With too much to write for work, the easiest way to capture some highlights of this trip to Australia is by lazily posting a few snapshots. To kick off, here’s a slice of paradise up on the north coast overlooking the Timor Sea, at Faraway Bay.

A pretty eccentric, very hands-on set-up, divine food, superlative views and a mixed bag of Aussie guests - plus a barefoot bushman who took us way out into the bush to some extraordinary rock art sites. Then came a boat-trip along the spectacular King George’s Gorge, one of those red sandstone marvels of the Kimberley region, rich in minerals like silica, manganese, potassium and iron ore, and about 350 million years old. That’s peanuts for Oz.

As dawn cracked through the clouds drifting across the southern hemisphere, the flight from London finally landed in Melbourne. That was several hours ago. A strange time of year for such a jaunt you might think, as downunder it’s pretty grey and drizzly, but I was lured to this side of the world to take part in the first edition of the Melbourne Festival of Travel Writing. This is an ambitious attempt to turn the act of travel-writing into something worthy of audiences and serious thought. The Aussies have always been some of the best and certainly most experienced travellers, so it’s somehow not surprising that they’ve dreamt up this two-day ‘festival’, much thanks to a local university lecturer. One of Melbourne’s biggest claims to fame in travel terms is its role as the honourable ’seat’ of Lonely Planet operations, with Tony Wheeler and his wife Maureen now long-term residents - when they’re not on the hop that is. On Sunday I’ll be hosting his talk about the Irrawaddy Delta and Burma. Meanwhile, here’s a pic from my hotel window in the heart of Melbourne’s CBD - an impressively modern cityscape echoing the infrastructure.