Western Tales
Western Tales
Travellers Tales - Melbourne Victoria to Perth Western Australia
Having enjoyed all the touristy things we could find to do in Melbourne we set off driving west through Geelong onto the famous Great Ocean Road, which has some of the most amazing beaches and surf I've ever seen. The Twelve Apostles, which are spectacular limestone stacks along the shoreline, were a welcome excuse to stop and admire; although the best way to see these is probably by helicopter but our budget wasn't that rich. We also stopped at Port Fairy, with its historic buildings dating back to the 1840s, and took a very pleasant boat tour round the bay.
Having heard about The Grampians National Park and its awesome scenery including Mackenzie Falls, The Balconies, and various other lookouts we decided to leave the coast and head due north. At Halls Gap, the kangaroos were practically eating from my hand. There were dozens of them just eating away at the roadside grass. I also saw my first lizard and snake, the snake being as thick as my arm and thereby scaring the heck out of me. Insects are everywhere but that's expected and not so much a problem once you figure out what prevention measures best suit you; for me it's plenty vitamin B and copious amounts of Aeroguard spray.
Leaving Victoria behind and heading back to the coast, the next stop of note was the capital of South Australia, Adelaide. It had an arts festival (similar to the Edinburgh Festival & Fringe) on while we were there, which made for a fun atmosphere and, with temperatures in the mid thirties without a cloud in sight, I was feeling that life couldn't get much better!
After a few essential camping equipment purchases we drove north through the Clare Valley stopping at four or five vineyards on the way. Our hilltop camp in Mount Remarkable National Park afforded us one of the finest sunsets I'd ever seen, with the moon up before the sun was fully set.
We then loaded up with water and fuel at Port Augusta before following the Stuart Highway north to Coober Pedy, famous for its opal mining and eccentric characters that have been digging holes in the desert for as long as they can remember. We stayed the night in an underground camp site, completely equipped, even down to the redback spider in the TV room/cave. We took a tour of an old opal mine and learnt quite a bit, any thoughts of striking it rich overnight being rather deflated in the process.
Then north again to Uluru (Ayres Rock) getting there in time to see the red sunset so famous in post cards. We also enjoyed the next day's sunrise at Uluru, then climbed it, then walked 8km around the Olgas - quite an exhausting day under the Red Centre sun! Focusing as I am on the stops doesn't really convey the experience of a campervan road trip such as this. We drove literally thousands of kilometers, experienced wind that reminded me of an oven door being opened, paid nearly double the usual petrol prices, stopping at the highway's occasional roadhouses ... It's hard to convey the sense of freedom and exhilaration that is found on the open road in 'The Outback'.
Retracing our steps back down the Stuart Highway, we set off again from Port Augusta heading west this time across the Nullarbor (No Tree) Plain, surely one of the bleakest straight roads in the continent. We cut across the top of the Eyre Peninsula and camped in dunes by Streaky Bay. I went wading and collected shellfish bait for the guys with fishing rods, one of whom promptly caught a two foot fish which we then cooked over the open fire. We also stopped off for lunch at Point Sinclair where the desert meets the sea. I enjoyed some great snorkeling off the pier, although I must admit I did find myself checking over my shoulder frequently, having been told by a local of the number of great white shark attacks that occurred the previous summer.
Once we reached the other side of the Nullarbor we followed the coast to Esperance, Albany, Margaret River ... all the way round to Perth. Some highlights of Western Australia (so far) include; a Tree Top Walk through the forest, a 61m vertical climb into a fire lookout tower, snorkeling with a stingray, a cave walk and several wine tasting tours.
My impression of Perth is all positive; it's very chilled out, spacious, unpolluted, sunny, and is close to some awesome beaches. The plan is to continue 'over the top' of Australia once the coffers have been replenished and before 'the wet' (tropical summer) arrives.
About the Author
The best way to experience 'The Outback' is to hire a campervan or even buy a motorhome as you can then resell once your road trip of a lifetime is completed.
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The ambassador of the Kingdom of the Netherlands, Dr. Harry Buikema was born in Woerden, Netherlands on November 1, 1947 and Joined the Ministry Foreign Affairs, Department of International Cooperation of the Netherlands in 1976. He worked in various capacities at the Ministry of Foreign Affairs, interalia as Head of the Department for South Asia (1989-1992).
Western Tales
Herman's Tales Clip -Showdown (Wild West episode).avi
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Coastwatcher: Tales of the Western Caribbean $27.56 For a fun read while traveling, or on the days you want a smile, a chuckle, or a good belly laugh. This is what its like to live on a Caribbean island, a closeup of real life in paradise. Author: Renaldo, Pierre Binding Type: Paperback Number of Pages: 248 Publication Date: 2005/01/06 Language: English Dimensions: 6.00 x 9.00 x 0.56 inches |
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The Tales Of Caer Alban $4.95 Spend a night among the Talking Stones: Come to Carnac a huge field of ancient standing stones in Western France and meet Cerne master of the Tales of Caer Alban. While the stones whisper of ancient things and forgotten times let Cerne spin the stories that change lives. |
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The Tales of Caer Alban $4.76 Spend a night among the Talking Stones: Come to Carnac, a huge field of ancient standing stones in Western France and meet Cerne, master of the Tales of Caer Alban. While the stones whisper of ancient things and forgotten times, let Cerne spin the stories that change lives. |
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Tales Of The Border $5.19 This is a collection of short-stories presented by Western author James Hall. The characters have been delineated from everyday life and fictional details have been added to enhance the charisma. The emotions of revenge and forgiveness love and hate are beautifully intertwined with the plot. |
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Tall Tales $13.98 Their sophomore effort is a large step forward, proving that it was indeed possible for Whit Smith (guitar and vocals), Elana Fremerman (violin and vocals), and Billy Horton (upright bass and vocals) to further hone their already-awesome chops. They divided up the vocals so that all three are now featured on lead, and they've thrown in some wonderful original songs to complement their selection of Western swing classics and 1920s Tin Pan Alley tunes. Fremerman tears it up on fiddle tunes "Draggin' the Bow" and "Bonaparte's Retreat," Smith contributes the original period piece "Emily," and Horton chimes in with the deadpan novelty "I Can't Tame Wild Women." The album was produced by Dave Stuckey, formerly of the Dave and Deke Combo. |
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Tales from the Thousand and One Nights $9.89 The tales told by Shahrazad over a thousand and one nights to delay her execution by the vengeful King Shahriyar have become among the most popular in both Eastern and Western literature. From the epic adventures of 'Aladdin and the Enchanted Lamp' to the farcical 'Young Woman and her Five Lovers' and the social criticism of 'The Tale of the Hunchback', the stories depict a fabulous world of all-powerful sorcerers, jinns imprisoned in bottles and enchanting princesses. But despite their imaginative extravagance, the Tales are anchored to everyday life by their realism, providing a full and intimate record of medieval Islam. |
The Future of the Western Genre
Not only were they popular in the United States, but the whole world devoured them. The Western was a staple of fiction, Hollywood, television, and daydreams. What happened?
Overexposure, for one thing. In 1959, there were 26 Western series on prime time television. On the silver screen, John Wayne brandished his Winchester at countless bad guys. Paperback Westerns could be found in abundance in any drugstore, most of them with Louis L'Amour's name on the cover. The big names did some wonderful, quality stuff, but the demand was so great that a lot of trash made it into print and celluloid.
The common perception is that the Western genre is moribund. Yet, somehow, Larry McMurtry, Cormac McCarthy, and a host of others make a good living off Westerns. Robert B. Parker temporarily abandoned private eye Spencer for a trilogy about two guns for hire. Parker's Appaloosa grossed a respectable $28 million at the box office, while 3:10 to Yuma grossed over $70 million. As recently as 1992, Unforgiven won the Oscar for Best Picture, the first Western to be so honored. DVD sales of vintage Westerns do well, and Louie L'Amour, Zane Grey, and even Max Brand still sell enough books to make their prodigy happy.
So, the Western isn't dead, but it's just as certainly not the rage, especially for the upcoming generation. Thrillers, fantasies, sci-fi, and romance novels garner all the shelf space. Action movie sound tracks are filled with revving motors, not thundering hoofs. And television ... well, television just broadcasts yet another permutation of CSI or Law and Order. In fact, the Western excesses of the late fifties are being repeated today with cop shows. Perhaps tired audiences are ready for a resurgence of Westerns.
Perhaps. But what type of Western? Probably a new breed. There have been three distinct Western eras. I call them the wholesome, flawed hero, and violent eras.
The wholesome era lasted until the late fifties. It was epitomized by Roy Rogers, Gene Autry, the Lone Ranger, Hopalong Cassidy, and other cowboys sporting white hats. Instead of killing bad guys, they shot guns out of their hands. If someone was killed, they damn-well deserved it, and their death would be bloodless, with a pledge like hand to the chest to cover unsightly bullet holes. As in all eras, there was overlap, and during the later stages of the wholesome phase, Wayne and others made more realistic Westerns-but these, of course, were quarantined to movie houses, and they only played at night.
The flawed hero of the sixties wasn't the antihero of today. He merely had faults-like Josh Randall, the bounty hunter portrayed by Steve McQueen in Wanted Dead or Alive, or the gambling Maverick brothers who proudly proclaimed themselves cowards. Richard Boone wore black and looked mean as a gun for hire in Paladin. The Magnificent Seven were reluctant saviors of a small Mexican village, and flawed to a man. Again, overlapping eras. The spaghetti Westerns of the late sixties took the genre into new territory.
From the seventies on, the antihero ruled a frontier filled with slow-motion violence. The violent era was ushered in by Sergio Leone with his Man with No Name trilogy (1967) and Sam Peckinpaw with The Wild Bunch (1969). From then on, blood red dominated the color spectrum and the hero was only a step removed from the bad guy. This kind of raw realism was deemed inappropriate for television until cable brought Deadwood (2004) into our living rooms.
What's next? Luckily, these eras overlap, so seeing the current direction of the Western genre is not guesswork. Larry McMurtry, Cormac McCarthy, and Robert B. Parker have, to differing degrees, departed from the violent era. They signal that the future of Westerns is historically accurate storytelling. If the story occurs in the past, we call it a historical novel-except for Westerns. They get consigned to a niche genre that still carries the taint of pulp fiction. But a story that takes place in the nineteenth-century American frontier has as much legitimacy to be called a historical novel as Ken Follett's World Without End.
McMurtry, McCarthy, and Parker have found the key. Good writing, sound plots that move with assurance, and great characterization. They concentrate on characters who are forced to deal with hardships and human frailty at a particular point in history. These are the basic elements of good storytelling. A Western historical novel can indeed be action-adventure, but it can also borrow elements from the detective, suspense, romance, mystery, and other genres. Lonesome Dove took from all of them. The world has tired of cookie-cutter cop shows and endless permutations of suspense tales about secret societies that are about to take over the world. Before Daniel Radcliffe can learn to twirl a six-shooter, Westerns will again rule the page and screen.
James D. Best is the author of The Shopkeeper, Leadville, and The Shut Mouth Society. Owen Wister and The Virginian were the inspiration for his Steve Dancy Western novels. You can learn more about his Westerns at http://www.stevedancy.com
About the Author
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Western - Lonely Trails Photo Mugs TALES OF LONELY TRAILS by Zane Grey - moments that live in the minds of sportsmen .... |
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White Mansions/The Legend of Jesse James $14.12 This double-disc reissue documents one of the more curious careers in country music. Both 1978's White Mansions and 1980's The Legend of Jesse James are Southern song cycles that were conceived by Britain's Paul Kennerley, then an unknown songwriter who somehow recruited a high-profile cast for each. A Civil War saga from the Southern perspective, White Mansions suffers from caricature and cliché... |
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Big Bad John and other fabulous songs and tales $2.52 All products are BRAND NEW and factory sealed. Fast shipping and 100% Satisfaction Guaranteed.... |
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Pickin on Nashville $1.91 All products are BRAND NEW and factory sealed. Fast shipping and 100% Satisfaction Guaranteed.... |
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Tall Tale: Unbelievable Adventure [VHS] $6.95 Screen favorite Patrick Swayze (GHOST, DIRTY DANCING, POINT BREAK) stars in the fun-filled, action-packed hit TALL TALE: THE UNBELIEVABLE ADVENTURE. There's rousing, rollicking adventure as the dynamic Pecos Bill (Swayze) teams with larger-than-life heroes Paul Bunyan and John Henry to help a brave young man in the fight against a greedy land-grabber (Scott Glenn -- BACKDRAFT, HUNT FOR RED OCTOBER... |
Western Tales
