Dusty Boots Journal

Dusty Boots Journal Stories of authentic journeys and hidden paths around the world.

A population of 12, with a pub, a caravan park, one house, and half a dozen restored historical buildings. Neale takes ...
03/09/2026

A population of 12, with a pub, a caravan park, one house, and half a dozen restored historical buildings. Neale takes us south from Cameron Corner and Tibooburra along the Silver City Highway to Milparinka, NSW.

From fixing explosive tyre plugs on the bitumen to contemplating an impromptu game of donga-front netball, Neale explores how an 1880s gold rush town of four pubs, a hospital, and a newspaper collapsed into a fascinating heritage ghost town - and walks in the tragic 1845 footsteps of explorer Charles Sturt at Depot Glen and Mount Poole.

Inside Neale’s outback dispatch:
🛞 Tyre blowouts and outback highway travel tactics.
🏨 The Albert Hotel: Cold drinks and continuous trading since 1880 in a town of 12 residents.
🏺 The Ghost Town: Wandering among collapsed stone dwellings, rusted iron, and broken 19th-century crockery.
🪨 Sturt’s 1845 Tragedy: The survival story behind James Poole’s grave and the stone cairn at Mount Poole.

Read Neale’s full outback history dispatch at the link👇

I took this picture in a village near Borobadur, Java. Pigeon fancying is not just an English thing. This chap had a doz...
25/08/2026

I took this picture in a village near Borobadur, Java. Pigeon fancying is not just an English thing. This chap had a dozen birds in four or five cages.

Homing pigeons are pretty amazing when you think about it. They can do things we can't - sense variances in the Earth's magnetic field, adjust direction using the sun, sense super-low frequency soundwaves and faint smells to build a mental map and calculate the way home. All so they can hop back in their cage, have a handful of corn and seed, and stay safe from predators.

I recently had a great afternoon at Greenfield Park, Albury, watching the Albury Thunder rugby league team take on the J...
19/08/2026

I recently had a great afternoon at Greenfield Park, Albury, watching the Albury Thunder rugby league team take on the Junee Diesels. Country football is a terrific experience, and can be an anchor point for communities. I wrote a brief article, check it out in the Journal. Go to the first comment for the link.

I took this picture in one of the floating villages on Inle Lake, Myanmar, a few years ago. These ci**rs, known as cher...
03/08/2026

I took this picture in one of the floating villages on Inle Lake, Myanmar, a few years ago. These ci**rs, known as cheroots, are mostly for domestic consumption but there is a small export trade.

The cigar fillings are a mixture of to***co and fragrant wood shavings, and the wrapper is made from leaves of the thanaphet tree. Flavour may be further enhanced by adding tamarind, honey, dried banana, or whatever else is at hand.

The ladies are ethnic Shan, and they spend their lives on the lake. Their kids get to school by small boat. The lady in purple told me she can roll between 600 and 700 cheroots in a day.

I took this picture on the beach at Lombok, Indonesia. Why was he wearing his helmet? Afraid of having it stolen? To kee...
30/07/2026

I took this picture on the beach at Lombok, Indonesia. Why was he wearing his helmet? Afraid of having it stolen? To keep his head warm? Or was he worried about hammerheads?

Beyond the grand gates of Angkor Wat, the jungle still holds some secrets. 🛕🍃🇰🇭In our latest Dusty Boots Journal dispatc...
18/07/2026

Beyond the grand gates of Angkor Wat, the jungle still holds some secrets. 🛕🍃🇰🇭

In our latest Dusty Boots Journal dispatch, we take an essential day trip away from the bustling crowds of Siem Reap to explore three of Cambodia's lesser-visited archaeological treasures: Banteay Srei, Kbal Spean, and Beng Mealea.

From the miniature, intensely detailed pink sandstone carvings of the 'Lady Temple' to a sweaty 1.5km jungle hike to find a sacred riverbed of carved stone, and finally climbing over the mossy, tree-strangled ruins of a temple left completely to the wild. This is a journey into the quiet, rural heart of the old Khmer Empire.

Inside the Siem Reap outlying guide:
📐 Banteay Srei: Marveling at 10th-century carvings so delicate they seem almost impossible to have survived the elements.
🥾 Kbal Spean: Hiking the steep jungle trail to see hundreds of sacred lingas carved directly into the running riverbed.
🌿 Beng Mealea: Stepping onto the wooden boardwalks of a vast, ruined temple completely reclaimed by ancient roots and vines.
🚗 The Wanderer: Critical tips on why you should hire a local driver and how to budget your temple pass.

Leave the tourist trail behind and head east.

Read the full day-trip guide in the Journal! 👇 Go to the first comment for a link to the article.

Truth in advertising...Shaniwar Wadi is a historical fortress and palace in central Pune, India. It was built in the 173...
12/07/2026

Truth in advertising...

Shaniwar Wadi is a historical fortress and palace in central Pune, India. It was built in the 1730s and for a time was the seat of provincial government. By the early 1800s the British had occupied it and then there was a fire in 1828 which destroyed pretty much everything combustible.

Its a good place to visit if you go to Pune. Plenty of stories of bloodshed, intrigue and hauntings. And like most old forts in India, you are at liberty to climb all over it and explore. I did so, and from the southern rampart I spied this place across the road. Its a boarding house, and I am sure walk-ins are welcome at a bargain price. Or you could try Trivago for an even better deal.

Neale goes surfing...To reduce my chances of being a shark biscuit, I decided to go for a surf about 300km inland at Wav...
12/07/2026

Neale goes surfing...

To reduce my chances of being a shark biscuit, I decided to go for a surf about 300km inland at Wave Rock, Western Australia. The wave was really firing, after moving in the back door I was amped and made some big air then bailed before close-out. Just as I finished it started raining, so I was dripping wet by the time I got to the car, just like at the beach.

'You have to be kidding right? It’s a rock! You will never find it!' 🎸🌊🏴󠁧󠁢󠁳󠁣󠁴󠁿Shaun takes us on a music-fueled pilgrimag...
03/07/2026

'You have to be kidding right? It’s a rock! You will never find it!' 🎸🌊🏴󠁧󠁢󠁳󠁣󠁴󠁿

Shaun takes us on a music-fueled pilgrimage to the rugged west coast of Scotland. The mission? To solve a decades-old riddle and find the exact coastal outcrop featured on the cover of Mark Knopfler’s iconic 1983 Local Hero soundtrack album.

Armed with nothing but a vague clue from the original photographer ('somewhere near Morar') and a map of a 4km stretch of Atlantic coastline, Shaun and his friend Brendan set out to prove the skeptics wrong. It's a story about the movies that shape us, the music that moves us, and the sheer joy of looking for a needle in a coastal haystack.

Inside Shaun’s Scottish pilgrimage:
🗺️ Map Reconnaissance: Ruling out beaches and tracking the sands from Camusdarach to Tigh-na-mara.
📷 The Photographer’s Clue: Deconstructing a brief, mysterious exchange from the original album artwork coordinator.
🏖️ Beyond the Viaducts: Skipping the tourist traps of Mallaig to find the quiet, cinematic soul of the silver sands.
🥾 The Approachable Wanderer: Why the best travel adventures start with an absurd proposition and a great friend.

Read Shaun’s full coastal hunt in the Journal.👇

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