Turning Forty

…As we ease ourselves into Paris, we are somehow infused with the romantic atmosphere.  It’s really true, that sexy reputation Paris has.  There is an atmosphere of repressed passion, especially after dark, when couples stroll together in leather jackets, embracing tightly and kissing long and deep… Flash back: July 2013. My wife and I are…

Last Stop Lion Palace – Granada, Spain

…Europe is intense.  I like the cheese.   I like the noisy little cars.  I like the pastry, the architecture, the museums, the people, the fashion, the weather, the diversity, the pashing (it’s an Aussie word for what Parisians do), the colours, the countryside…  I’m not so keen on the dog shit situation… My time in…

Best of Luck – Malaga, Spain

…Look, he says, pointing at the cover, ‘Princess Diana visits Africa’. He presses the magazine into my hand and dives back into the trunk. A golf ball!  he exclaims excitedly, and gives it to me. Do you play golf my dear boy? he asks… Trying to hitch out of Malaga, Spain.  The morning is cold…

Guns and Picasso’s – Malaga, Spain

…The place is like the inside of James Bond’s basement.   Rack after rack of high tech assault rifles, sub machine guns and pistols line the walls… The highlights of Malaga, Spain: the Picasso Museum and the most awesome toy shop I’ve ever seen.   Guns. Walking into the city to see the Picasso Museum,…

Horse’s Breakfast – Cordoba, Spain

…When I was a kid, my mother gave us ‘horse’s breakfast’ before school. Horse’s breakfast? I ask, perplexed. It is fresh bread soaked in red wine. So you had bread soaked in wine, and then went to school?   How old were you..? Alvaro, a Portuguese gent whose acquaintance was made in Chefchaouen, offers a…

Camping Cuisine: Sausage on a Stick

  Sitting beside a fire on a cool, clear night, what warms the heart and satisfies the soul like a greasy, smokey sausage, grilled to sooty perfection on a stick? You will need: 1 dry clean stick 1 – 9 sausages (depending how hungry you are.) Some bread A good hot bed of coals If…

One Tough Mutt – Portimão, Portugal

“…I have four dogs altogether”, Catherine tells me.  “My oldest is a rescue dog.  I found him in the garbage bin outside my apartment…” Catherine picks us up from a servo, just west of the Spanish border, and offers to drive us to Portimao. “There’s just one catch though guys”, she apologises, “one of you…

La Hermosa Ciudad – Seville, Spain

  Seville is an awesome city to photograph and camp in. Colorful, chaotic. Vibrant but not too big. A messy, energetic clash of African design and European decadence, with a flamenco rhythm. Here are some photos I took of the city.  Plus, a free accommodation tip. (Top: Catholocism in exextremis. This photo is in the…

Tarragona, Spain

…The area formerly housing the Roman circus was turned into a slaughterhouse, and the catacombs of the amphitheatre were gradually filled with rubbish by the city’s inhabitants, who used them as a convenient refuse dump… We wait a while for a ride out of Callafel, Spain.  Finally Nick offers to take us to Lleida. On…

Siesta Catalonia – Calafell, Spain

Small, sleepy, sunsoaked, Calafell feels as if it hasn’t changed since the first paper-white Pom’s stumbled out of their tour busses in the 1960s. The town is anything but inspiring, but the beach is spectacular, gigantic, and seriously underpopulated (at time of writing, which is late September).  It’s hard to imagine the Calafell beach crowded…