Part 1: The Battlefields Several years ago I wrote a blog article related to the discovery of my lost South African ancestry. In it I described my passionate childhood interest in Zulu history, and the wistful thought that members of my family may actually have participated in events that had fired my youthful imagination. (see A […]

As far as my own parochial wish was concerned, to discover a cathedral at the end of an ersatz pilgrimage, I was as awed and humbled as I hoped to be. We had a taste of what was to come at Munurru, on the edge of the Mitchell Escarpment. As on the Jatbula Trail each site had its own aura of age and sanctity. Pavilions of rocks surrounded rings of flat ground that could have been used for the ceremonies and dances, depicted in the paintings. […]

Trek Tours Australia advertised the Jatbula Trail as a 6-day 62 km “full pack bushwalking adventure, taking us far away from city life and immersing us into (an) ancient wonderland.” The trail would follow a Jawoyn Songline through the Nitmiluk National Park, following the Arnhem Land Escarpment “through shady monsoon forests, past spectacular waterfalls and their crystal clear swimming pools and… stunning Aboriginal rock art sites… (camping) in some of the most spectacular wilderness country in Australia.” […]

In the second half of August this year, carrying my rucksack, boots and my old Akubra hat, I arrived in Darwin, capital of Australia’s Northern Territory, having booked myself on a couple of ‘bush tours’.

During the past two years, I had walked two of the world’s oldest pilgrim trails: the Way of St James through Portugal and Spain (also known as the Camino de Santiago de Compostela), and the Kumano-Kodo in Japan.[…]

Book Launch at The Avid Reader Bookshop, Brisbane, Australia, 4th September 2017

It is more than an honour to be here today because Laurence is my oldest friend – probably there’s nobody on the planet except his brothers who have known him as long, and it is an enormous pleasure to be able to participate in the launch of his first book, which I consider to be a masterpiece. […]

On October 20th 2016, with two other Englishmen in their sixties, carrying back packs and wearing stout boots, I set off from the town of Tanabe to strike a path through the mountain ranges of Japan’s Wakayama Prefecture. Our week-long journey would take us through the southern third of the Kii Peninsula that drops down […]

‘Good Children of the Flower’, Hong Ying’s sequel to her autobiography ‘Daughter of the River’ is now available on Amazon

Adam and Hong Ying’s eight year old daughter, Sybil, holds up the model she fashioned of Henry VIII’s greatest warship, the Mary Rose, which in 1545 sank in the Solent, drowning 700 sailors and soldiers.

Zezhong Gallery are pleased to host the exhibition The Essence of Flowers by the English artist Piers Williams. The exhibition will include previously unexhibited painting exploring the mystery and beauty of flowers. Among the paintings are beautiful large and small naturalistic paintings of peonies and other flowers, using traditional oil painting techniques, bring modern screen […]

Merry Christmas 2015 and Happy New Year 2016 from Adam, Hong Ying and Sybil.