Inspiring Travel Writing from Greg Clarke
Greg Clarke is an Australian freelance writer who has contributed to newspapers in Australia, Hong Kong and New Zealand. He has also contributed to some of the region's in-flight magazines as well as the Australian Geographic magazine. Greg has recently celebrated the birth of his first child and is currently coming to terms with sleep deprivation. And while sleep can seem a constant thought, so is conjuring an excuse to return to Beirut.
Articles by Greg Clarke
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Canada - Vancouver to Montreal
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Greg Clarke
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Canada
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British Columbia
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Vancouver
A Canadian is someone who knows how to make love in a canoe,” said Pierre Berton, Canada’s much-loved historian. When, soon after arriving in Vancouver, I was offered chance to deliver a car to Montreal I planned a route avoiding hyped tourist...
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One Ouagadougou Night
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Greg Clarke
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Burkina Faso
In the preface to Travels with Myself and Another, Martha Gellhorn writes, "The only aspect of our travels guaranteed to hold an audience is disaster." I have travelled to Ouagadougou from Mali and am enroute to West Africa’s Gold Coast when...
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Beer and Bamako
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Greg Clarke
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Mali
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Niger River
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Bamako
If you listen to travel’s good judges, they will tell you that immersing yourself in a foreign culture is the essence of travel. And, yes, lingering at a footpath ‘restaurant’ sharing a bench seat and simple table with locals is...
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Walking the Great Ocean Road
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Greg Clarke
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Australia
Blanket Bay is barely more than a few flaps of an eagle’s wing from the crisp bed sheets and gourmet pizzas found in the thriving coastal township of Apollo Bay, around 200 kilometres south west of Melbourne. For those without wings it is...
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Epiphanies in Tasmania
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Greg Clarke
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Australia
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Tasmania
Four litres of cask wine saved my life. Cardboard vino has for too long been unjustly maligned for as an elixir it is surprisingly wonderful and, with liberal doses, superbly numbing. An epic tract of Tasmania’s southwest is a World Heritage...
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Beating to Windward
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Greg Clarke
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Australia
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Tasmania
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Tasmania City
Weevils in biscuits and peas as hard as gun shot are no longer standard fare for travellers, not even for those on budget airlines. Nineteenth century sailors, however, regularly supped on biscuits with the pesky and all too pervasive grubs, and how...
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Sir Stamford Double Bay
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Greg Clarke
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Australia
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New South Wales
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Sydney
Double Bay is one of Sydney’s most exclusive areas and this Sir Stamford is set near to upmarket cafes and designer shops. The first level reception is a suitable reflection of Double Bay’s predilection for opulence and perhaps somewhere within...
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Regents Court
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Greg Clarke
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Australia
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New South Wales
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Sydney
Regents Court is a hideaway that has been run by the MacMahon family for 17 years. For a time owners Paula and Tom brought their five children up here. Not surprisingly, there is an intimacy that larger hotels can never match. This 30-room gem was...
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InterContinental
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Greg Clarke
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Australia
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New South Wales
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Sydney
The InterContinental, opened in 1985, incorporates the 1851 heritage-listed Treasury Building and its fetching sandstone arcades. The cortile may be set below a wonderful juxtaposition of modern and historic but an large refurbishment, completed in...
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Galle Face Hotel
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Greg Clarke
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Sri Lanka
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South Coast
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Galle
K.C. Khutton shuffles across the marbled foyer of Colombo’s Galle Face Hotel. A thick Victorian-style moustache dominates his face while his brilliant white tunic has red epaulettes. “Morning sir,” he says, hands joined, and he is dwarfed by the...