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
SLEEPING WITH THE ANGELS

Raymond
COOLAH
When you are over sixty, even if it's only by one year, and you have been a traveller for the majority of that time, you get to sleep in a lot of beds: beautiful ones, four-posted ones, soft ones, hard ones and even water-filled ones that occasionally don't leak. When you spend decades leading walks carrying a sleeping mat on your back, you recline on thin foam mats in deserts and on top of mountains. I've slept in hammocks in rainforests and in caves on cliffs. Of all of those nights of slumber three stand out, three nights amongst the thousands upon thousands.
On the first, I was walking along the Great Dividing Range hoping to reach My Hotham by nightfall. I didn't. A high country storm was building fast .... As darkness hit I could smell the rain before it burst over the plains. I just had time to secure my pack, lay out my bivvy bag [a thin waterproof bag that encloses the sleeping bag] and put the little poles in above my head. Think a still alive Tutenkarmen embalmed in a minuture tent. The last zip coincided with the first rain ... which was thunder driven ... frighteningly loud ... torrential in its intent ... but I'd made it. I was, against all odds and in defiance of the Gods, perfectly dry. Body heat from my walk circulated through the tiny space and I laughed ... uproariously ... a little crazed no doubt ... with the sheer glorious incrongruity of finding such comfort in so inhospitable an environment.
The second was on the Krickhauff Ranges in Central Australia. Having announced that it definitely would not rain I set up under the stars. For a time I was right, then less so as droplets inoffensively brushed my swag, then decidedly not so when the heavens opened and everything slowly drenched. I was caught between a number of things: the slight comfort of the still not saturated sleeping bag, the fear of moving camp in the middle of the night and the incredible warmth of my dog Tommie who crept closer and closer until finally we were locked in a manly embrace, taking from each other what shelter and warmth was available. It was a night that makes a man and a dog very close and the warmth of cross species camaraderie much appreciated.
The PENTHOUSE
The third was a few days ago on my last night in Coolah. The weather was oppressive and heavy with expectant rain. I lay in my little pop up tent, my penthouse, on top of the trailer. The windows were open and in the early hours a wind came, a gentle, cool, sweet wind. With each gust pleasure ozzed through me with an exquisite sigh of relief.
Is there a message? To me there is. What is memorable, what you remember years after, is not the comfort of things. On that first night it was the defiance of the raging storm, on the second the warmth and companionship of my dog and on the last the knowledge that the extraordinary pleasure of that sweet breeze existed only in the relief from the clawing, non-airconditioned humidity of the night.
Tonight I am camped by the Gwydir River. I can hear it gurgling. I can hear ducks landing. Birds will lure me to consciousness in the morning. I will be all comfy and happy and warm. But I won't remember it next week.
Read Tommie's daily WUFFINGTON POST on FACEBOOK
Send your thoughts and stories to or call Raymond on 0414 929768. If you wish to speak to Tommie just leave a message..