; however, with the team all in the same room, they could at least put the finishing touches on their first presentation. Unlike subsequent cases, they”d had a week to prepare so. Subsequent presentations were given to the team just 4 hours before they were to present. Continue reading →