February 2025 - (Cocos Keeling Islands, Sydney, Palm Cove and Melbourne)
^Dinner in Darlinghurst, Sydney
Wow! What a month February has been! What a whirlwind! What a lot of opportunities I had and, after a Conference in Sydney, I now have. But I’ll get to that…
Three trips, eight flights (nine if you count sitting on the plane at Learmonth [Exmouth] as we refuelled), five different accommodations, some time at home and some time at Rye. I think I am getting to the stage of having a travel bag permanently packed!!
First up was the Cocos (Keeling) Islands. Words do not do justice to the beauty of this place. But it was a trek to get there from Melbourne – fly to Perth and overnight there then fly to West Island (part of the Cocos group) via Learmonth. Also, wind back 4.5 hours (3.5 hours if outside of Daylight Savings time). And then do the same in reverse coming home (although the flight stops in Christmas Island rather than Learmonth).
Trek aside, though, it was a unique privilege to travel somewhere so exotic, so unspoilt and yet so Australian.
I was lucky enough to be hosted by the local Marketing/Tourism Authority and we paid for Andrew to come too. Andrew might well be offered his own famils (ie free trips) soon but I’ll get to his new hobby…
We stayed in a self-contained cottage and we had a car (a ute actually which was different and a bit of fun!) supplied for the week. Having a car was great as we could access any beach whenever we wanted. There is a public bus but it only goes from Town to Jetty (where you access the ferry to Direction Island [uninhabited] or Home Island [inhabited]).
Since I was being hosted, I had a week of activities organised for me (the activities give some flesh to the travel stories and are always super fun). On this trip, the activities we did were (in chronological order): an e-bike ride, a picnic, a day at Direction Island, a sunrise motorised canoe safari and a sea scooter tour. Andrew also went on a fishing charter one day and caught a Passionfruit Coral Trout which he cooked me for dinner
The e-bike tour with Phat Tours was a load of fun although a little hair-raising for me! Dodging coconuts and palm fronds and riding through the shallows was an obstacle course! Neither Andrew nor I had ever been on an e-bike before. He (of course!) got the hang of it straight away. I took a little longer! It was exhilarating and we learnt a few things from our guide, sixth-generation Cocos Islander, Johnnie Clunies-Ross.
We actually learnt a lot about the Clunies-Ross family and their deep connection to the Cocos on this trip from Johnnie, our own research and a guided tour of their former family home, Oceania House, on Home Island. There should be a movie about this story of exploration, development, colonialisation, industry, exploitation (??) and Australian government intervention. A fascinating story with many aspects and differing perspectives.
At the end of the e-bike tour was a catered picnic from Cocos Picnics. This was not just bubbly and gourmet food (sweet and savoury) but beautiful decorations as well. There was a rug and cushions for us to sit on, draped fairy lights, games, beach towels…everything had been thought of to make this a romantic and memorable evening. For nature’s entertainment, we sat at the edge of a sandy beach with lapping waves and dancing turtles. Magical!
Direction Island is glorious – an absolute deserted island paradise. Ferries go there twice a week. They only drop off and pick up once a day (about five hours apart) and our problem is that it rained most of the day and the rain set in. At one stage, it was raining sideways! We had a pondock all to ourselves (a roofed pergola with a table and bench seating). The problem was that the sideways rain meant we couldn’t read nor use our laptops. We had come prepared for bad weather but not sideways rain!
Nevertheless, we wandered and explored a bit. There were quite a lot of information boards with interesting information about the undersea communications cable that the Germans tried to destroy at the outset of World War 1 and the ensuing Naval battle. Neither of us knew anything about this.
Andrew entertained himself by husking coconuts (à la “Survivor” or “Castaway!”) and I entertained myself by watching the crabs feast on the copra (coconut flesh).
On a non-rainy day, Direction Island (DI) would be paradise. With the rain, five hours was a little too long.
We didn’t have the best weather whilst we were on Cocos. The water was balmy and the days were warm but there were two cyclones circling so we had a bit of rain (especially on the DI day), mainly overcast conditions and a lot of wind.
The day of our sunrise motorised canoe safari was the sunniest day we had. We loved this activity. In a group of 7 including a guide, each pair had a canoe with a small outboard motor on it and we motored to a couple of different islands. At the last stop, we had a champagne breakfast and snorkelled. The water was shallow and crystal clear and we saw colourful reef fish, coral and turtles. It was divine!
Last but not least – the sea scooter tour. We had an abridged version of this as the conditions were too windy. Divemaster Dieter who has lived “on Island” for 35 years (!!) showed us how the sea scooters worked and we had a fun morning, followed by snacks that Dieter provided.
A sea scooter is like a cut-off torpedo which you hold on to and motor along under the water, wearing flippers, a mask and snorkel. The under-the-water bit is where I came a cropper. I don’t like having my head underwater for too long so I couldn’t sea scooter properly. I didn’t mind. I played around in the shallows and had fun.
Andrew and Dieter explored further into rockpools and took some cool underwater footage of what they saw. We will have a YouTube episode showing this off in the next few weeks. More on YouTube a bit further on!
Food options on Cocos were limited as we went in low season so we self-catered a bit which was fine.
Cocos is very much a step back in time – there is no mobile phone reception and no WiFi, although we had good WiFi at our accommodation. We didn’t have TV though!
I will have a story any day in Mamamia about Cocos and, for the first time EVER, a story in a glossy magazine later in the year. Woo hoo!!!! Maybe I’ll cut it out and frame it?!! 🤣
Back from Cocos for a few days and it was on to Sydney for me and Palm Cove for Andrew. When Andrew said he wasn’t interested in coming to Sydney, I asked my daughters if they wanted to come and one, L, did. She worked up there for the three days I was busy and we spent the weekend together.
Day 1 was an Australian Society of Travel Writers’ (ASTW) lunch at the ultra gorg Capella Hotel. Sponsored by Hawaiian Airlines and Hawaii Tourism, it was a great lunch and a lovely get-together. Apparently, this lunch happens every year the day before the TravMedia Summit starts and it is the biggest lunch of the year as ASTW Members from all over Australia come.
Knowing few people, I was nervous but it was a lot better than the first lunch I went to last May and the Conference in October. Each event I see some familiar faces and meet new people which makes these events easier.
Day 2 was the TravMedia Summit at the Four Seasons Hotel. A full day of speakers with networking in the breaks. I loved the speakers and got through (!!) the networking! The speakers talked a lot about AI which was fascinating and about travel trends which was also fascinating.
Day 3 was the IMM (International Media Marketplace) and it was held at the International Convention and Exhibition Centre (ICC) Sydney with an evening cocktail party next door at the W Hotel.
I didn’t really understand what the ICC was but I do now and I’ll apply to attend this mega-day/event every year. I have already diarised the dates for next year!
Basically, a whole lot of tourism bodies, hotels, cruise companies, tour companies and tourism experiences attend. Each offer 22 meetings of 15 minutes and Media (like me!) apply for meetings. The meetings are organised online and the day is a massive speed dating frenzy! I took copious notes and spent the next week following up the meetings.
I now have a few irons in the fire. My problem is that, as a newbie travel writer with no journalism background and no contacts, I struggle to grab an Editor’s attention. I am getting there though slowly but surely
I met L for dinner at Darling Harbour and tried to switch off all the buzzing ideas in my head! The Sydney evenings were balmy so we sat outside watching all the couples walk by (it was Valentines’ Day) and admiring the boats.
Saturday, L and I bussed to Bondi and walked to Coogee where we spent a few hours on the beach. I booked dinner at Sagra in Darlinghurst - a 5 minute walk from where we stayed. Dinner was superb and we ate outside on another balmy night.
Sunday, we ferried to Manly and back and walked to Freshwater Beach. A favourite activity for me when I visit Sydney. It was a cloudless blue-sky day. I challenge any Harbour anywhere in the world to be more spectacular on a sunny day where the sea glitters. And Sydney beaches are sublime. As L said, you work in Sydney and then got to the beach on the weekend and feel like you’re on holidays! (A sweet, naïve comment maybe but, if you can live that life, it would be a pretty good one!).
Sadly, it was then time for L to fly home. Lucky me flew north to Palm Cove where I had 5 days with Andrew, enjoying our holiday rental apartment and the beautiful Palm Cove village. We didn’t stray outside Palm Cove this time since we only had a few days.
We actually “worked” pretty hard whilst we were in Palm Cove. Me, following up IMM meetings and story ideas and Andrew on his new pet project – a YouTube channel!
Andrew loves YouTube (I have barely ever watched YouTube) so a YouTube channel is right up his alley. In short, he started thinking about a YouTube travel channel last year and we bought a GoPro just before we went to the UK and Norway last year. We filmed quite a lot of the Norway cruise and our subsequent days in Tromsø and we are in the middle of a three episode series about that trip. One video is out already – https://youtu.be/extc6OZnj4o?si=Pu0Hvi1BqukPfgT_
We filmed Norway episode 2 (a Havila ship review) commentary/narration in Palm Cove so that will be out any day. Episode 3 will be soon too and about Tromsø.
Also on our channel is a 1 minute teaser video of what is coming on the channel - https://youtu.be/xmUQwdSwOX8?si=A1m86rMlUeQkOfhQ and our first video which, at the time of writing, has had over 50,000 views!!!!
This first YouTube video - https://youtu.be/uCSl9XJ8BTQ?si=-RKaYCuku-oJ1wbn is our opinions of the Azamara cruise of Croatia we did last July. We loved that cruise and I hope that comes across in the episode. The footage is some from our iPhones but most is publicly available content as we only had our iPhones on that trip. We now have a digital camera, a GoPro and a drone so watch out!!
The channel is called We Like to Cruise – https://www.youtube.com/@weliketocruise25 If you’re interested in travel YouTube videos at all, please like and subscribe. That way, we’ll grow the channel faster. If we get to the stage of monetizing the channel at all, we want to donate those funds to children’s literacy projects where children are deprived of opportunities. We’d love to get to the stage of finding and assisting those projects.
Back in Melbourne, I had a novel experience of a ship inspection and gorgeous lunch whilst Azamara Onward was in port.
So, all in all, a very busy month!
When I started this blog, I was lost. Purpose-less and questioning what the rest of my life was going to look like.
Two and a half years later (not quite) and I have a travel writing career that could be full-time if I wanted plus a new YouTube channel (mainly Andrew’s baby). I guess I am not retired any more??!!
In Writing Wins, I had four travel stories published (actually, a couple were published in December and January but I wasn’t aware at the time).
• The Magic of Cappadocia - https://www.goworldtravel.com/magic-of-cappadocia/ I particularly like this one!
• 10 ways to go troppo in Far North Queensland - https://www.joincitro.com.au/news/far-north-queensland-travel (This one was edited a lot from what I had filed last year).
• He Said/She Said Croatia - https://www.joincitro.com.au/news/cruising-croatia I always enjoy our He Said/She Said banter.
• Why Australia’s Original Wine Region Is Having a Moment - And It’s Just Two Hours From Sydney https://www.goworldtravel.com/australia-wine-hunter-valley/
I also had a flash fiction story published – “Living” - https://www.cafelitmagazine.uk/2025/02/living-by-leonie-jarrett-ice-cold-beer.html
For more on my “not retired!!” life, tune in next month. By then, I’ll have done the début motorhome trip to the Sunshine Coast and back 😬
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