It had been 3 months since I had been to the city, and I was wondering if I would see much change. Security was still tight; the soldiers manning the checkpoint on the edge of town were strict and cautious, inspecting our documents and vehicles carefully before waving us through. They were fully kitted out and armed, and their heavily dug-in positions lined the road. The first thing I noticed as we reached the city was the increased amount of…
When we were kids at primary school, we would ask each other deep and insightful questions like ‘what’s your favourite sport, footy (Australian Rules Football) or cricket?’ Other sports never featured in this most important of schoolyard inquiries. Depending on what season it was, I would answer one or the other. In summer, I would be convinced that I loved cricket the most, but in winter I would answer ‘footy’ without hesitation. As a kid growing up in Victoria, football…
G’day all and welcome to the Midlife Crisis Odyssey Podcast, where not all who wander are lost, but some of us definitely are. Having spent the first day of my visit to the Pyramids of Giza getting a feel for the place, and venturing inside the Pyramids of Khufu and Khafre, I returned the following day ready for some wider exploration. If you would like to see the post for this podcast, you can find it here If you liked…
G’day all and welcome to the Midlife Crisis Odyssey Podcast, where not all who wander are lost, but some of us definitely are. After a 20 minute walk from my accommodation I arrived at the Giza Plateau. I paid to enter the site, and bought extra tickets to venture inside two of the Pyramids. Not only was I visiting one of the most amazing historic sites on earth, I was going to enter two of the spectacular ancient monuments! If…
G’day all and welcome to the Midlife Crisis Odyssey Podcast, where not all who wander are lost, but some of us definitely are. The Olympic Games are one of those things that make me feel like a kid again. Every four years it’s a two week festival of sport that has me enthralled. Consequently, when I arrived in Athens, I was keen to visit the Panathenaic Stadium to soak up a little Olympic History. If you would like to see…
It’s amazing what a couple of weeks will do. The last time we made the five-and-a-half hour trip to the village the countryside was snowbound. Although Ukraine’s snowy farmland is beautiful (from the warmth of the car, at least), poor visibility and icy roads had made the drive anything but relaxing. However, now a week into spring, the sun was shining, and the huge trucks of the Ukrainian Armed Forces sucked the dust from the road verge into swirling, grey-brown…
G’day all and welcome to the Midlife Crisis Odyssey Podcast, where not all who wander are lost, but some of us definitely are. Whakatane is a little beachside town in the Bay of Plenty on New Zealand’s North Island. It’s known as the ‘Kiwi Capital of the World’, so I started walking the nearby forests tracks at night searching for kiwis. After many hours of walking in the freezing darkness, I decided that my fifth night of searching would be…
G’day all and welcome to the Midlife Crisis Odyssey Podcast, where not all who wander are lost, but some of us definitely are. I had been too nervous to jump on the taxi minibuses in Egypt’s heaving cities, but figured I couldn’t go too far wrong in the beachside resort town of Sharm El Sheik. Riding the minibuses turned out to be a really enjoyable local experience. If you would like to see the post for this podcast, you can…
G’day all and welcome to the Midlife Crisis Odyssey Podcast, where not all who wander are lost, but some of us definitely are. A chance meeting in Wadi Rum lead to an amazing experience amongst the ancient landscape of this fascinating part of Jordan. If you would like to see the post for this podcast, you can find it here If you liked this podcast, you may also like Podcast Episode 4. Driving In Tunisia , Podcast Episode 6. The…
We waited at the checkpoint while the police officer, his face obscured by a neck gaiter pulled up over his nose, inspected our passports. There are checkpoints on all the roads which enter and exit the city, where the movement of people, vehicles and cargo are monitored. Glancing from my passport photo to my face and back again, the officer asked what we had in the car and where we were going. My colleague answered that we were heading to…