Arrivals & Departures Weekly Travel News & Views 2 February 2026
WELCOME
... that says “welcome to this edition of Travel” in Pitman 2000 shorthand — the system of fast, phonetic note-taking which I still use. Thick and thin lines and light and heavy dots and dashes represent the sounds in words. It’s great for taking selective notes (and you can’t beat that). I’m confident at 100 words a minute and almost confident at 120. My stories that you read in these pages are a product of this “old tech” — albeit with a drone or phone picture with them. Never throw out the baby with the bathwater, my mother used to say.
SOUND HAND
Sir Isaac Pitman invented Pitman shorthand, which he first called Stenographic Soundhand, in 1837. A teacher in Lincolnshire, Gloucestershire and Bath, in England, he was eventually knighted by Queen Victoria in 1894. At one time, Pitman was the most commonly used shorthand system in the English-speaking world. The story of Pitman’s life and work is told at Trowbridge Museum.
The museum also tells the 1000 years of the town’s history and how Trowbridge was shaped by the production and quality of its West of England woollen cloth. trowbridgemuseum.co.uk
Sir Isaac was also vice-president of the Vegetarian Society UK — a pioneer of the plant-based revolution which began 179 years ago, in 1847.
OLDEST ROCK ART
Hand stencils in an Indonesian cave on Muna Island are at least 67,800 years old. That makes them the world’s oldest-known rock art. The team of Australian and Indonesian researchers which has been studying the ochre stencils have published their results in the magazine Nature, dating them to a minimum age of 67,800 years. That is in the middle of the last ice age, when sea levels were different and Muna Island was joined to Sulawesi.
FLORES SUPPORT
The not-for-profit group Flores Village Partners has been working on the island of Flores, Indonesia, since 2008. Flores, 440km east of Bali, has dense jungle and 14 active volcanoes, and people in the Ngada region live in poor Catholic communities. A spokesperson for Flores Village Partners says they survive on rice and corn. “Life for the people has remained the same for many years. It is time for change. These beautiful people need your help so they can have access to basic needs such as education, food, health care, clean water and electricity.” FVP is working on a trip to show prospective sponsors its projects and the culture of the Floranese people. If this comes together, I’ll let you know. fvp.org.au
SINGAPORE OFFER
Singapore Airlines has offers on some return airfares out of Perth. They have to be booked by February 4.
Business class, Perth to Los Angeles return from $10,066.
Premium economy, Perth to New York return from $3840.
Economy, Perth return to Los Angeles, San Francisco and Seattle from $1789. singaporeair.com
ICE SIEGE
America was besieged by ice on two fronts this week. People in Minnesota said they were terrified of going out because of ICE agents (even church services were held online). More than 700,000 people were without power as an icy storm gripped much of the US. It’s not much of a 250th birthday.
BANYA BATHING
I had a polite email from a reader about our Banya bathing story last Saturday questioning the inclusion of Russia, considering its “murderous war” against Ukraine. I was viewing the subject culturally and historically but in retrospect, yes, I think I should and would have left that section out. I stand corrected.
Our reader, who is best kept anonymous for safety, adds: “I travel back and forth between Perth and Odesa, as I am volunteering my skills as a paramedic during the war. Having lived in both Russia and Ukraine before the war I have experienced the Slavic love of Banya culture in both countries. Even now (with the lack of electricity in Ukraine due to strikes on energy infrastructure), although electric saunas in the hotels don’t work, our relief medic teams can enjoy an old-fashioned wood-fired village ‘cook-up, birch beating and roll in the snow’. Kyiv has a wonderful Banya history.”
PASSPORT SUCCESS
We have good news from another reader, who faced the issue of UK and Australian dual citizenship. Basically, from February 25, a dual Australian and UK citizen will need to have a current British passport to enter the UK. This reader let his UK passport lapse about 10 years ago. As he is planning a trip to the UK, he applied for his British passport, aware that the warning is that it could take up to 13 weeks to come.
Friday, January 9. New passport photo at local post office ($23).
Sunday, January 11. Registered online application to renew passport with the UK’s HM Passport Office ($266).
Monday, January 12. Back to local post office to post expired passport (together with coloured copy of Australian passport). Registered mail cost $40.
Friday, January 16. Received email advising that they had been received and would be processed.
Monday, January 19. Received SMS message to say that the application had been approved.
Tuesday, January 20. SMS advising the passport had been sent.
Monday, January 26. Passport delivered. Yes, on a public holiday.
Our reader says: “The service has been not only exceptional in terms of speed of processing but also by the way in which both the UK passport office and DHL Express have communicated the progress of the application.”
UNDERWRITER
An important tip for travel insurance is that it’s not necessarily the name of the seller that counts, it’s the underwriter. The underwriter assesses risk, calculates cost of the insurance policy and evaluates claims. After the underwriter, there’s the company that administers the policy. For example, Everyday Travel Insurance from Woolworths is underwritten by Pacific International Insurance. The policies are administered by nib Travel Services (Australia).
It offers international and domestic travel cover, with 24/7 emergency assistance and claims processed through an online portal. So, even though it is “Woolies”, there’s a lot of grunt behind it.
insurance.everyday.com.au
BIG RIDES
Europe’s first certified long-distance cycle path, the 1450km Rhine Cycle Route from the Swiss Alps to the North Sea, has launched. It is 87 per cent car-free, well signposted and the first section of the EuroVelo cycling network that aims to connect nearly 100,000km of bike routes by 2030.