Welcome aboard

I sailed off to Canada next in 1967 and lived in that beautiful
country for the next five years, both 'out west' in Vancouver and
'back east', both in the small town of Belleville and in Toronto.
While living there I visited many of the states of the U.S. as well.
I toured the northern states by car from east to west in 1967, and
in 1969, I sailed up through the Inside Passage to Alaska,
travelled on the White Pass and Yukon Railway and hitchhiked back
down the 'Alcan'.
I then spent the next few months seeing the remainder of the country
while living and travelling in a Volkwagen van.
Check out this page for a modern tour of the U.S.

In 1971, I visited the U.K. and Europe for the first time.
I spent some time in London, after which,a few months hitchhiking
around Europe took me through many of the countries there.
Thanks to the wonderful kindness of so many of the local population,
I managed to travel around Belgium, Holland, Denmark, Germany,
Austria, Italy, Switzerland, Luxembourg and France.....
and all on the proverbial shoestring!
With free transportation in vehicles that ranged from long distance
trucks to the latest in luxury cars and nights spent in youth hostels,
the trip cost very little and was a great experience.
Next stop was Israel.
After spending a couple of gloriously stress-free weeks on the island of
Corfu and then travelling through Greece,
I flew into Tel Aviv and became a volunteer at Kibbutz Hama'apil near Netanya.
After a two-day break to spend Christmas 1971 in Bethlehem I then
went back to work on the kibbutz picking oranges by the thousands!
I hitched around the whole country, met some great people and it was a wonderful experience.
For an updated guide to becoming a temporary kibbutznik,
click here.

I got to indulge my passion for trains on my next trip.
In 1967, I had done the Trans-Canada trip, a three day journey
across Canada and in 1975, I left Australia once again to travel
through Asia to Japan, where I rode on the famous bullet train
from Kobe to Tokyo.
From there I embarked on the incredible eight day experience
that is the Trans-Siberian Railway.
It was an amazing journey and still operates today.
Also on this trip, I saw more of England, Ireland and Wales,
where I tried out a couple of the 'great little trains of Wales',
and visited the countries in Europe that I had missed the first time,
namely Spain and Morocco.
In 1976, I crossed Europe, from Paris to Bucharest on the
Direct Orient Express, then returned to Australia
and finished the trip, with yet another long train journey,
the Indian Pacific from Perth to Sydney.

Two years later, I travelled again to the U.K., this time overland.
The journey took over three months and would probably not be possible today.
It involved catching a passenger liner to Bali, then local trains
through Indonesia, Singapore and Malaysia and an Indian
passenger ship called the 'Chidambarum' across the Bay of Bengal.
I travelled through India on their marvellous rail system and then took
local buses through Pakistan, Afghanistan, Iran and Turkey.
The next year was spent living and working in the mid-Wales town of
Aberystwyth, then three months living in a tent and touring the U.K. by car.
After seeing most of the country between John O'Groats and
Land's End, the one spot in the whole of the British Isles
that would have to be my personal favourite, is the spectacularly
beautiful Wye Valley,.
The trip back to Australia this time was by way of a Russian
passenger liner, via the Panama Canal and Tahiti.

if you'd like to know more about my life
click here to find out about my family,