Ushuaia is the southernmost city in the world. If a city needs at least 50,000 people. If the minimum is 100,000 people, it’s Punta Arenas: Reduce it to 1,000, and Puerto Williams wins. It might depend on your nationality. Punta Arenas and Puerto Williams are in Chile. Ushuaia is in Argentina. I went overland…
Read More10
May
We were at Cinema Paradiso as part of the Spanish Film Festival. YOUR QUESTIONS ANSWERED Was that a record for you? It equalled my previous best, that I achieved twice at last year’s festival, but Garry has now joined the cult. Didn’t you get hungry? No. There was time to pop out between movies, though we missed some…
Read More8
May
Everyone on my Antarctic trip thought cute things about penguins. Except for me. One of Western Australia’s main attractions is Monkey Mia, where dolphins come almost to the shore and entertain the tourists. I went there as part of a trip from Perth to Broome. I asked Pete, our (suffering) driver and guide: ‘What does…
Read More4
May
Do not adjust your computer! I thought these images looked better in black and white, or, as the Argentines say, white and black (or, in one case, more of a yellow). I’ve explained before about the unwritten law: that great waterfalls must be on the border of two countries. Most of what you see in…
Read More1
May
In 2011, my friend Joanna and I took the Prospector train to the gold mining city of Kalgoorlie, and drove a hire car 174 kilometres north to the sculptures at Lake Ballard. We didn’t stay as long as we wanted. A thunderstorm was approaching, and being in an open space with metal objects didn’t seem…
Read More27
Apr
I didn’t just see sunsets in Chilean Patagonia. Animal life in Puerto Natales Animal death in Puerto Natales Gertrude was one reason for the end of my Wonder Woman obsession. I met her on Brunswick Street in Fitzroy, Melbourne. We locked eyes on opposite sides of a shop window. When I tried her on, her…
Read More21
Apr
The 2016 Spanish Film Festival starts in Perth on Thursday at Cinema Paradiso. Here’s everything I learnt in 2015: Love conquers the age barrier, if you have a shiny new car and a house with a panoramic view of Barcelona. (From the Spanish movie Sorry If I Call You Love) Be nice to older women on…
Read More19
Apr
If you’re doing a cruise to the Antarctic Peninsula, it’ll probably start and end in Ushuaia, Tierra del Fuego: But there are other things to see, either before or after. You might want to go to the Patagonian town of El Calafate, because it’s near(ish) the Perito Moreno Glacier (even though I query whether that’s the Brokeback Mountain of Argentina,…
Read More14
Apr
