Travel

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  Unhurried in Hatta

  First published in The CEO Magazine, March 2019

  Set in the Al Hajar mountains, not far from Dubai, the quiet town of Hatta won’t be quiet for long Even surrounded by water – which in Dubai, you commonly are – still, you can feel it: the dryness of the Arabian Desert the city is built on and within, second in size only to the Sahara. Not far from the city’s outskirts is the ...

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  Dubai Pool Clubs Are The Freshest Way To Holiday

  First published in AWOL, December 2018

  In a city as persistently hot as Dubai – its coolest month, January, still has average temperatures of 24 degrees and summer temps often top 40 degrees – finding places to swim is more necessity than desire. Luckily, Dubai pool clubs and beach clubs are like those in no other city. The good and very glam news is that travellers on a budget don’t need to be ...

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  How #MeToo has changed the way women travel

  First published in Australian Financial Review, October 2018

  This story was first published on adventure.com “Boyfriend? Husband? I liiiike you,” hisses the young Moroccan man, shaking a menu at me. I veer around him and continue to the ATM on the other side of the square. Dirhams withdrawn, I return to my hotel the long way. A second guy, older, sitting in the shade of a doorway, makes kissing noises to get my attention. ...

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  Moroccan Rhapsody

  First published in the Australian Financial Review (Life & Leisure), August 2018

  At first we’re told the medina has 10,000 alleyways. “It’s a labyrinth,” says our guide, Mohamed. The ancient, walled part of Fès, Morocco, is the world’s best place to get lost, he says. “But have you actually lost people?” I ask. “Four times,” Mohamed says in a tone that pleads, “do not make it five, Kate.” The next day, Fès local, Khadya, tells us there ...

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  Norway’s Future Library

  The Saturday Paper, January 2018

  “I have finished writing my contribution to Future Library,” wrote Icelandic poet and novelist Sjón on April 27, 2017. “It is a moment of relief and exhilaration, of exhaustion and joy. From this moment on I have entered the next level of the game, where I must keep a secret to the end of my days.” Sjón had followed authors Margaret Atwood and David Mitchell into an extraordinary durational ...

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  Getting high in New York City

  The Australian Financial Review, Life and Leisure, January 2018

  On Seventh Avenue in New York City, 45,000 people walk by the Moxy hotel every day. “Try walking upstream to Penn Station at peak hour and you’ll have a problem,” says the hotel’s managing director, Gary J. Thomas. The big fish at Moxy HQ, a brand launched by Marriott in 2014, have done the sums. The new midtown hotel plans to reel the foot traffic in and ...

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  The island advantage

  First published in Wellbeing Magazine, August 2017

  Earth tumbles from the small, slim carrot that chef and farmer Rodney Dunn has just pulled from the ground. He rinses it and hands it over. It’s sweet and crisp; the best carrot I’ve had. “Why did it taste so good?” I ask. “It’s eating it straight after it was picked,” Dunn says. “When carrots get stored, the green tops utilise the sugar in the ...

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  Blacken Festival
, 2017

  First published in The Wire magazine, Issue 401, July 2017

  Drive 1,500 kilometers south of Alice Springs and you’ll reach Adelaide. Sixteen hours north is Darwin. These are the closest big towns. Alice (as it is known) is red dirt country – traditional home to the Arrernte people and four hours from Australia’s most famous rock, Uluru. A return flight to Alice from Sydney or Melbourne costs about $700. It’s no casual weekend away but ...

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  Nights out in Glasgow

  First published in The Saturday Paper, February 2017

  Pavement and pub fuse in a way that supports the Scotia’s claim to be Glasgow’s oldest. It is close to the River Clyde. The ceiling is low and the wood is ruddy – it’s like drinking in an overturned boat. The pub’s regulars are huddled around a guitar, singing. No sooner does one slip out for a fag, another returns, breathing mist as the door swings ...

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  Is Manchester The UK’s Coolest City?

  First published in AWOL, March 2017

  Some clichés about the UK’s biggest northern city are true. Mancunians are football mad. Teenagers strut around in Adidas pants trying to look like they’re looking for trouble. It rains or drizzles an average of 152 days a year, and though it’s only two hours by train from London, Manchester maintains an outsider feel underlined by thick Northern accents. But you knew all that, right? ...