Every time I write about my aviation experiences I am drawn very emotionally to the poem, High Flight, by a young Canadian RAF Spitfire pilot, John Magee. The lines he wrote fill your heart and soul when you’re in a jet, glider, skydive, hot air balloon and particularly in a Spitfire, roaring through the blue skies above Kent in England.
I’m fortunate to have variations of this story published by Have a Go News newspaper and by Airline Ratings and Australian Aviation. Being published by Just Urbane is always exciting but this story means so much to me and I really hope it drives readers to embark on an action packed adventure of their own that is exciting and emotionally charged as well.
I loved my recent opportunity to appear on The Couch, a television lifestyle program broadcast across Australia and filmed here in WA.
Fred, Steve and I looked into the world of dark tourism. While you might be thinking of shaky footage of people sneaking into Chernobyl it is so much more. Battlefields like Gallipoli, the Western Front and Long Tan are sites we visit as a rite of passage and to try and comprehend the death of so many. Similarly, visiting Wittenoom, Roebuck Bay, Snowtown and the Montebello Islands are locations here in Australia that fascinate for their dark history.
I also talked about some dark tourism origins, like the tourists from England who travelled in the 1850’s to the Crimean to watch the English cavalry charge the Russian guns.
It’s a big topic and one that carries with it the need to be respectful of others and mindful of culture around you – a bit like all travel really.
The studio of The CouchSaying something that needs my hands to explain it
From the archives comes this story about the second time I jumped out of a perfectly good aeroplane.
Two jumps is enough for me but it’s an experience I’d recommend. It was more than adrenaline and excitement, it was being that high and falling fast but knowing it was ok. Enjoy my story in the link below:
My love of islands came before my love of travelling. Making tea stained treasure maps after reading Treasure Island, imagining tropical beaches as I listened to Harry Belafonte sing, Island in the Sun.
With Burgo on 6PR we spent the evening going ashore on Rottnest, the Abrolhos, Borneo, Hong Kong and others.
Islands have history and culture, some have pristine beaches and impenetrable jungle and others are full of shops.
Whatever your island, go ashore and have the adventure of a lifetime!
On 6PR with Rusty, we swam with dolphins, watched some bilbies and even made time to debate whether a cream bun should have mock cream or real cream.
Enjoy listening to the show on the bar below. Let me know if it inspires you to head down to Dryandra or Rockingham or anywhere that’s got an animal experience you can be a part of.
On 6PR on a recent summers weekend on the airwaves, we took to the skies to discover how getting into the air can inspire your travel or be an exciting part of it. It was also an opportunity to reflect on my air moments.
I used to love accompanying dad out to the Narrogin airstrip when his patients needed to fly out with the Royal Flying Doctor. I’d walk around the gliders and light aircraft, imagining I was a fighter pilot waiting to hear the call to “Scramble! Scramble!”.
I love that my kids have enjoyed getting into the air. Tom has ziplined, parasailed and been in seaplanes and even done ifly indoor skydiving. Matilda has ziplined and been in helicopters and even flown up the coast in a Tiger Moth, one of the worlds most beautiful and gentle aircraft.
Astronaut Michael Collins’ wife wrote out the aviators poem High Flight for him to take into space. In his book, Carrying the Fire, Collins remarked that he wondered what Magee would have written if he’d experienced space and not just flying a Spitfire through the blue summer skies of wartime England.
Even the most non religious pilots enjoy putting their hand up to the sky and murmuring…
‘And, while with silent, lifting mind I’ve trod, the high untrespassed sanctity of space, put out my hand and touched the face of God”.
Magee posted a copy of the poem to his parents and not long after was killed in a flying accident.
Flying a glider and looking for thermals in the air to stay in the airFlying a Spifire above the green fields of KentHot air ballooning on a cold Avon Valley morning Falling with style onto Palm BeachZiplining with Tom off Matagarup BridgeZiplining with Matilda down a mountain in South AfricaTom takes to the sky … indoorsMatilda takes to the skies in a Tiger Moth, used to train Empire Training Scheme pilots in World War IITom and I parasailing off the Fremantle coast … some big fish down there!Even a big plane is an adventure in the air
Astronaut Michael Collin’s once wrote that he wondered what John McGee, author of every aviators favourite poem, High Flight, would have written if he’d been able to go into space. I wonder if my own words, far less grander than High Flight, would improve with more height. I don’t think so. Gliding above the flat, wide landscape below me was a remarkable experience that I’m happy to share with you in the published story below.
On ABC Saturday Breakfast we like to keep things inspiring and exciting but sometimes to do that we have to remember those moments that were less than perfect.
There’s certainly been a lot of excitement about being able to travel again. It might be time to reunite with loved ones, use that voucher for travel that was cancelled because of the pandemic or maybe it’s the first family trip overseas?
There’s a lot to be excited about but on Hidden Treasures we thought we’d look at some of the experiences that have become great stories but at the time might have caused a bit of anxiety or discomfort. Have you been stuck in an airport sleeping on a plastic chair because of delayed flights? Have you been bitten by something? Have you had non-stop rain or got bogged with a rising tide on the beach?
Think about it! What story are you more interested in? The glistening toilet in a six-star resort suite or a bucket on a barge, one night on the border between Malaysia and Thailand.
I love any good story and I think some of the best stories in the world are survival stories. Surviving storm tossed seas, stumbling over endless dunes in the Sahara, being attacked and left for dead by a bear!
But there are also those survival stories, those horrible tales that are told when we’re home safe and sound from our travels.
Having to sleep on a plastic chair in a busy airport with one eye open to guard your luggage. Having to sleep on a plastic chair in a busy airport while they try and find your luggage.
To help us along I’ve come up with four categories:
Bureaucracy:
Travelling with my daughter and being detained in South Africa due to bureaucracy around child slavery laws.
Being stuck in an airport in the middle of the night with a toddler.
Events:
Attending the Indian festival of Deepavali in a far away land and feeling even further away after being hit in the head by a street lit firework that was aimed at my head.
Critters:
Being attacked by a flesh-eating spider in Borneo and forgetting my bedroom was split level.
Leeches! Just like the scene in Memphis Belle when they’re panicking over whose blood is all over the cockpit, my scenario was in a dinghy, deep in the jungles of Perak in Northern Malaysia. We were wondering whose blood was sloshing around the bottom of the boat. It was all of us!
Accommodation:
Hotels in Rome are less hit and miss these days but I definitely got the miss on my first visit. The pillow slip had been made in Ancient Roman times and barely held the mouldy pieces of foam where I was expected to rest my head. Nothing worse than a bad bed.
Houseboats. For me, a category on their own. I’ve stayed on a barge in the jungle with hygiene the Dark Ages would have been proud of and with a toileting task that required me to move my movements from the toilet on one side of the boat to the other. With a soup ladle. I wasn’t eating anything that came out of that kitchen.
I’ve also stayed on what could only be described as a non airconditioned donger with floats, with two sets of my greatest friends who by the end of the trip were close to being my greatest enemies. Tempers flared as temperatures rose. Lost items overboard. Bird sized mosquitoes.
Traditional Longhouse in Borneo. Not so bad as a cultural experience but when you’ve had a few Tiger beers and you’re at the end of the longhouse and getting up for a wee in the middle of the night means walking on creaking bamboo slats that wakes everyone up it’s embarrassing and means you can’t get up again.
Motels by the side of highways. If it’s not roadtrains going past it’s the the Peters Ice Cream truck parked outside with the genny on the truck running to stop the drumsticks from melting. All night long …DRDRDRDRDRRDR.
Worst travel experiences are Hidden Treasures because as long as you’ve survived, you’ve got a great story and maybe a photo as well. Worst travel moments are hidden treasures because they’re character building. God! I sound like my mother!
When we started Hidden Treasures on ABC Perth Saturday Breakfast in 2021, it was intended that I would speak every couple of weeks. After a few months of fortnightly discussions, I was asked to come in every week.
Well, we’ve reached a milestone. This is our 50th episode of Hidden Treasures. To mark this achievement we’ve got a special guest lined up to contribute to our discussion about some of our favourite hidden treasures over the past 50 episodes.
We’re lifting our bat for the half century.
While we’ve travelled regionally and even gone overseas, this show is grounded in the discoveries you can make in Perth.
A little city hanging on to the edge of a continent that has so much to offer for staycations or day trips with destinations motivated by sport, culture, hunger or just because you want to hit the road for an afternoon and see what’s out there.
Fun Fact! Half of our episodes have featured a suburb of Perth.
Fun Fact! In nearly half of our episodes I’ve found a way to mention that I grew up in Narrogin.
Fun Fact! One episode inspired you to travel to a long lost theme park.
One of our best hidden treasures is discovering sport around Perth that you might not have known about or maybe always known about but never gone to.
One of our favourite stories last year was when we talked about WAFL grounds and what it’s like to attend a WAFL match.
Claremont FC’s Trophy Case (not a real tiger)
The support from WAFL clubs who let me hang out at their Members Bar and to the mighty South Fremantle Bulldogs who let me hangout with the team after a big win. To talk about the footy, footy food and tribalism was great fun.
On the day of the AFL Grand Final we also did a story about different sports you could watch or have a go at in Perth.
Bring on Clint Wheeldon from ABC Sport!
We asked Clint where he’s travelled for sport and why is sport such a great reason to travel.
We talked about what we have stolen from a sporting ground. For me, I’ve taken grass from Lords and the MCG.
Travelling for sport sometimes has to be done at all costs. My wife allowed me to spend a fortune to see the Socceroos v Uraguay in 2002. I was like a Roman Emperor in the Southern Stand of the MCG.
Travelling for sport can also be a pilgrimage or a party. Sometimes it’s just about seeing the ground even if there’s no game being played. Sometimes it is about travelling with friends or a tour group and seeing your favourite sport.
So after 50 episodes what have we learnt? What makes Hidden Treasures a hidden treasure? Because we have fun and the reason we have fun is because there’s so much out there and all you need is a reason to find it.
Reconnect with a hometown, stop for a while in a suburb you normally just commute through or find hidden treasure in known treasure, like we did on Wadjemup, or take a break in Perth like we did in Innaloo and Karrinyup as part of staycation homework for Molly, or take the advice of my man Tom and get to a regional show.
Get out there and find a rite of passage like Ebonnie’s trip to Busselton Jetty or find any jetty, like we did with Ben Carlish from Recfishwest. Find a new sport like Padel, or find a fishburger or laneway mural.
Why is travelling for sport a Hidden Treasure? You don’t have to play it to enjoy it? Take a road trip to a country footy match and honk your horn, or just take a walk down to your suburban ground.
Sport is yet another reason to get out and about. It’s the eye of the tiger, it’s the thrill of the fight and it’s the thrill of finding something new to do and finding a new tribe to enjoy it with.
The Romans knew the value of a good stadium didn’t they? Can you imagine doing a tour of the Colosseum when it was at its peak? Game day at the Colosseum may have had more on the line for most of the participants but just to have walked through the service tunnels and holding cells and then maybe walking around the top, seeing up close the linen sails that extended outwards on elaborate rope and pulley systems to provide shade for the audience, would have been amazing.
Having zipped up my Ozone ‘Ghostbuster’ jumpsuit and climbed into my harness and adjusted my straps, I walk with the other members of our merry band through the bowels of Optus Stadium, past crates of plates and all sorts of things destined for what is above. There are no lions, gladiators, Roman centurions or terracotta amphorae filled with wine, but there’s still a lot going on.
But we’re going higher than those who are sitting in the seats and corporate boxes, we’re even going higher than the stadium’s halo roof, a continuous fabric cantilevered structure that circles the stadium, providing valuable shade and spectacular lighting displays.
Listen and lean
We’re heading more than 40 metres off the ground to a small row of seats where harnesses keep you safe but can’t restrain your excitement as you watch a match unfold from a perspective even Roman Emperors couldn’t dream about.
This is what amplifying your experience is all about when you come to Optus Stadium. Getting as much out of your experience as possible and being a part of the narrative of your adventure, not just relying on the teams playing on the field below you to provide all of the drama and excitement.
If the height and the view is not quite enough of a challenge then you can always do the lean out, relying on your tour leaders’ instructions and your harness to prevent your fall. With your back to the field, you inch your way backwards, right to the very edge, and hold your harness line and then lean out and let go of your harness.
As good as I get at handballing
A few photos will be taken that show you holding your arms out or pretending to handball a footy. I’ve already decided to do the tour again because I want to do the lean out and pretend I’ve gone up for a big mark of the footy.
This experience is all about levels. Literally and metaphorically. You literally go up to the highest level of the stadium to reach your seat. You ride a lift, climb 78 steps, emerge through hatches and at each level the view gets better and better. On a catwalk alongside the stadium lights, you walk around the stadium until you’re at the eastern end.
This is where you’ll find your seat, the highest seats in the house and if you think it can’t get any better that’s when you can take it to the next level and lean out over the edge.
From a sporting perspective I enjoy my footy but have mates who love it more. I couldn’t help thinking of my mates, not just for the excitement of the experience, but for the perspective you have with an aerial view.
Every twitch of a player, the transfers of play, the switches and flow of the game is entrancing. It’s like watching the coach’s magnet board come to life!
Don’t drop your chewy
As a precinct, get ready to do more than watch some great sport when you come to Optus Stadium. Get ready to participate. Get ready to lean out off the edge of the most beautiful stadium in the world and let rip with a huge scream.
With the HALO experience, Matagarup Bridge climb and soon to be launched 400m zipline, plus Aboriginal cultural tours and stadium behind the scenes tours, there’s so much you can do with your time when you visit Optus Stadium.
There doesn’t even need to be a game on. Optus Stadium is more than a beautiful sporting arena, it’s already got history and atmosphere and even though it’s new, it has that rite of passage feeling about it that means you want visit it, whether you’re visiting Perth or looking for a day out if you live in Perth.
Want to Know More?
The Ozone booking office and merchandise store is located at the western end of Optus Stadium and their website is www.theozone.com.au.
Verdict
With only a moderate level of fitness you can do the game day rooftop experience all year long, or on a quiet weekday with no sport. The HALO experience will meet your need for an awesome view and level of excitement with great staff and great harnesses. And you get a free cap!
Chris Parry Writes For Us 