Arrivals & Departures Weekly Travel News & Views 30 September 2025

TALKING NUMBERS

We think of our readers as individuals, and friends. And traditionally “print media” has talked about readership — the individual people who read our stories. But in this changed world, the online vernacular is “audience”, which means anyone looking at anything, anywhere. I mention this as an alert for those using websites. Every click on a website is a “page view”, so they can impress clients with big numbers. It doesn’t necessarily mean that you are dealing with a big company.

As an example, I have applied this measure to our Saturday Travel and Sunday Travel printed supplements. Over the past four weeks, using this formula, we had more than 55 million page views.

FLOWERS & FLIES

Mogens Johansen just got back from a nice spin around the Mid West on his motorcycle with a couple of mates. He says the wildflowers in Coalseam Conservation Park are good, particularly up around Irwin Lookout. He adds: “There were signs along the roadsides in Mullewa that it would be pretty good there, too. There’s plenty of water around so I’m sure it will pick up and be even better soon.”

But another seasoned traveller, just back from nearby Karara Rangeland Park, tells me: “Even with hat nets, the flies are not for the faint-hearted.”

LANDSCAPE IN CITY

Brighde O’Hara transforms textiles into dreamlike landscapes. Amy Perejuan-Capone honours bees as keystone species. And Bennett Miller, friend of Travel, has reimagined the optimism of the space race through sculptural works and won the Melville Contemporary prize. Their work features in the Melville Contemporary 2025 exhibition for new and exploratory works by seven WA artists at Goolugatup Heathcote in Applecross until Sunday, November 16.

WORD PICTURES

It’s interesting to me that Katrin Jakobsdottir managed to co-write a crime novel while she was prime minister of Iceland. Katrin served as PM from December 2017 to April 2024 and co-wrote the novel, called Reykjavik, with author Ragnar Jonasson. The book, published in 2022, revolves around the unsolved disappearance of a 14-year-old girl on the small island of Videy, just off the coast of Reykjavik, in 1986. I listened to it as an audiobook on Spotify — which is a nice trick for travellers. The book has taken me back to the landscapes and language of Iceland, one of the 12 founding countries of NATO, and the only country in the world where mosquitoes don’t exist. Its cold climate would disrupt their breeding patterns, and it lacks stagnant, shallow water.

(Antarctica also lacks mosquitoes, but is not a country.)

(Iceland is home to biting midges.)

ELECTRIC DREAM

One of the first EVs, Volk’s Electric Railway, first ran in Brighton, England, in 1883 — and Tuesday is its last day of operation in 2025. It’ll be back around Easter, in the next northern spring. The world’s oldest working railway is right on Brighton’s seafront, taking guests along a 1.6km track, as it has done for more than 140 years. It was invented by pioneering electrical engineer Magnus Volk, who wanted to showcase the technology. It has a groundbreaking electrified third rail, which can still be seen in a modified and updated form. volksrailway.org.uk

LIONFISH BITTEN

Cultural expedition cruise company Swan Hellenic has launched a lionfish control initiative. It aims to raise awareness of the ecological threat posed by lionfish — an invasive species in the Mediterranean. The initiative, in partnership with the NGOs Elafonisos Eco and SDG4MED, forms part of Swan Hellenic’s contribution to the European Commission’s mission “Restore our Ocean and Waters by 2030”. It is also in response to comments by Prince Albert II of Monaco, an active proponent of initiatives to combat lionfish. Swan Hellenic’s launch event was on its ship SH Diana during its stay in Crete as part of an eight-night cultural cruise from Greece to Istanbul and the guests dined on . . . locally caught lionfish.

Lionfish are native to the Indo-Pacific but have spread around and infested the world’s warm marine waters. Females can produce over 2 million eggs a year and lionfish are voracious predators of juvenile fish, shrimp, small lobsters, crab and other small fish. But they are very good eating.

SINGAPORE DEAL

We like a good deal, and Luxury Escapes has three nights from $999 per “LuxPlus” room at the Paradox Singapore Merchant Court at Clarke Quay. It includes daily breakfast and nightly cocktails. I like this area of Singapore as a base, and Paradox matches old-world charm into a modern urban resort. luxuryescapes.com/au.