Story Archive
- THREE GENTLE STORIES IN THE AGE OF TRUMP
- THE STAGE - FINALLY I AM ON IT
- BROKEN
- THE ROAD
- THE WEIGHT OF THINGS
- RANDOM THOUGHTS AND ACHING BONES
- FOOD GLORIOUS FOOD
- Vale Tommie
- A BIG WALK - Step by Step
- IN DEFENCE OF NIMBIN
- SLEEPING WITH THE ANGELS
- THE LADY BUSHRANGER
- OUT OF THE SHIRE
- THE SOUND OF RAIN
- AND SO IT BEGINS - The Great Australian Crawl.
- NO MANS LAND
- THE FROG IN THE TOILET BOWL
- LEN BENCE - THE ARTIST WARRIOR
- SWAGMAN IN SEARCH OF A CONCEPT
- THE GERMAN ABORIGINAL
- NOT LONG NOW
- LOTS OF THINGS COMING
- DAD'S COMING
- THE BEING LEFT ALONE FEELING
- YES - I STOLE THE CHOCOLATE
- THE OLD COAT
- THE PARTY
- MEMORIES
- DOG WALKING IN A CEMETERY
- MY KENNEL IS GOING UNDER THE HAMMER!
- DAD'S BACK
- THE BIG CHILL
- THINGS HAPPEN THAT YOU DON'T KNOW WILL HAPPEN
- THE NEW KENNEL
- ALFRED STIEGLITZ - THE ELOQUENT EYE
- AN IDEA FOR DINGO DAY!
- THE GARDENS OF STONE
- DON'T RAGE AGAINST THE DYING OF THE LIGHT!
- MOTHER'S DAY
- TODAY
- THE NIGHT LINDA JAIVIN DROPPED ME
- Old Nana
- SIMPATICO
- Nuggets
- THE WUFFINGTON POST-2
- C-C-C-C-CHANGES
- THE WUFFINGTON POST-1
- MAKE MY DAY
- A NEW YEARS DAY LIKE ANY OTHER!
- RECIPES FROM OLD SOULS
- A DOG'S CHRISTMAS
- Well this is Christmas!
- MY NEW BOOK IS COMING!
- OLD MAN - OLD GRIEF
- GOD - WHAT A FORTNIGHT WE'VE HAD
- WILLIAM-JAMES HAS ARRIVED
- CAESAR'S ISLAND
- I HAVE LOST MY EAR-ECTION
- BUSTED IN BOULIA
- YEE HAA! ITS THE HARTS RANGE RACE DAY
- TRULY ... THERE WERE ANIMALS EVERYWHERE
- Old Man Hermann
- THERE IS AN ART TO BEGGING
- ROLL UP -- ROLL UP - ITS THE TRAVELING R&R SHOW
- MOLLY & ME
- EDITING A LIFE
- BUZZ ... BABBLE ... BUBBLE ... BURRA ... BACKHOUSE
- THE MAGIC KENNEL & ROAD TRAINS WITHOUT CATTLE
- I REALLY DON'T KNOW WHERE TO START
- CREATIVE DRIVES - BEAUTIFUL VOICES - MISSIONARY PLAINS.
- WHAT A WEEK WE'VE HAD
- I'VE GOT A MAN CRUSH ON BEN HALL
- GOING GOING GOING ..... GONE
- I LOVE WRITING ABOUT SNIFFING & EATING
- THE DIVING BELL & THE BUTTERFLY
- ROADIES, GERMANS & A JAPANESE ADVENTURER
- THE MAD DASH
- MY NEW COAT
- DOES DAD THINK I'M STUPID?
- THE ITALIAN PENTHOUSE
- I AM POWERLESS OVER COWS
- ON THE EDGE OF THE WORLD
- COMING HOME
- BLOG ON BLOGGING - THREE MONTHS WRAP
- ROLLING OVER
- CONTACT & THE DINGO
- SAD BUT BEAUTIFUL
- VICTORY WITHOUT TRIUMPH IN HAY
- ALISON HUNT - SENIOR DESERT WOMAN
- I AM NOT ANGRY - JUST A LITTLE DISSAPOINTED
- HOLIDAY WITH THE CHOOKS
- EAGLE HAWK NECK
- MAX IN HAHNDORF
- WHAT ABOUT THE HANDSOME PEOPLE?
- DRUGS & RADISHES
- MY NAME is TOM AND I AM AN OVER EATER
- BOGGED AND STRANDED
- BUTT NAKED IN MORGAN
- ON THE ROAD AGAIN
- The CHEF, the ABORIGINALS, the BLOND & the BULL
- A SADHU OF THE OUTBACK
- CONDOMS & BIRD SEED
- TOMMIE, STEVE AND KIRA
- ADELAIDE AND BACK
- GUNNING READY OR NOT
- AN IDEA IS ANSWERED
- TOMMIE
OUT OF THE SHIRE

Raymond
Rylstone
The last time I watched The Lord of the Rings I found myself urging Frodo not to leave Hobbiton ... Don't go you fool .. its nothing to do with you. The languid domesticity of home cooked meals, of smoke idling out of the chimneys, of a warm ale at the Green Dragon Inn, all looked so appealing. Comfort, that oozing enemy of vitality, is clearly making a claim on my soul and I need to resist.
Today that resistance continues, the familiar embrace of the Megalong Valley replaced by new landscapes and people, hopefully not of the troll variety. We have camped at Mt York Lookout, on the western end of the Blue Mountains escarpment, where the explorers Blaxland, Wentworth & Lawson stood. After crossing the Blue Mountains they looked out over a valley of rolling pasture which to the 19th Century mind meant Promise. They didn't muck around. Within a year convict built roads were in construction to take drays and coaches down off the plateau and onto the plains.
For Tommie and I this point represents a different promise on our adventure around Australia. To a large extent we will bear witness to the after effects of that European descent down off this slab of rock, even as we visit Aboriginal communities whose lives have changed irrevocably in its aftermath. The journey of one era becomes the history of another.
I have pushed off into new country many times in my life, walking from Sydney to Melbourne along the Great Dividing Range, constructing a shack in the Megalong Valley, building a trail through remote mountains in Central Australia. This feels different. I am housed in my Coaster Bus and take with me other sets of eyes and expectations. As usual with big journeys, it is not only what you will find that excites and scares you, but the fear of what you might not find because, at the core of any adventure, is a quest and with any quest there must be the possibilty of dissappointment.
Over the next few days we head to Coolah where we have been invited to visit by a local blacksmith. A lure of an upcoming story, The Blacksmith of Coolah, is reason enough to visit. But there are others. We have been invited and that is, well, inviting. It means that the community will surrender its stories with greater ease. I have never been there and that has an appeal. It is surrounded by National Park and close to the historical town of Gulgong and the beautifully named Dunedoo.
Ultimately it is the unknown that most appeals, that psychic landscape in which the unexpected can emerge more easily from the shadows and in which chance plays its cards more boldly. Both happen in the cities of course but the noise that surrounds people is now so intense that the moment can escape unnoticed.
But all this begs the question. If this was a scene from Lord of the Rings, which characters would Tommie and I be. I think both are as clear as the nose on your face but I'll let you decide.
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Send your thoughts and stories to swag@electronicswagman.com.au or call Raymond on 0414 929768. If you wish to speak to Tommie just leave a message.