Summer on the Peninsula, and Tiger Tales

Cheesery, Red Hill, Victoria, Australia

Ah, summer. The Mornington Peninsula is a fabulous place to enjoy the spoils of actual heat and pleasant weather during a Victorian summer, and it's also a fine place to eat. Naava and I happened upon Red Hill Cheese and its spectacular $5 tasting plates a couple of days before Christmas.

Boathouse detail , Point Leo, Victoria, Australia

We've been in and around Mornington, down to Cape Schanck, and I've been mountain biking at Arthurs Seat and Red Hill.

On the line, Cape Schanck, Victoria, Australia

In other news, my Tiger Tales article on books and Melbourne is online. Check it out here. And I'm going to Malaysia in January to write for Tiger Tales and hopefully a couple of other mags.

Rosella, Frankston, Victoria, Australia

I hope everyone's having a chilled, rejuvenating summer. Happy New Year, and I'll see you on the other side!

Seagull sunset, Frankston, Victoria, Australia

[By the way, if you click on any of these photos, you can check out some more Peninsula snaps.]

Convents and Jpost online

Lentil as Anything, Abbotsford Convent, Melbourne, Victoria, Australia

My article about the Jews of Carlton is now on the Jpost website, here. If you haven't read it in PDF format, then have a gander and let me know what you think.

Went mountain biking this morning at Lysterfield Lake Park and spent the afternoon at Abbotsford Convent for Postcards. We had yummy curry, cake and pasta from Lentil as Anything, though not all on the same plate. The cake got a good photographing, as is my wont, and one of the waiters said he'd never seen someone so interested in cake. Fair enough.

I'm testing two bike racks from Saris for the next couple of weeks, the Bones and Bones RS. They turn my Barina into the workhorse it's always wanted to be. The idea is that they're great for between a car and caravan, so I'm doing a product piece for Caravan World. No, I don't intend to tow anything with my 1.4L dusty black go-kart.

I'm also testing four DSLRs for Caravan World and/or Motorhome World. I have a Canon EOS 40D and a Nikon D80 on my desk at the moment, and I've already had a decent play with the Canon. If anyone has any opinions on the Canon vs Nikon issue, please express them. A Sony Alpha 700 and Pentax K10D are on the way next week.

Jews of Carlton in the Jerusalem Post Magazine

Shopfronts in Carlton, Melbourne, Victoria, Australia

A month or so ago I went on a historical tour of what was Jewish Carlton, and shortly thereafter I had a chat with novelist Arnold Zable for an article on literary culture in Melbourne for Tiger Tales magazine. We ended up talking about Jewish Carlton, and an article which will be appearing in tomorrow's Jerusalem Post Magazine was the lovechild of these experiences.

Download, read and enjoy here or visit my website, www.andharris.com

Red Bull Air Race, Echuca, Swan Hill stories for download

KEA camper six-berth, Goulburn Valley, Victoria, Australia (photo: Andrew Smith)

I'm sure there has been excessive breath-holding, but exhale away -- long-awaited travel stories about Swan Hill, Echuca and Perth are suddenly downloadable via my website, http://www.andharris.com/, or from the following links. All stories appeared in Caravan World and Motorhome World magazines.

• Perth Red Bull Air Race
• Swan Hill + Riverside Caravan Park
• Echuca + Echuca Caravan Park
• Laundry on the road (the crowd favourite)

Comments, criticisms and crustaceans are warmly encouraged.

Perth and everything in between VII

Walkway down to the beach at Cowaramup Bay, Cowaramup, Western Australia, Australia

Some weeks ago now, I came back from a marvellously productive trip to Western Australia. I spent two nights in Margaret River, where I took a morning helicopter winery tour with Eco Star helicopters to Voyager Estate and Watershed Premium Wines, followed by an afternoon microbrewery tour with Taste the South to the Cowaramup Brewing Company and the Colonial Brewing Co. This was for two articles for Scoop Traveller WA.

I also dropped by Beckett's Flat winery, and sent home a box of kosher wine, and checked out Olio Bello olive grove for Motorhome World. This The next five nights I was in Perth, three of which I spent with my cousins, one of whom has a kosher bakery in Perth, Golden West. I thought fresh bagels were good, but I've never before had the pleasure of taking one right after it's cooled from the over, straight from the rack. Beautiful.

I also spent some much overdue time with my great aunt and uncle.

On the Sunday, I went to the Red Bull Air Race, the main reason I came to Perth in the first place. In short, it's awesome fun: loud, packed, fast and dangerous-looking. I was there with a friend from Sydney and his Perth-resident girlfriend. Much like my cousin's bagels, we ourselves baked, and after four or so hours in the sun by the Swan River, we went our separate ways to watch the rest on TV.

Since I've been back I've finished an article for Tiger Airways' inflight magazine, Tiger Tales, about literary culture in Melbourne. I had the great pleasure of interviewing Arnold Zable and Alicia sometimes, as well as Kris Hemensley of the extraordinary Collected Works bookshop, Jill Bartholemeusz of the Melbourne Athenaeum Library, and Zoe Dattner and Louise Swinn of Sleepers Publishing. It should be out in January, so if anyone's flying Tiger Airways, check it out.

I also wrote about one of my favourite cafes, Animal Orchestra near Melbourne Uni, for Postcards, as well as the seriously demented Il Duce Si Diventa.

I've also done a historical bus and walking tour of what was once Orthodox Jewish Carlton, in Melbourne; written a round-up of caravan and motorhome laundry products; and assembled a feature on solar power in RVs.

I've been a busy boy, and a slack blogger!

I compensate with many images, some of which I hope you will enjoy.

Perth and everything in between VI

Animal Orchestra, Melbourne, Victoria, Australia

At the oldest synagogue building in town, Melbourne, Victoria, Australia

East Melbourne Hebrew Congregation, Melbourne, Victoria, Australia

East Melbourne Hebrew Congregation II, Melbourne, Victoria, Australia

Perth and everything in between V

Hesselson fridge art, Dianella, Perth, Western Australia, Australia

Perth Hebrew Congregation, Perth, Western Australia, Australia

Perth and everything in between IV

Leon Hesselson the Bagel Baker, Perth, Western Australia, Australia

Red Bull Air Race, South Perth, Perth, Western Australia, Australia

Golden West bagels I, Perth, Western Australia, Australia

Golden West bagels II, Perth, Western Australia, Australia

Perth and everything in between III

Colonial Brewery, Margaret River,Western Australia, Australia

Olio Bello olive grove, Margaret River,Western Australia, Australia

Karrinyup Waters, Perth, Western Australia, Australia

The Moon, Northbridge, Perth, Western Australia, Australia

Perth and everything in between II

Eco Star Helicopter Tour I, Margaret River,Western Australia, Australia

Eco Star Helicopter Tour II (Corey Isherwood), Margaret River,Western Australia, Australia

Eco Star Helicopter Tour III, Margaret River,Western Australia, Australia

Eco Star Helicopter Tour IV, Margaret River,Western Australia, Australia

Perth and everything in between I

Eco Star Helicopter Tour V, Margaret River,Western Australia, Australia

Eco Star Helicopter Tour VI, Margaret River,Western Australia, Australia

Eco Star Helicopter Tour VII, Margaret River,Western Australia, Australia

Voyager Estate, Margaret River,Western Australia, Australia

Sunday Ride 2 -- part 1

RANDOM VEGETARIAN


Daniel with the Lentil as Anything food, Westgate Park, Melbourne, Victoria, Australia

Yesterday, in the course of a lengthy Sunday ride, my friend Daniel and I stumbled on an anti-dredging protest on the odiferous banks of the Yarra River, under the Westgate Bridge, complete with the mouth-watering surprise of a Lentil as Anything shack in full swing.

In the above image you can see a shocked (and soon to be stuffed) Daniel holding a plate of steaming Japanese omelette in his right hand, injera wrapped around red-lentil paste and a ricotta and cheese pastry in his left.

If you look to his left you can see some distant, colourful nutbags dressed up as mutated sea creatures, who later did a painfully slow, psychadelic pantomine of what might befall us if the river and bay are dredged to allow larger ships to pass through. If it weren't for the excellent Lentil fare, and the confused array of other random protests I would have been concerned. Somehow I wasn't convinced this was a serious-enough issue. It could also have been the presence of toilets that dropped into exposed big red wheelie bins that put me off.

Post-Lentil, we caught the three-dollar Punt across the river to Williamstown, where at the base of rather odd Ball Tower, we met an Israeli professor of traffic engineering about to take up a two-year chair in Auckland. That Daniel speaks fluent Hebrew and comes from New Zealand and studied engineering, both at the university at which the professor was going and at the one in Israel from which he came, was a sunny coincidence.

It's a small, small world, filled with mutated sea creatures and random vegetarian delights.

Anti-dredging protest, Westgate Park, Melbourne, Victoria, Australia

Anti-dredging protest II, Westgate Park, Melbourne, Victoria, Australia

The Punt I, Hobson's Bay, Melbourne, Victoria, Australia

Sunday Ride 2 -- part 2

My bike on The Punt, Hobsons Bay, Melbourne, Victoria, Australia

On The Punt, Hobsons Bay, Melbourne, Victoria, Australia

The Ball Tower, Williamstown, Melbourne, Victoria, Australia

Me, Daniel, and the Israeli professor, Williamstown, Melbourne, Victoria, Australia

Back from the Rivers Murray and Goulburn

THE JEW AND HIS HARP

The Jew's Harp, Swan Hill, Victoria, Australia (Photo: Andrew Smith)

Last night I returned from a four-day motorhoming extravaganza with one of my oldest friends, another Andrew, who took the above photo of me playing a Jew's Harp I bought at the Pioneer Settlement Musuem in Swan Hill, about 240km from Melbourne.

We swapped my little Barina for a big fat KEA Campers motorhome, and drove up to Swan Hill, then along the Murray Valley to Echuca-Moama, and then south along the Goulburn Valley Highway to Seymour. Along the way we did all sorts of things, as is usually the case on a trip like this.

I needed enough material (stuff to write about, and pics) for three travel stories, as well as three caravan park-specific stories, so we were well occupied. It's all for Caravan World and Motorhome World magazines.

In between everything we enjoyed the delights that are motorhoming, like frying burger patties in a car park and driving everywhere with a cold fridge full of food. Excellent. And we got to meet some of the other RVers in the parks, who were generally at least twice as old as us, and were most interested to find out what the two of us were doing with the shiny rental motorhome.

Here's a special thanks to KEA Campers for the loan of the vehicle -- service, vehicle and general experience was great, and I'd recommend them to anyone.

Smith, with whom I was travelling, is a talented designer and photographer, and it was awesome to trundle along with someone else capable of taking over six hundred shots in four days. He also has an intuitive understanding of colour-correction in Photoshop, so I was able to absorb some of that, as should be evident in the shots below.

It so happened that a few places we went were exceptional as far as photographic opportunities go, with different lighting, textures, colours, and pretty much an unlimited number of interesting subjects.

Tahbilk Winery was especially good, with Goulburn Weir a close second.

I'll post the articles as they're published.