Mutawintji – giving back the promised land

by | Mar 23, 2020 | Travel

By Chris Maher [This story first appeared in Geo Magazine] According to Dreamtime legend, Mutawintji is the promised land, delivered to the survivors of a god’s dreadful wrath. The Malyankapa tribe made the serious error of taking advice from a mischievous frog –...

Taking the slow road

by | Mar 22, 2020 | Travel

By Chris Maher (Excerpt from the story in Snapshots of Sri Lanka) THIS was a first. Of all the places I’d travelled either by myself or with the family, I’d never hired a driver. I’d always believed that using local public transport was the best way...

Survival of the cutest

by | Mar 22, 2020 | Travel

By Chris Maher [This story first appeared in The Australian newspaper.] Calmed by flutes of chilled champagne, my wife and I felt highly privileged as we sat by ourselves on the white Heron Island sand, watching an orange sun slink beneath the shimmering waters of the...

Going global in Bellingen

by | Mar 21, 2020 | Travel

By Chris Maher [This story first appeared in the Sunday Telegraph.] OUR whole family loves music, the north coast and the great outdoors, so it seemed a brilliant idea to combine all three and take a campervan trip to the Bellingen Global Festival. We thought back to...

Barcelona’s pride lives in the blaugrana

by | Mar 21, 2020 | Travel

By Chris Maher [This story originally appeared in The Australian newspaper.] THE packed stadium pulses like the insides of a gigantic red-and-blue anemone. Down on the sparkling green pitch, a lone figure in orange awaits his fate, like a man forcing his eyes open in...