Saturday, November 6, 2021

Back to the river: paddlewheeler on the Murray River

 

Murray Princess Paddlewheeler

"While I was born in Adelaide, both my parents were born in the South Australian country," says travel writer and photographer, Roderick Eime, "Mum was born at Renmark, and with many childhood weekends away, the Murray River formed a large part of our family life."

"We often forget that paddlewheelers opened up the Australian outback to commerce long before the first railway lines and roads were laid. The old steamers are an integral part of our colonial history."

19th-century commerce. Loading cargo on a Murray River paddlesteamer
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Rod revisits his family heritage along Australia's largest river with a reprise on the largest inland paddlewheeler in the southern hemisphere, the majestic PS Murray Princess.

Stories and images from this voyage will be available from December 2021.


Sunday, September 5, 2021

Coffee Culture: Australia's First Indigenous-owned coffee brand.



While we're all enjoying more cuppas at home, it's the perfect time to switch over to a socially conscious brand doing great things. DHUWA is the first Indigenous-owned coffee to be stocked in Woolworths. The home-coffee blends have been created in partnership with Griffiths Bros Roastery and headed up by proud Mununjali Palawa man Shawn Andrews with the view to train and employ Indigenous people and in so doing, contribute to their communities. Gwen Luscombe meets the man who is truly putting culture into coffee.

The Hills are Alive: Adelaide's new gourmet bonanza


 While Australia's Eastern states are locked down, Adelaide-based writer and photographer Roderick Eime, has revelled in the relative freedom of the South Australian capital revisiting places of his childhood in the Adelaide Hills and Mount Lofty Ranges. What has he found? Always a fertile region for fruit and vegetables, the Hills are now a wine and gourmet food bonanza. The famous Barossa Valley continues to evolve with a new wave of wineries and labels from the latest generation of the old families. And so much else.

Tuesday, March 9, 2021

Cruising returns to South Australia with small ships

 


After an agonising hiatus, cruising returns to the historic waters of South Australia. With a heritage of leisure cruising dating back more than a century, small ships are leading the way into this rich maritime region. Roderick Eime goes back to sea with Coral Expeditions.

Wednesday, February 13, 2019

White wine and cheese? Who'd have thought?



Showing a sense of adventure is your best approach when trying to match wine and cheese, wine writer Winsor Dobbin says.

The vast majority of wine lovers automatically choose a bottle of red to accompany the cheese course. 

This is seen as an unwritten rule – but rules are made to be broken and many white wines can do the job just as well as reds, particularly the leaner, more modern styles of chardonnay. 

Mitchell Taylor, owner of Taylors Wines in the Clare Valley, says he believes a dry Riesling is the best companion for a cheese platter.

Friday, September 21, 2018

New small ships for 2018


Expert expedition cruise journalist and photographer, Roderick Eime, lists recent and forthcoming small ship experiences for your editorial consideration. [Contact]



Cruise Line: CroisiEurope / CF Mekong
Vessel: Indochine II (launched 2017)
Destination: Mekong. Siem Reap to Saigon
Date travelled/travelling: September 2018



Cruise Line: Silversea
Vessel: Silver Cloud (rebuilt 2017)
Destination: Newfoundland and Labrador, Canada
Date travelled/travelling: September 2018



Cruise Line: Ponant
Vessel: Le Champlain (maiden voyage)
Destination: Bergen, Norway
Date travelled/travelling: October 2018



Cruise Line: Lindblad-National Geographic
Vessel: NG Venture (maiden voyage)
Destination: West Coast USA and Mexico
Date travelled/travelling: December 2018



Cruise Line: Captain Cook Cruises Fiji
Vessel: MV Reef Endeavour
Destination: Fiji - Taveuni, Ovalau
Date travelled/travelling: April 2018

FORTHCOMING / TBA
  • Captain Cook Cruises: Murray Princess 
  • G Adventures 
  • Sea Trek Bali
Thank you for reading

Saturday, July 7, 2018

Audi Q8: Getting high in the Andes




Our prestige motoring expert, Damien Reid, gets some rarefied air.

The Q8 is Audi's new flagship model, taking the mantle from the A8 as the world continues its love for SUVs. The Q8 is the off-roading sibling of the A8 as a premium, luxury off-roader, so we took it to the stunning Atacama Desert high up in the mountains on the edges of the Andes in Chile.



Here, the oxygen is just 57 per cent of its capacity at sea level, being 4500m (15,000ft) above it, meaning car and driver were working hard just to stay rolling.

The Q8 will be Audi's Number One model in China, its biggest market, so it's an important car and will be filtering into dealer showrooms by the fourth quarter of this year.