Super moon strength

But then… in the blink of an eye Covid-19 decreed All Change…

A-L-L  C-H-A-N-G-E

Plans to go interstate…. or bigger plans to go overseas….. were thwarted as borders slammed shut.
Smaller, simpler everyday plans to pop out for a yoga class, go to a theatre production or visit an Art Gallery… Meet up with friends at a cafe or even get a haircut were all off the radar as small businesses were forced by the Government to close so as to reduce the chance of community transmission…

Life as I and the global population knew it, was put on hold.

Time stood still

All Change

2020 was a year of accepting new rules and adapting – changing life long habits to fit in with newly imposed draconian regimes.
We changed our shopping habits – setting out on a mission to keep potential contaminants at bay by deftly dodging up and down supermarket aisles.
We changed the way we went out for a walk – giving other walkers a wide berth to avoid their exhalations!
We changed the way we worked – staying home to avoid crowded commutes and/or office space not designed for social distancing.
The dynamics of family groups changed – either by spending 24/7 with them – or not being able to touch and hold them at all, with greetings and catch-ups made via a screen.

Solitude

Routines, the security blanket to our lives, were thrown to the wind –
And with that change came an unsettling uncertainty.
We had time on our hands to review our pre-Covid life and question its validity –
And for those, where the fly in the ointment to making a change before Covid had been the fear of loss of income – With incomes now jeopardised – Covid potentially provided an opportunity to take that unknown leap.

Our Change

When Covid-19 struck Australia in March 2020, my husband and I were caught out –
Supposedly just visiting Tasmania for a 6 week camping holiday, prior to taking a trip to Scotland for the northern hemisphere summer; when Australia’s International border and then State borders closed, not only were we unable to leave – but we also had nowhere to go…
Our status changed from tourist to itinerant!
With winter coming we bought a caravan and ensconced ourselves in a government designated #lockdown caravan park in the verdant valley of Gunns Plains in the NW of Tasmania ~

10 days later, my husband had a stroke… which I wrote about here.

Covid-19 Lockdown in NW Tasmania

All change again

Change Again

The Tasmanian lockdown lasted 10 weeks from the end of March to the 15th June 2020 –
But rather than pulling up pegs and scuttling off into the sunset with glee, we then needed to embark upon my husband’s stroke rehabilitation, which during Covid-19’s lockdown had been forbidden due to no face-to-face appointments being permitted.

Our Neuro-psychologist was a beacon of light

We attended a weekly 2 hour session over 6 weeks at the local hospital with a wonderful neuro-psychologist who guided us through memory retention techniques and how to best process, plan and problem solve after a haemorrhagic stroke, with fun homework sessions involving Phil one week having to plan and prepare a Lhaksa (yum!!), and on another, pull together a complex recipe for a Christmas fruit cake (delish!)

Our Changed Life

Realigned and revitalised we finally flew the coup, embarking upon a previously unimagined life of slow-travelling Tasmania in our new home – our caravan.
Having got ‘stuck’ in Tasmania in the first instance – had a life changing incident – we are now loving this unplanned life!

Our changed life

Every week or so we change our location, following the road ahead to move on between 50 to 100km; setting up camp to explore the area wherever we find ourselves, we bushwalk into woodlands, hike up to waterfalls and plunder through national parks.

We’d been advised that hiking over uneven ground is great for neuroplasticity -reconnecting areas of the brain that have been affected by stroke – so we spent two weeks at Cradle Mountain hiking up past Crater Lake to Marions Lookout returning via Wombat Pool. Walked around Dove Lake via Glacier Rock and the Ballroom Forest. We took an easy wander down the boardwalk from Ronny’s Creek via Snake Hill back to the Interpretive Centre. Then went down the Dove Canyon Circuit which involved scrambling up a precipice, before enjoying the Enchanted Forest with its wonderful decorated shelters for children to discover.

Reaching Marions Lookout, returning via the Boat Shed on Dove Lake and clambering up a hillside on the Dove Canyon Circuit

We went to Philosophers Falls near Waratah, Dip Falls near Stanley, which cascades over hexagonal rocks making the water fly – particularly when in full flood after rain; and then the tallest waterfall in Tasmania – Montezuma Falls, near Rosebery, which involved a 10km return hike along a disused mining tramway lined with tree ferns.

Dip Falls, Philosophers Falls and Montezuma Falls

We saw Little Penguins at the Lillico Beach Conservation Area near Devonport, a starling murmuration as they gathered to go to roost at dusk down by the harbour in Stanley, and a baby Wombat popping its head out of it’s mother’s backward facing pouch near Waldheim at Cradle Mountain!

Little penguin coming in under the cover of dark, a baby wombat peeping out from its mother’s backward facing pouch and a starling murmuration – watch the video below!

Below is footage I took at Stanley Harbour of starlings forming a murmuration

We were virtually blown away on the wild west coast of Tasmania at World’s End…

The Wild West Coast of Tasmania

And felt the exhilaration of flying free when this wedgetail eagle greeted us at the top of a hike across the button grass plains in the Tarkine region…

Changes Afoot?

I suspect our Australian International border will be closed both in and out (other than for repatriations) for at least the better part of 2021; and there is nothing sure about our State borders as mini outbreaks of Covid bring down the shutters in an instance.

But having had to spend 2020 pivoting to the demands of others I can’t believe anything greater than what we have had to change to date can crop up in 2021.

For us – we will continue on our unplanned journey –
A journey of gentle transformation rather than abrupt change…

Of course working on Journey Jottings as we go –

Wishing you all a year of gentle transition to the place you wish to be  

All photographs taken in Tasmania by Linda Fairbairn during 2020

The post Next Stop – Covid-19… All Change appeared first on Journey Jottings.

It’s pulled me back from a year of mapped out travel plans.
It’s pushed me into a life of staying put.
A life akin to being institutionalised where I am told what, when and how I should work, play and exercise.

My mind’s eye perception of Coronavirus

I feel concerned –
Has this now become my new norm?
Will I ever be able to think for myself again after weeks (or is that months) of following instructions?
Doing what I am told – #stayathome #lockdown #selfisolation
Days of feeling there’s no point to ever coming up with another plan again, when the powers that be can (rightly in this scenario) impose draconian restrictions to my every move and put a hold on what was my freewill.

Where all Plans get Stymied

In January 2020 we gave up our home of 10 years on an island in the Bay off Brisbane, Queensland.
Put the culled remnants from this previous life into storage and ventured forth.

February was spent house-sitting in Tasmania, which flowed on into a road trip exploring the high-roads and by-roads of Australia’s southern Apple Isle.

February was spent house-sitting in Hobart, Tasmania

We had planned on heading over to Europe in May for the northern hemisphere summer to stay with my 94 year old mother in Scotland and visit family in France.

But ahead of that, in late March, we were to fly back to Queensland for 6 weeks to house-sit for Megan.
Megan, has worked with me at Journey Jottings for 8 years.
She had spent months dreaming, researching and planning a 6 week round-the-world trip of a lifetime and we had agreed that during her absence I would care for her puss-cats and pooch and of course – the Journey Jottings business –
But on March 13th she called me –
Heartbroken, she’d had to cancel her longed for adventure due to start the following week as attractions worldwide closed, airlines became grounded and within the week (20th March) the Australian borders were closed to non-residents and non-citizens.

So we cancelled our flights from Hobart to Brisbane.
And did what we normally did when Murphy threw a spanner in the works, we started working on an alternative plan –
How about we still go up, and she take a ‘consolation’ holiday closer to home?

So Megan booked an apartment just over the border in northern NSW and I booked two fresh flights for the following week.

But within days, the individual Australian States and Territories proclaimed they too were going to close their borders to each other – meaning unless you were an ‘essential’ service, upon crossing a border, you’d need to do 14 days self isolation.
With us coming interstate from Tasmania and they going interstate to NSW –
We both cancelled… again –

Now Where?

In a matter of weeks, our clear cut Plan A to go house sitting in Queensland, had been thwarted and converted into Plan B.
Plan B got hit on the head when some States started to announce border closures.
Plan C – our long-term plan to spend the summer on the European continent with family was quashed as International planes were grounded –

Everyone was told to “Go Home” and #StayHome –

But where do you go if you don’t have a home?

Hunkering Down when you’re Homeless

The Premier of Tasmania talked of ‘Fortress Tasmania’ and the necessity to pull up the drawbridge to keep Coronavirus at bay.
All tourists and travellers were told to go back to where they’d come from –

Not only did we not have a ‘home’ to go back to, but having come to Tasmania with the plan (dare I use that word again?) to tour for a few summer months we’d only come with a tent!
It was evident we weren’t going to be going anywhere any time soon…
And with the southern hemisphere winter approaching –
Plan D was called for!

We bought a caravan.

Our home away from home, hunkering down in NW Tasmania during COVID-19

As inter-state visitors sailed back across Bass Strait to the mainland, Caravan Parks across Tasmania’s island State emptied and a new COVID-19 law was implemented that stated no new bookings could be accepted –
Other than at Police Registered Parks where those of no fixed abode could be rounded up, accounted for and enforced to stay put.

There was an official on-line list where we located Wings Wildlife Park situated in a stunning green valley in NW Tasmania –
Here, apart from one RV and one camper-van, we were the only caravan on site during the lockdown –

These were our neighbours

Our neighbours during #lockdown in NW Tasmania

Can My World Get any Smaller?

Then just as I felt my world couldn’t get much smaller –
My husband had a stroke.

It was Easter morning.
10 days into our hunkering down.
I looked up to see him tapping his forehead with his right hand, while mumbling incoherently, as his left arm and left leg lay limp.

I called 000 –
An ambulance came to take him not to the nearest Hospital, which was experiencing a Corona-cluster outbreak (and would be shortly closed for a deep clean) – but to Launceston, two hours away.

Not quite the Easter Bunny I was expecting – An Ambulance trolley with masked paramedic.

I followed in our car, with his ‘overnight bag’ and when I got to Emergency was told –
“You’ve made it just in time to see him before we admit him to the Ward – He’s had a MRI scan, X-Rays and blood tests but due to COVID-19 restrictions you are not permitted to go up there with him – Not now, nor for the duration of his stay in the Hospital”.

It was a strange few days –
Me telephoning for updates (like the other 31 patients’ partners in the 32 bed ward, not permitted to visit?) and getting
“Oh yes, he’s progressing well” – but ‘well’ compared to what when you haven’t seen the previous day’s progress?

So it went from being told he’d failed the ‘swallow test’ and was to be fed intravenously on the Easter Sunday –
To him telling me in his slurred muffled voice on Tuesday how he’d toppled over and sent a trolley in the ward flying –
To on the Thursday (just as I was beginning to wonder whether it could be weeks before I saw him again if he was kept in for rehab):
“He’s going to be discharged tonight”.
“But, because of Coronavirus and him having been in Hospital – a potential source of contamination – he will need to self-isolate for 14 days, and he’ll need a primary carer – so as his wife, that will be you, OK?”.

I was instructed to arrive at the Hospital with 14 days worth of food on board and enough fuel in the tank to get ‘home’ as once I had picked him up we were to be in total isolation so were to stop for nothing nor interact with anyone.

14 days in Self-Isolation

My world had slowly caved in.

In just 5 weeks, it had been reduced to –
No overseas travel – then
No inter-state travel – then
Only essential travel to buy food –
And now not even that would be part of my liberty –
The 4 walls of our 20 foot long caravan in the middle of an empty Park, would be our world for the next 14 days –

Me and a man who had experienced a catastrophic hemorrhagic stroke.

Self-isolating for 14 days in a Caravan Park during COVID-19

I was given no guidance or ‘run-down’ as to his care, as due to COVID-19 I was not allowed to go into the Hospital to speak to any medical practitioner –
And any discharge papers that may have existed were lost among the new protocols of keeping me at bay.

I was simply told to ring the outside Hospital door bell upon arrival so he could be brought down in a wheel chair, where he was turfed out into my arms and the cold night air.

Together we jumped into the unknown –
Like taking the plunge off a high diving board into a deep dark swimming pool.
Together we held our breaths and leapt.
Leapt alone into a world cut off from any form of reality.
We submerged ourselves into our new, unfamiliar space where even the familiarity of voice was slurred and muffled as though communicating through watery depths.
And movement was in a slow underwater like motion.

Brave New World

‘We are such stuff as dreams are made on,
and our little life is rounded with a sleep.
Sir, I am vex’d;
Bear with my weakness; my old brain is troubled:
Be not disturb’d with my infirmity:
If you be pleased, retire into my cell and there repose:
a turn or two I’ll walk, to still my beating mind.’

Prospero ‘The Tempest’ W.Shakespeare

We floated through and survived the 14 days of total self-isolation as well as the task of total self-sufficiency – where amazingly my on the spot supermarket selections on the way to the Hospital got us through without starvation or hardship.

Of course turfing him out as quickly as he was able to vaguely walk was absolutely the correct move – under the circumstances –
Being away from the chance of potential life threatening infection, and home alone with my individually crafted Dr Google rehabilitation programme was I’m sure the best form of care!

A perfect spot for a stroke survivor to recuperate

Stroke survivors need rest to recuperate so neuro-plasticity can do its magic.
Lots of conversation to reconnect language pathways and walks to regain balance and mobility –
As we approach 6 weeks, I am reminded that it is a marathon we have entered, not a sprint, but every step gets us closer to the future.

Walking his way to recovery and the future

Shedding the Cocoon to Step Out into the Future

So as restrictions begin to lift – while I thought we’d be ‘there’…
We find ourselves ‘here’.

For two months we and our world stopped and breathed and while taking in that breath we have all undergone change.
Maybe even more change, in a different way, than from our previous constant beavering to try and create it!

“Real change is best understood by staying in one place”

“Time and change are connected to place.
Real change is best understood by staying in one place.
When I travel, I see differences rather than change…”
Andy Goldsworthy

Over the last two months the Poplar trees have turned from green to golden yellow and fairy toadstools have popped up in abundance –
It has been a privilege to stop and stand and stare at our world changing before us.
I agree with Andy Goldsworthy that there are rewards from being present in a place for a period, but I also feel observing differences that other cultures can show us, and experiencing further afield unfamiliar geographic landscapes can inspire and instigate beneficial change upon returning ‘to place’.
Hopefully the manic, skimming the surface of 20 countries in 30 days kind of travel will be a thing of the past, and deeper, richer sorties communicating with the communities that we visit will ensue in its place.

Do you have plans for the future?
Maybe dreams to travel again?
Are you ready to reclaim your liberty and freedom*?

*Freedom – ‘The power or right to act, speak, or think as one wants’.
[as defined by the Oxford dictionary]

Please join the conversation in the comments below

The post Cocooned in a Caravan during Coronavirus, When… appeared first on Journey Jottings.

So can you imagine doing it not once, but 50 times?

The Big Lap

Meet Graham, who has done just that! 

Photo by Alex Parkes

After years spent working at an office desk, Graham took the decision to follow his dream to drive a truck across and around Australia for his living.

His on the road lifestyle though does mean much time is spent away from his grown up family who are based in NSW on the east coast –
Including his grandchildren!
Wanting to ensure his 6 year old granddaughter knew just where ‘Pop’ was motoring… he started filling in and posting home a Journey Jottings Map Journal with his route marked in different texta colours to show where and when he completed each Big Lap.

We found out about it when he contacted us via our Facebook Page with the below image showing us a copy of his Map Journal illustrating the 8 big laps he’d completed in early 2016!

“I’m a Long-haul truck driver and I literally drive laps AROUND Australia . I bought the 1st of your maps from Victoria River Roadhouse in Northern Territory and subsequent maps from Mundrabilla Roadhouse in W/A. I send these to my 6 year old granddaughter as she loves to see what Pop’s doing .”

What a truly wonderful way to use my Journal Maps!
To share his travels with little ones back home

The 33rd Big Lap

The map above shows the first 8 Big Laps he did in 2016.

A year later he shared with us the breakdown of days he spent doing his 33rd Big Lap ~

Big Lap Highlights

The best part of having a job that involves driving across this wonderful country of ours is naturally the opportunity to see stunning outback scenery…

…and the diverse range of sights…

From boab (bottle) trees in the Kimberleys, historic houses in Menzies (north of Kalgoorlie in WA), outback shacks with water wind mills – and even the odd Big Galah (seen at Kimba in SA on the Nullarbor Plain).

Bush fires that come perilously close to the Highway and wild Brumby horses – and even the odd bush hiker – maybe doing the Big Lap on foot?

And then there’s the open road…
That goes on and on into endless blue skies and sunsets, or big black ominous clouds, and the thickest of bull-dust thrown up by oncoming truckie mates…

Seeing storms envelop the sky around you, dark clouds recede behind you, followed by rainbows framing the road ahead…

Oh! Those endless horizons disappearing into the never never…
Not to mention all the road signs!

Big Lap Dramas

But driving so many kilometres… Such as 1,000,000 (yes that’s one million) kilometres… as recorded here on Graham’s odometer…

Seeing 1,000.000 kilometres appear on your odometer

Cannot be without its dramas –

Watching your truck go up in smoke

Such as 6 years ago when his truck caught on fire

Or in early 2019 getting cut off in Richmond in northern Queensland due to rains flooding and closing the road to all traffic for 10 days.

A tyre blow out… and as it turned out massive damage not just to the tyre

Or getting within sight of home on the 50th Big Lap and having a blow out on your front steering tyre sending you careering airborne off the highway.

The Home Straight – 50 Times Around Australia

I’m happy to say I got to meet Graham in person on a less harrowing day than those above dramas, when he was driving up through Brisbane on one of his circuits…

Meeting up with Graham as he passed through Brisbane

Over lunch the conversation was peppered with all manner of amazing travelling tales from his life on the road…

Since then he’s continued to be well prepared for recording his future adventures for his family back home with a Map Journal at the ready and a fresh pack of texta felt tip pens for marking his routes!

“…my 50th complete lap around Australia. I’m stocked up with Journey Jottings maps and coloured textas to mark this journey daily for my grand children to have a momento of Pops 50th lap.
Linda your Journey Jottings range of products are fantastic”

Congratulations Graham on your 50th Big Lap of Australia ~

Post Script: Graham completed his 55th Big Lap 
and then hung up the cab keys to spend more time with his grandchildren  

Have you travelled in Australia or completed a Big Lap?
How did you record your trip to share with family friends?

Do share your tales in the comments below

All photographs copyright Graham Parkes

The post The Big Lap – Not Once, But 50 Times Around Australia appeared first on Journey Jottings.

Golden Bay as seen and drawn by Isaack Gilsemans in 1642 who sailed aboard Tasman’s two ship expedition the Heemskerck and the Zeehaen (in the background) – Maoris in their canoe (waka) (in the foreground).

Kayaking the Abel Tasman NP

A.M. Day 1 – Water Taxi to Onetahuti Bay

Abel Tasman Kayaks buzzing as everyone prepares for their sea adventure

When we arrived at 8.30am Abel Tasman Kayaks was abuzz with a variety of parties preparing for their individually chosen adventure –
Some were heading out on

• fully catered/all camping gear supplied – guided expeditions of various lengths
• some were hiring kayaks to be literally plopped in the Bay to get paddling from there –
• some were doing a mixture of walking some days and kayaking others
• But we selected the 2 day Park Start where a water taxi transports you (and your kayak and camping equipment) up the coast so you can paddle (unaccompanied) just the one way – which more significantly means you have the prevailing NW wind pushing you from behind on the last leg

The two kayaks ready and loaded for us and another couple, who also selected the independent kayak option – the 2 day ‘Park Start’ expedition

The various groups quickly dissipated and we headed off down to the bay for our personal safety briefing and introductory lesson on how to make a mix of paddling moves!

Kayaks lie across the back of the water taxi as we zap off up the coast

Here’s the link if you can’t see this 6 sec movie!
https://youtu.be/hQV_w85ocP8

With our kayaks and gear loaded onto the water taxi we whizzed away up past a myriad of beautiful sandy bays perforating the headlands – all waiting to be explored on our homeward journey.

Kayak Abel Tasman NP Map

We were dropped off in the very top bay on this map – and made our way back down the coast to Marahau (the very bottom bay), with an overnight camp along the way.

P.M.Day 1 – Onetahuti Beach to our Overnight Camp

The skipper of the water taxi dropped our kayaks down onto the sand, with our camping equipment, food and water supplies and waved farewell, leaving us to paddle the 20km (or so – what with all the weaving in and out of Bays and skirting rocky islands to spy on fur seals) back to Marahau.

Beach drop-off – Tonga Island in the background

We loaded our gear into the watertight holds, slipped on our kayak ‘skirts’, adjusted our life jackets and hopped into our new watery home as our toes gave a final push off through the grainy sand –
We glided out onto the glassy blue sea –
We were away… heading for Tonga Island.

Circumnavigating Tonga Island – our first ‘port of call’

Cormorants were preening themselves on the rocks…

While fur seals twirled and twisted in the water – Making them a treat to watch – but tricky to catch on the camera!

After a glorious day of paddling through clear turquoise waters

With beautiful birds (and their families) for company…

We made landfall at Mosquito Bay – not the most romantic name – but is a Bay only accessible by sea; hikers and trampers walking the Abel Tasman track cut across Foul Point and this peninsular further inland, meaning it is only kayakers who get the opportunity to camp here.

We set up our tent with this view.

After all that paddling – time to relax!

Then lay back on the sand to watch the mesmerising evening entertainment of the tide slowly but surely inching its way towards our feet until the moment came that we could float our kayak up over the inundated long sandy beach (exposed at low tide) rather than have to carry it’s dead weight up to above the high water mark for the night!

Sunrise at Mosquito Bay, Abel Tasman NP

I have to concede there are times it’s great to have a partner who is an early morning riser!

Who’d want to be sleeping when there’s this happening outside the tent flaps?

I was unexpectedly joyful to be disturbed enough to have me staggering out onto the cool damp sand in the dawn light, where with super sleepy eyes I reached the water’s edge to find this happening…

If you can’t see this glorious sunrise in action – Click here
https://youtu.be/NRjrpJKVgfs

The sun and my body came gently alive in unison – building in strength, vibrancy and vitality…

Until, with the sun shining brightly above the horizon, we meandered back up across the untouched sand to pack up camp.

With still only our footprints making marks below the last high water mark…

… we watched the lapping water engulf and dissolve all traces of them, until once more the water was high enough to make re-launching our kayak a breeze

Kayak Abel Tasman National Park, NZ

Day 2 Red Sky in the Morning…

With camping gear all safely stowed once more ‘below decks’ in the spacious holds, we again felt the sand squish between our toes as we pushed off and hopped in to paddle back out to sea crossing Bark Bay and circumnavigating Pinnacle Island.

Where this fur seal was peacefully soaking up the early morning sun

Coming back in off the open sea we explored Sandfly Bay Lagoon (only accessible two hours either side of high tide)

And paddled up the Falls River to the swing bridge that takes hikers/trampers along the Abel Tasman track – with all of our equipment laying in our bow we effortlessly slipped silently beneath.

We also ventured into Frenchman’s Bay, but as we came back out into the open sea, a squall hit making rounding North Head, crossing Torrent Bay and circumnavigating Pitt Head, a little more interesting!

Can you see the choppy waters above? If not click here:
https://youtu.be/AlvAUu_rh9g

We had a somewhat sodden lunch at the beautiful Te Pukatea Bay!

Then with the wind strongly behind us we got virtually blown down to Adele Island, without having to make a paddle stroke.

Crossing Sandy Bay, which was now low tide again, meant we were greeted by a row of tractors out to recover all the kayaks onto trailers and get paddlers and equipment safely back onto dry land.

Can you see the video of the tractor on the beach?
If not Click here:
https://youtu.be/l-mRDfrpzGw

The Abel Tasman Kayak crew were there – gratefully with a trailer that had space in the back for us too!

Journalling our Kayaking Adventure

It was the most marvellous two days –
We would have loved it to have been longer but there was a ‘cyclone’ coming in and there were to be no kayaks out on the water at all the next day.

Above is an extract from my concertina paged travel journal that I keep when on the road –
More from where that came from to be posted soon!

Have you been on a Kayak adventure?
And if not, why not?!

The best bit is you don’t have to carry all that heavy camping gear –
It glides through the water with you.

Do share and tell in the comments below –
I love hearing from you

The post Kayak Abel Tasman – Exploring NZ’s South Island NP from the Sea! appeared first on Journey Jottings.

J.R.R. Tolkien

I was standing in the British Library in London looking down into a museum cabinet where beneath a layer of glass, lay an original map of Mordor.
Hand drawn on graph paper by Tolkien’s son Christopher in 1948.
it was used by his father as an aid to plotting out the third book of Lord of the Rings that was to be published in 1955.

Tolkien’s Map of Mordor

Tolkien mapping out Mordor

And, My Map of Central Australia

And just to the right of it, in the very same cabinet, was my (yes you read that right) my hand drawn map of Central Australia that I’d created for Lonely Planet’s 2nd edition of Australia back in the late 70’s.

Mordor (1948) on the left and my hand drawn map of Central Australia (1979) top right, on display in the British Library, London

Maps and the 20th Century Exhibition

It wasn’t a total surprise to see it there.
But even if you know something is coming – it can still sweep you off your feet when it actual happens ~
And certainly the thought plus the sight of my creative energies swirling around in the same cabinet space as Tolkien’s – was a little heady!

Tony Wheeler had been in touch with me a few months prior saying he was in London with a portfolio of vintage Lonely Planet maps to share with the British Library curator, Tom Harper for potential selection and inclusion in their upcoming exhibition –
Maps and the 20th Century: Drawing the Line.

The Lonely Planet portfolio laid out for the curator Tom Harper to peruse

The overall theme being that come the 20th century, maps no longer were merely navigational for telling us where we were in the world, but rather they were being used to tell us more about who we were  – maps were being used as a tool to influence our thinking via propaganda and marketing persuasion.

Tom wanted to include some travel maps from guide books, which during the 20th century had flourished in popularity, and so illustrate how maps increasingly had more than a single purpose –
In the case of guide book maps, how they “were designed to stimulate the imagination of armchair travellers as much as to guide wayfarers.” 

The Centre of Australia, hand drawn by Linda Fairbairn for the Lonely Planet 1979 edition of Australia

Lonely Planet and Lord of the Rings

In November 2016 I received another email from Tony saying:

“I’m briefly in London and have just been to the opening of the British Library’s ‘Maps and the 20th Century: Drawing the Line’ exhibition.
It’s open until 1 March 2017.

They said they have 4 million maps in their collection, there were several thousand they considered using in the exhibition and your ‘The Centre’ map was one of the 200 actually on display.

What is particularly nice is the display case with your map, the Geoff Crowther Central & South America notebook and the 1983 edition of Geoff’s South America on a Shoestring, also includes a map of Middle Earth drawn by Tolkien in 1948 and used by him as he plotted the activity as he wrote Lord of the Rings.

Standing by the cabinet in the British Library exhibiting my hand drawn pictorial map

So you’re in a display case with Tolkien and the British Library also displays Gutenberg’s Bible of 1455, an original Magna Carta, the Lindisfarne Gospels, the Codex Sinaiticus, Leonardo da Vinci’s notebook, Handel’s Messiah – in the composer’s hand, Beowulf and handwritten lyrics by the Beatles.
Good company!“

The exhibition –  was on display from November 2016 through to March 2017, so when in the UK visiting family I naturally made a detour to visit London and see the show.

Outside of the British Library

Maps on Display at: Drawing the Line

It was such an interesting, enchanting, thought provoking and confronting selection of cartographic works –

While some were beautifully artistic and inspiring, others were heartrending as they conveyed the destruction of war; some were political and clandestine, while others took you on a hop skip and a jump back to childhood with board-games with maps as their central theme, and pages from the UK Automobile Association’s personalised map itineraries (which for me brought back many happy memories of map reading in the back of the car as a real live Sat Nav directing my father to turn left and right as we headed off on summer family holidays to the hills of Snowdonia in Wales or the North Western Isles of Scotland); as well as the simply gorgeous end papers from Winnie the Pooh, with the map of 100 Aker Wood.

[If you can’t see the video above – click here]

Central Australia -The Middle Earth of Australia!

Central Australia is situated, as its name implies – in the very middle of this island continent – miles from the sea in any direction.
It is a world of wonderfully unique vegetation, animal species and landscapes – not to mention, amazing people!

Gazing through the glass into the cabinet looking from one map to the other – I was drawn into the notion that in each of their own ways, both were a ‘Middle Earth’ of kinds.

The two maps both represented ancient lands, steeped in complex stories from long, long ago.

My current map of Central Australia available in my on-line shop (Click the image to access)

It was fun reconnecting with a map I’d last seen nearly 40 years earlier when I’d popped this original pen and ink drawing on draughting film into a tube and posted it off to Tony in Melbourne where the artwork was laid out in preparation for the press.

Cover of my current Central Australia Map Journal

My life has been focused on peoples travels and more importantly the preservation of their memories with my signature product – Journey Jottings Journal Map – and particularly relevant to this story –
the Central Australia Map Journal ~

A detail of the landscape from Journey Jottings Central Australia Map Journal

In the end… it’s all about…
Going on an adventure

This tale started with two hand drawn maps connected by their proximity in a museum glass cabinet, which was due to the commonality of their history – having both been created for a 20th century publication…

There were parallels to be made as one was indeed a map ‘of’ Middle Earth – while the other (mine) held the attributes of ‘a’ Middle Earth…

But in the end, the connection is that these two maps have travel at their core.
Both exude the mystery and excitement and fear of stepping out into the unknown, venturing into unfamiliar landscapes where discoveries are to be made and where…

Adventures are to be had

“It’s a dangerous business… going out your door. You step onto the road, and if you don’t keep your feet, there’s no telling where you might be swept off to.” 

“Home is behind, the world ahead.”
J.R.R. Tolkien

Post Script:
I was fascinated to read Mark’s comment in the section below how a Mordor exists to the NE of Alice Springs – and thus on the right edge of my Central Australia Map!

Excerpt from the AusGeo magazine

Now there’s a little bit of synchronicity for you

My Map Journals are designed to highlight your adventures by simply dotting your route on the map and jotting your travelling tales in the surrounding illustrated boxes – a visual keepsake that will keep that holiday smile on your face… forever!

Have you read the Lord of the Rings and/or seen the films?
Or better still… visited The Red Centre –
Australia’s Middle Earth!
A real life landscape where stories older than time await discovery.

Do share one of your traveling adventures
in the comments below

The post A Map of Mordor and a Map of Central Australia – Where’s the Connection? appeared first on Journey Jottings.

Well, less is more… “

Robert Browning (1812–1889)
from his poem (1855) ‘speaking’ as artist
Andrea del Sarto to his wife Lucrezia

Less is More

I needed to tidy my studio, but where to start?
Why is getting over that initial hurdle so excruciating?

How hard can it be?
That wicked left language side of my brain was working it’s evil, blowing the whole job up into wordy thoughts of enormity to scare me off, when in reality it was a simple case of less is more – Move forward, pick up a piece of paper or a book, and watch the task magically unfurl.

Where to start?

Putting my hand out I let it fall upon a black covered travel journal sitting near the top of the pile –
And who couldn’t resist a little peek and maybe a quick flick through?!

What is a Travel Journal to You?

Journals (to me) are a personal thing –
They’re not as a rule for sharing –
They’re a means to privately record what has filled my days – So years later (or when I tidy my studio) I can go – Oh! I’d forgotten all about that –

I love the accessibility of journals – The immediacy of their stories encased between thick black covers waiting to be rediscovered.

Memories

Stingrays along the waterline – a fine memory

Like this day when the stingrays were feeding along the water’s edge – And I noticed how the original 2 black swans feeding on the sea grass a few days previously, had become 13! Which then made me realise that they’re no longer here, having moved on to greener pastures (?!). But how having them in the Bay for a while was such a wondrous thing.

Capturing Memories Digitally

If you take a photo (‘a’ photo haha), I mean xxxx photos, the onus is squarely on you to do something with them after you’ve pressed that shutter if you are to get any pleasure from them.
All that willy nilly carefree snapping while travelling in a bid to capture those elusive holiday moments creates a frighteningly large pile of numbers on your SD card, and/or your hard-drive that shows you absolutely nothing and tells you even less.
P1070059, P1070060, P1070061….
Until…. you’ve spent hours at some point later down the track (if that ‘later’ ever comes) to pore over them and repeatedly click and delete the rubbish, sort, cull, crop and enhance. rename and file, before they’re fit to see the light of day when finally uploaded and/or print/published.

Capturing memories with photos can doom them to a life imprisoned in the deepest darkest depths of your hard drive.

The clarity of that day comes back to me in a flash with this little story-map

Which is maybe why I love story-mapping in my travel journals so much!

The ‘Less is More’ Way to Recording Your Travelling Tales

Story-Map travel journals are effortless to ‘read’ –
At a glance the narrative is laid out before you illustrating what you saw, how you did it, where you went, who you met…

And their creation by comparison to other methods of recording travel memories, is relatively effortless too!
When travelling I spend about 15 minutes each evening to ponder, reflect and re-live the events of the day (which in itself helps to commit the experiences to my long term memory) while I do little doodle drawings to record what has taken place –

They’re not photographic, or life like renditions – They’re more like pictograms that represent and portray what I’m remembering in my mind’s eye – symbolically.

Each night I ensure I’ve sketched out the highlights of the day – Here’s what I did on a Friday and Saturday when in Tasmania recently.

There’s no pressure to create an artistic sketch –
Scribbly doodles are the go!

And because when I’m on the road I have the tendency to go into overdrive, squashing the max into each day (and each moment) the days can be long, not allowing a lot of time for record keeping –
So it’s only the initial outline of the drawing that I ensure I get done and dusted before my head hits the pillow each night – Anything more is optional.

The colouring happens later

The colouring can wait –

It’s only the factual bits that I’m compelled to spend that 15 minutes committing to paper before the day is done because it’s surprising just what can fall between the cracks if I don’t do that before the clock strikes midnight.

The colouring part is super relaxing and a pleasurable pastime that requires no thinking so can be slotted in anytime –
Whether you have a few moments to fill waiting for someone, or something to happen; or you’re having a drink in a cafe and/or socializing with friends – Colouring can be done while chatting – It does not require your full attention (unlike scrolling through posts on your phone )

‘Less is More’ in both Size & Shape

I’ve tried various configurations of travel journals for doodling my story maps – portrait, landscape, large and small, but I love the concertina or accordion journals that can fold out into a continuous sheet so the pages and the days are all connected –

Some days the events spill out over several pages…

They allow ‘time’ to flow and not be confined to fit within the bounds of a single page.
I don’t know about you – But my days are rarely created equal – Some days are huge and need to spill out over three pages with the complexity of their events…

Other days are lazy, and will comfortably curl up in the corner of a page!

Lazy days don’t need so much space

Why ‘Less is More’ is so Effective

I wonder if you realize how much you unwittingly use pictograms in your every day life?

Signage to keep you safe on the roads, to direct you to public conveniences and warn you of dangers – particularly where they need to be comprehended across language barriers –

Minuscule cartoon-like pictograms can say so much.

Encapsulating a Saturday

The way I see it is –

• Rather than writing pages and pages of words to spell out a first draft describing the intricacies of what you did
• Spend hours sketching in one spot attempting a life like rendition of a single moment
• Or staring at a computer screen scrolling, culling and enhancing xxxx photos

As a first port of call for recording your travel memories consider taking a mere 15 minutes to turn your day’s experiences into pictograms and try story mapping your travels –
Your story, there and then, will have been recorded for posterity.
For the minimal amount of time and energy involved, the results are massive!

Extract from my story-map travel journal when in Canada

“No sketches first, no studies, that’s long past:
I do what many dream of, all their lives,
—Dream? strive to do, and agonize to do,
And fail in doing. I could count twenty such
On twice your fingers, and not leave this town,
Who strive—you don’t know how the others strive
To paint a little thing like that you smeared
Carelessly passing with your robes afloat,—
Yet do much less, so much less, Someone says,
(I know his name, no matter)—so much less!
Well, less is more, Lucrezia: I am judged.”

Robert Browning

What do you think?
Do you agree that less can be more when it comes to travel journalling?
Or is this poppycock?
Do share your views in the comments below and let the discussion begin

The post The ‘Less is More’ Way of Travel Journalling appeared first on Journey Jottings.

While the word ‘inspire’ figuratively means to excite, rouse and inflame:

• fill (someone) with the urge or ability to do or feel something, especially to do something creative.
• “breath or put life or spirit into the human body; impart reason to a human soul.”

It’s original meaning from the 1560’s is:

• breathe in (air); inhale.
  derived from the Latin inspirare breathe –
  in – “in” and spirare “to breathe” 

An inspirational map! Detail of Australia from MacDonald Gill’s Atlantic Charter 1942

Inspiration: A Breath of Fresh Air

When the new year blows in, it comes with the inevitable gusts of fresh inspiration –
Inspiration to fitten up…
Inspiration to eat unpackaged foods…
Inspiration to improve our being (in some way or form)…
But rather than being inspirational, these wishes are more aspirational –
Aspirations come from within us – they are self generated desires (possibly borne from comparing ourselves to others)
And we all know where that leads – ‘Comparison is the thief of joy’

True ‘inspiration’ means:

• fill (someone) with the urge or ability to do or feel something, especially to do something creative.

So it is only when connecting with someone else (or something) that one can really be inspired and experience that wonderful surge of energy that ignites and enriches our souls with a force that doesn’t drain resources –
It feeds and fires up our creative wells.

Breathing in Inspiration

Last December I went to a map exhibition at the British Library in London –

Maps and the 20th Century: Drawing the Line – 

Here’s the link if the video above is not showing:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XYrkGTP6zcc

It made me gasp!
Gasp at the cartographers’ creativity portrayed in the 200 maps on display.
And gasp to breathe in their inspiration and feel my creative well being filled and enriched –
It put life and spirit into my body
I was INSPIRED in every sense of the word!

Despite what it may appear on the surface – No one is an island

But it also rang alarm bells –
It was only as this flurry of emotion swirled up in me that I realised how parched I’d allowed my creative well to unwittingly become this past year while buzzing about on the business side of the company, leaving my creative soul in drought.

Despite what it may appear on the surface – No one is an island – We are all part of a whole

We totally accept that cars need more than the occasional top up with fuel to optimally perform –
And our decor needs more than basic upkeep to stay looking fresh, with the odd shot of artistic or designer input to remain lively –
So, I’m not quite sure why I imagined that if I was only caring for my mind with mindfulness, and my body with exercise, that I’d function in anything more than maintenance mode –
By failing to feed my essence from external inputs, I failed to feed the very heart and soul of my being.

We are all connected – and need that connection

The British Library map exhibition was an eye opener-
Not only was it interesting and entertaining – It inspired and delighted me and most importantly – re-ignited an innate desire to not only maintain the status quo with the busyness of my business, but to look beyond the mundanities and focus on creating more –

Creation (in whatever form) is our life’s purpose.

More inspirational map work! The Atlantic Charter (detail) by MacDonald Gill [1942] Click here if you’d like to see a little more of MacDonald Gill’s work:)

So as each year, each month or each week expires…

I glance back…

And create a summary sheet – upon which I record a monthly highlight so upon glancing back I can see my whole year at a glance –

Last year I wrote this Annie Dillard quote along the top –

“How we spend our days is how we spend our lives” Annie Dillard

As we breath in a new year, a new month or a new week it’s a pertinent reminder to observe exactly what are we spending our time on doing?

Are we filling our days with busyness?
Or filling our life with creativity?

And purely for the curious –
Here is my 2016 Year at a Glance

Each month I record a highlight so at the end of the year I can see my year at a glance

Who or what inspires your creativity?
And how do you record or recall what you filled your days with?

Do tell in the comments below

The post Inspiration – A Breath of Fresh Air to Start the Year, the Month or the Week appeared first on Journey Jottings.