Willis's Walkabouts Newsletter 96, June 2018 — Confirm or Cancel
I ran out of time so this newsletter is a bit shorter than normal. I hope it's still interesting.
I thought the first two articles in the section on Work and the first one in the section on Phones were particularly interesting.
Restricted content. Articles marked * or ** are on restricted websites Click for more info.
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In this issue
- Confirm or Cancel
- Work — Many Employers Just Don't Get It
- WW Definite Departures — Last Chance
- Beer
- WW Videos
- All in the Mind
- A Few To Make You Think
- Your Health
- Your Car
- Bushwalking Information
- Scandinavian Winter/Spring
- Phones
How landline phones made us happy and connected - A Fine Mind
- Photos, Videos & Just For Fun
- News About this Newsletter
Confirm or Cancel
Much as we hate to cancel trips that have bookings, sometimes we have no choice. The following trips will be confirmed or cancelled by midday on 20 June.
- Mitchell Plateau No. 3: 29 July - 13 August
Not only is this our first trip to the Mitchell Plateau since 2015, you get to fly in for no extra cost. That's something that may not happen again for years.
While it's old, our Mitchell Plateau Photo Gallery shows you a bit of what you'll see if you come.
If we can't tun the trip this year, we may or may not ever get back to the area, so ...
Super Special offer — $1000 discount. New price $2295. No other discount applies with this offer. - Kakadu Highlights No. 7: 12-25 August
Two great walks we don't do on any other trip. Either can be done on its own. - Kimberley Highlights No. 2: 16 August - 1 September
Three sections: Ord River, Carr Boyd Range, El Questro. Any section can be done on its own.
Video. Ord River Canoe
It's not just paddling, we spend two nights in one camp and do a full day's walk from there up into the hills to get some great views and visit little known waterfalls and pools.
Special offer — $300 discount on the full trip or $200 on sections 1 & 2 together. New price = $3395 full trip, $1880 sections 1 & 2. All our normal discounts still apply. - New trip. Russell's Kakadu Special: 30 August - 8 September
Special Price —$500. Special conditions apply to this trip. Don't even think about booking until you have read the trip notes, link above.
This trip replaces the Kakadu Day walk trip plus the two Kakadu Short Overnight trips. - Madagascar: 4 weeks in September
We need only one more booking to guarantee departure, maximum of only nine plus our guide.
Video. Madagascar - Part 1 — highlights from the first three days of our trip.
Video. Madagascar - Part 2 — 5 day trek in Isalo National Park
Probable guide: Sébastien Heritier. Sébastien's fluent French will make life easier for everyone. - New Caledonia: 2 or 3 weeks in September-October
Work — Many Employers Just Don't Get It
- A productivity paradox
"Treating workers well earns more money for the employer." - TMI and Paying Productive Workers
TMI = Too Much Information
"The problem may be employers who don't understand what makes their best workers tick."
"Monetary incentives work best for repetitive, rules-based jobs. Yet those same contingent motivators ("If you do this, then you get that") often reduce productivity in cognitive and creative jobs. People take longer and achieve inferior results."
"Bonuses, commissions, and the like make you narrow your focus. You concentrate on delivering the results that will give you the reward."
The article links to a Ted Talk on Motivation — well worth watching or reading the transcript. - Buying and selling leave is an emerging trend among Australia's Top Companies
- We're all hypocrites when it comes to 'insecure work'
"Employers are using every loophole available in the Fair Work Act to erode worker pay and conditions."
While most people seem happy with this, there is a big problem. Read the story to find out why.
WW Definite Departures — Last Chance
Every trip listed in this section is a definite departure with space still available. Most have only a few places left.
No other trip is available before 29 July.
- Last Chance. Bookings close at noon on Monday 4 June.
Kakadu: Waterfall and Baroalba Creeks: 10-20 June
Only 3 places left. Two separate walks with a cruise and night in accommodation in between the walks.
Special offer — $300 discount. New price $1795. No other discount applies with this offer.
Guide: Rod Costigan - Bungle Bungles: 1-9 July
Super Special offer — $1000 discount. New price $2495. No other discount applies with this offer.
Video. The Bungle Bungles
Paul Blattman, one of our guides, prepared this 5 minute Bungle Bungle video using photos and video clips from a number of our trips. More than anything else we've done, it gives you a taste of what our dry season Bungles trips are like.
We made major changes to the original itinerary so that the guide could bring his family along. See the trip notes, link above, for details.
Guide: Rod Costigan. - Kakadu Circle No. 2, Sec 2: Twin to Maguk: 7-14 July
Includes the magnificent natural water slide at Cascades Creek and much more.
Special offer — $500 discount on section 2 on its own. New price = $1295. No other discount applies with this offer.
Video. Kakadu Circle No. 2: June-July 2017, a 15 minute video by one of our clients, Richard Lukasz. Better than anything else, this explains our policy of 'no trace' camping.
Section one is now full.
Guide: Sébastien Heritier - Kakadu Highlights No. 6: 22 July - 5 August
Two sections, either of which can be done on its own.
Section one takes you to Bilkbilkmi or the Graveside area, the greatest concentration of permanently flowing creeks in Kakadu.
Section two visits Jim Jim and Twin Falls, the two largest waterfalls in the park.
Special offer — $400 discount on the full trip or $150 on either section. New price = $2495 full trip, $1545 section 1, $1645 section 2. Our normal past client and membership discounts still apply.
Guide: Rod Costigan. - New trip. Best of Kakadu: 17-23 August
Definite departure. Probable guide: Cassie Newnes.
This trip was created at the special request of a family flying over from the UK. They wanted to experience the remote magnificence of the escarpment as well as the wonders of Kakadu's lowlands. It really is an immersion into the best of Kakadu. Click the link above to see everything that makes it different from the rest of our trips.
All our normal discounts apply. - Kakadu Compassionate Communication Retreat: 25 August - 1 September
The trip notes, link above, were revised on 4 May.
Definite departure. Guides: Cassie Newnes and Kate Raffin.
Only three places available.
Beer
What could be more Australian than beer? Oops, "Japanese-owned Kirin (Lion) and Belgium-owned AB InBev (Carlton and United) control almost 60 per cent of the Australian beer market." Would you prefer Australian?
How to know if your favourite craft beer is Australian owned
"The Independent Brewers Association (IBA) has launched a new certification seal — granting authentic beers confirmed as independent and locally-owned the tick of approval."
Want to know what's actually Australian? The Australian Craft Beer Brewery List will give you the answer.
WW Videos
Since the last newsletter, we have posted a number of videos and added links to videos produced by one of our clients. Hopefully they will make it easier to visualise what the trips are like.
Kakadu
- Kakadu Circle No. 2: June-July 2017, a 15 minute video by one of our clients, Richard Lukasz. Better than anything else, this explains our policy of 'no trace' camping.
- This one is a bit older, but the walk is still available as part of Kakadu Highlights No. 8.
A 3½ minute video showing our Jim Jim and Rainforest Gorge walks.
You can see it's done by an amateur but hopefully it will show you what it's like.
Kimberley
- Ord River Canoe
We include a four day canoe trip down the Ord River below Lake Argyle on our Kimberley Highlights and Green Kimberley trips. It's not just paddling, we spend two nights in one camp and do a full day's walk from there up into the hills to get some great views and visit little known waterfalls and pools.
Still available this year as part of Kimberley Highlights No. 2. - The Bungle Bungles
Paul Blattman, one of our guides, prepared this 5 minute video using photos and video clips from a number of our trips. More than anything else we've done, it gives you a taste of what our dry season trips are like.
We have a special deal on our July bungles trip. - Kimberley Highlights No. 1, May-June 2016
Richard Lukacz, one of the clients on the trip, posted this 9 minute video. It should give you a good feel for some of what you'd experience if you did a similar trip.
Three of the sections are done on Kimberley Highlights No. 2
Overseas — Madagascar
- Madagascar — Part 1 — highlights from the first three days of our trip.
- Madagascar — Part 2 — 5 day trek in Isalo National Park
We need only one more booking by 20 June to run our Madagascar trip this year.
All in the Mind?
I have often said that once you reach a certain basic level of fitness, mental attitude is more important than better fitness. A recent trip I did proves it.
I organised the trip for some friends from the USA and others from Darwin. The overnight walk included a day which was more difficult than most of the days on our more extended trips.
Our group consisted of 8 people. Five were over 70. A 66 year old had an artificial hip. A 53 year old had an artificial leg below the knee. Five had never done an overnight walk before. (Two had, however, done long day walks.) Yes, there were times when some struggled a bit but they all enjoyed it overall and finished with a sense of accomplishment.
A Few To Make You Think
- Dollar Street
"In the news people in other cultures seem stranger than they are.We visited 264 families in 50 countries and collected 30,000 photos.We sorted the homes by income, from left to right. - What if everyone in the world lived on the same street? was written by Bill Gates and says why he thinks the website above is so important.
- A Simple Way to Improve a Billion Lives: Eyeglasses *
"Its the biggest health crisis you've never heard of. Doctors, philanthropists and companies are trying to solve it. - When Southern Newspapers Justified Lynching *
"Montgomery's new lynching memorial provides an opportunity to reflect on the role newspapers played in this gruesome chapter of America's history. - Privacy Is Dying, Like It or Not
"Real-time satellite imagery of the whole planet means all of us will be on camera any time we step outside." - Women-led superannuation funds are doing better than their rivals
Your Health
- Melanoma Risk Predictor
While this is useful, there were lots of other useful questions it didn't ask, - This Is Your Brain on Nature
"Science is proving what we've always known intuitively: nature does good things to the human brain—it makes us healthier, happier, and smarter. Nature writer David Gessner explains why."
"people living near more green space reported less mental distress, even after adjusting for income, education, and employment" — one of several studies cited.
"At the end of the day, we come out in nature not because the science says it does something to us, but because of how it makes us feel." - Food as medicine: why do we need to eat so many vegetables and what does a serve actually look like?
Your Car
Car Hacks
I found this in NT Motor, a magazine put out by the AANT (Automobile Assoc of the NT). It contains a few helpful tips you might not have thought of. If you own a car, it's worth a quick look.
Bushwalking Information
Here are a few articles I found interesting.
- Five national parks to put on your radar
- Kakadu. Major changes are coming to Jabiru, the town inside Kakadu. The Future of Jabiru explains some of the possibilities.
- Greenlight for divisive private huts proposal on SCT
Your tax dollars are helping subsidise a private development in a Wilderness World Heritage Area. "The proposed development of six huts along Tasmania's South Coast Track has been granted nearly $3m by the Federal Government in order to advance."
If you'd like to see the government website mentioned, click here and scroll down the page. - Tarkine doco highlights environmental pressures
"There's a new documentary coming out — sponsored by outdoor label Patagonia — talking about the environmental pressures the Tarkine is under.
Told through the eyes of a rural doctor who runs ultramarathon distances deep into the forest to scout logging operations, Takayna unpacks the complexities of modern conservation and challenges us to consider the importance of our last truly wild places.
The doco also features Greens founder Bob Brown and it's beautifully shot. There's a screening in Sydney on June 4 and in Melbourne on June 6."
The link above has a link to the trailer for the film and to a number of places where you can see the film.
Scandinavian Winter/Spring
I've been thinking about this trip for a few years now. I have a few people interested. Now, at long last, a have a very simple first draft of the trip notes. If I get another two or three expressions of interest, I'll start the working on a more detailed itinerary.
Phones
How landline phones made us happy and connected
"... the rise of smart phones — which Americans check 8 billion times a day — has not meant that we communicate better. More communication can mean that we hear each other less. Among American millennials, the number of voice calls they make is falling as texting soars. And that means we may be losing a powerful part of what connects us to each other."
The article had several interesting links. One I particularly liked was to Why does using a period in a text message make you sound insincere or angry?
A Fine Mind
It's old news now, but I couldn't resist my own tribute to someone who overcame an incredible disability to leave his mark on the world.
Stephen Hawking Dies at 76; His Mind Roamed the Cosmos *
The article has links to several interesting video clips.
Photos, Videos & Just for Fun
Video
Video: How This Beetle Evolved to Mimic Ants *
At least 12 types of rove beetle have evolved to convince ants and termites that it is one of them, all the while stealing their food and eating their young.
News About This Newsletter
Restricted websites. The NY Times allows non-subscribers to look at ten free articles each month. I've got more links than that in this newsletter so I've marked them with a red asterisk (*) so that you can choose which are of most interest to you. The Washington Post and The Economist both have limits but I'm not sure what the current limits is so I've marked Washington Post and Economist articles with a double red asterisk (**).
Next Newsletter — July or August? As the last time, it depends a bit on how fast things change with our trips and how much time I have to work on it.
As always, I've already got a few things ready. Hopefully, I can get a bit of feedback about some of the things in this newsletter to include in the next one. As I've often said, Suggestions welcome.
Sending the newsletter
While I now send most of the newsletters using MailChimp, I still send about 200 newsletters using a program which is hosted on the same server that hosts our website. (MailChimp Free only allows 2000. The commercial version costs too much for an extra 200 people.) In both cases, the newsletters are sent from walkabout@bushwalkingholidays.com.au. This is the contact address on our website. If you would like to continue to receive these newsletters, please include this address in your "friends list" so that it isn't blocked.
For some reason, some servers block the newsletters no matter what you try and do. I send these in small groups from my normal email. It's not a simple problem. If anyone thinks they might have an idea how to overcome the problem, I'd love to hear from you.
Emails sent to walkabout@bushwalkingholidays.com.au are currently automatically forwarded to rrwillis at internode.on.net. If you want to send an email to that address, replace the word "at" with the symbol @. I am trying not to put that address any place where it can be harvested by spam bots.
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Note. Both MailChimp and the other program we use to send some of these newsletters have an automatic delete at the bottom. Clicking that link will delete you from the mailing list on the server but it will not delete you from our main database. One of the programs will not allow the auto delete to send me an email notifying me that a deletion has been made. If you want to be sure that you are removed from all further mailings, please send an email to walkabout@bushwalkingholidays.com.au
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Best wishes to all.
I hope you enjoy reading the newsletter as much as I enjoyed writing it.
Russell Willis