Journey Jar

I love Lombok. Every time I go, I make the same quiet promise to myself — that one day, when life allows it, I’ll buy a piece of land near one of these beaches and stay forever. It’s the natural beauty, yes, but more than that it’s the quietness. The absence of the mass tourism […]

I have visited 43 countries and passed through more cities than I can count. Launceston is not a city that announces itself loudly. It does not have a famous harbour or a skyline you recognise from postcards. It is compact, quiet, and slightly hilly – the kind of place that rewards walking rather than rushing. […]

Nikko is a small but beautiful city in Japan. It is located in Togichi prefecture in a mountainous setting and is a popular tourist weekend gateway from Tokyo. This photo guide will tell you about a list of things to do in Nikko. I love nature. A remote scenic village attracts me more compared to […]

Nara is easy to underestimate. I went expecting to feed some deer and be done in a few hours. I came back having spent a full day and still felt like I’d missed things. Japan’s first permanent capital — before the seat of power moved to Kyoto in 794 — Nara is quieter than Kyoto, […]

Most tourists heading to Kuala Lumpur never make it here. That’s their loss. I almost skipped Putrajaya. When you’re in Kuala Lumpur, the Petronas Towers demand your attention, Batu Caves your energy, and Melaka your weekend. Putrajaya — Malaysia’s administrative capital — sits quietly on the outskirts, largely ignored by the tourist trail. I only […]

I had just come back from a full day at Cradle Mountain. Most people would have called it a day. But it was only early evening, my hotel was in the Launceston CBD, and someone had mentioned that Cataract Gorge was walkable from the city centre. I had nothing but time and slightly tired legs, […]

I have visited 43 countries. I have stood on clifftops in Norway, hiked through rainforests in Borneo, and watched the sun rise over the Himalayas. But when I think about the most beautiful places I have ever seen in my life, Cradle Mountain sits near the very top – and I do not say that […]

Most people flying into Tasmania head straight to Hobart. I didn’t. I flew into Launceston instead – and it turned out to be a great decision. Starting in the north put me right at the beginning of a route that took me through Cradle Mountain, the historic village of Ross, and eventually down to Hobart […]

I arrived in Sicily on a cheap flight from Malta. That is the honest version of how this trip started — not a carefully planned grand tour of southern Italy, but a budget airline alert and a two-day window. Malta to Catania, €30 each way, grab a bus to Taormina, figure out the rest later. […]

Twenty kilometres inland from Taormina, a river runs through a canyon that lava made. The Alcantara Gorges — Gole dell’Alcantara in Italian — are what happens when a volcano erupts, lava flows into a riverbed, cools rapidly in the water, and fractures into columns of dark basalt. The Alcantara River then spends the next nine […]