The Australian trip – Sydney –

 “Beyond the horizon, 5° episode”

Sydney is the natural gate for foreigners watching and loving Australia from abroad. This crossing point needs a stay anyway, the first … or the last … couple of days, of any Australian journey on this largest island or « smallest » continent !

New South Wales where Sydney is located was not an unknown region as I was before a student of UNE, University of Armidale in the north. I was delighted to come again and again  in this glittering harbor with its coat hanger bridge and the fabulous sails of the Opera house, a worldwide symbol built in 1959 and open in 1973 with the queen herself!

Close the opera, Circular Quay, on the shoreline is a lively scene where we can find the Museum of Contemporary art and the historic district of the city founded in 1788. This is a favorite lovely place where inhabitants gathered during the day off.

Crowdie place with shops and magnificent view on the sea is one of the key point of this very extensive city. I remember driving in Sydney’s avenue for a long time, wondering how long would be the way among thousands of houses on both sides before arriving in the suburb and from the suburb. Wide space is a key note of this beautiful territory after the cities. Europe and particularly France gave us an habit to sleep in 9 Square meter (a room) and live sometimes in Paris in 12 to 15 Sq/m.

Sydney will offer a largest dimension of life and nature.

For instance, Sydney is also famous for his beaches as Bondi in the east part of the city to be reached after a short ride from downtown. The surf there is not only a sport but also a show for foreigners for 1912… This ancient tradition came from Honolulu where waves and beaches looks married.

Bondi is also a suburb with thousands of inhabitants living in an easygoing place. Australian style well-known as relaxed is emphasized here between the beach and the houses with numerous picnickers, joggers, surfers by the shore. People are helpful and they smile when sharing an information with you, poor tourist lost in this exceptionnal art of living.

My local friend led me in several places during my stay as the Chippendale area in the inner city… In Europe, Chippendale is synonymous with beautiful men undressing for women in special shows and the name of the neighborhood seemed comical to a foreigner… We unsuccessfully looked for the shows at the corner !

I was astonished by the number of events we could attend in a week in the city and beyond in this state (NSW) of baffling contrasts. Ocean on a side, blue mountain on the other, wine in the hunter valley, opera in Sydney, boat race here, parks and nature there… No way to be bored during a long stay. Night lounge bar provided another vision of the city with open women explaining their life and needs in a musical environment with no judgment, no fear without complex. The chat was joyful.

The population welcomes the guest with sympathy and everywhere, there is somebody to help you if you are lost. We have attended several ceremonies and have shared a lot of meetings and barbecuestogether  in a couple of weeks to explore the culture and searched for people. We met some french too who seems laid back comparing with french style.  Australia is really a loving country.

Unfortunately, I didn’t have the chance to go to Broken Hill where is located the famous centre for the school of distance education providing lessons by radio to the Australian youths isolated in their farms.

This city host also the Flying Doctor Service which carries medical support across the vast outback by aircraft. Loving aircrafts, the visit of the airport base would have delighted me.

This is for my next trip as soon as possible including a journey to Melbourne, Canberra and another stay (the third there) in New Zealand, another beautiful country.

Game is not over! I’ll be back soon to search the missing piece.

Didier Rancher

The Australian Trip – Tasmania-

 “Beyond the horizon, 4° episode”

The visit to Tasmania was planned at the last minute from Australia. I was interested by his cool forests, lush pasture and the idea that this temperate island was a world apart from the continent. A good motivation.

With a size close to the smallest countries in Europe, the half million population of Tasmania Island  is gathered in Hobart, the capital and the vicinity. My old lobby of green attitude joined the local interest in hydro-electric dams, I have also checked in the nineties in France. The territory has an impressive park system with rangers to protect the wild nature. Tasmania is a green land.

Also, the colonial history seems more visible in Tasmania than in the rest of Australia, it was interesting to make the trip for a big holiday there. The island was discovered by Abel Tasman, a Dutch navigator followed by Cook, Bligh and Finders at the late 19° century.

The French navigator Baudin came here also in 1802 before a complete fly of the union jack… The isolation of the island was perfect at the time to set up a penal colony with the most dangerous convicts in Port Arthur at 110 km from Hobart. The penal settlement can be visited nowadays with a museum, a church, come ruins but the ancient wooden jail disappeared.  

Arriving from the airport with a car rental, I found, as usual, a friendly atmosphere with my owners in a small boarding house downtown. On several floors, antique furniture recalls a disappeared century as in a museum inside this house. Curtains, clock… the time is suspended in the silent of the corridor! It’s easy to go on foot in the inner city.

The city of Hobart lives around the sailing port and the Derwent River across. My pedestrian way leads me to the battery point on the eastern side facing the sea under St George’s church, throughout a maze of colonial streets in this village of old houses.

Following a tourist tour, I come in the Van Diemen’s land Folk Museum to understand how early settlers lived so far away from Australia and UK. Close the waterfront, some warehouses called Salamanca Place are now the spiritual home of the capital. Cafés, galleries and restaurants with a noisy craft market cluster here, animate the city with artists and tourists…

The city contains an old theatre, the theatre royal described by Sir Laurence Olivier as “The best little one” in Campbell street. The funny story tell by my landlords during the family dinner is that the theatre has a ghost resident. We had a long chat on the quality of their wine to compare with France famous great wine as the island is also a finest wine producer. The vineyard is located around Launceston on a wine road (Chardonnay & Pinot Noir).

With my car, I take a day to explore the Tasmania’s wildest country in the west side to Lake Pedder and Lake Gordon where the water descends in the Russel Falls on 30 meters… an impressive place!

My short stay in Tasmania come to an end and the way back to Australia is rough with the bag and the usual emotion of each departure. I swear my landlords to return for a longer trip as I love Australia and now Tasmania…

Didier Rancher

To succeed in the international practice of cultural immersion

The French practice abroad to conduct or create project development is different from that of other countries and cultures. It is also more difficult to implement, which hinders expansion or our maintenance sometimes in some countries.
I had the chance to observe these micro / macro differences in human relationships around the world. They must be treated with empathy, without arrogance and it is necessary to take it into account to increase its chance to succeed whatever the project is…
I have the memory in Sarajevo of a cultural centre (library) French very immersed downtown for years, and also companies created by French native located in Libreville and Bangui. Their particularity worked in accordance to the local rhythms with a perfect knowledge of the population or event his local language. These French companies were known, with their deep roots in France and the Ministerial visits had the duty to highlight from time to time, their remarkable success.. .
This immersion in a long period among the population allowed an optimized management of their case, its development or its maintenance with a good ability to go on but also a strong reputation. These French are also sometimes relays for those who arrived with their own projects.
Each country reserve some surprises to the investor, the diplomat, the head of project and the tourist not warned from specific behavior, laws, fiscal, cultural with for example specific rhythms of work.. Then we can, here or there, discover habits of consumption of illegal products, for instance, when you are in Djibouti, it folds to the strong pace of time of prayer in Riyadh, it negotiates with its African guards so that they do not use their bows with potential thieves. A short story… they had one day with pride, pierced arrows a burglar until I run to provide care and a physician action to save his life… They were astonished by my reaction!
Found on another continent liberalism of USA and some flat Greeks sometimes too fat food which hinders the enthusiasm of the afternoon. Need for example to keep a greater distance with an American and to greet differently than in Europe with an Asian. Among the people of the South, need to move to table about 2PM or later, while you eat much earlier with a North European and barely an Anglo-Saxon at these hours there.
At the bottom of a tribal area, it’s useful to come up with the « custom », a kind of gift that will be filed in view of a wall and not given from hand to hand as in New Caledonia for example… Made up of a few cartons of cigarettes or other, these gifts are a way to open a cultural friendly dialogue.
Perfect knowledge of these practices and the demonstration on a daily basis that one master are the strengths of many French who work abroad. Certainly, it is easier than rest on its usual errors and not to make efforts towards other cultures but immersion is one of the keys to succeed in the lead of any form of projects abroad. The French are often good at this game but they are less and less numerous in this foreign practice and a school to teach the cultures of the world is missing to help medium companies to export goods and services.
Didier Rancher

The Australian trip – The south

Régate Australienne

Beyond the horizon, 3rd episode

My will to explore the ways where few tourists planned their trip pulled me to Adelaïde, the Australian southeast capital.

The first British explorers arrived in the territory in 1836. Occupied by Aborigines for thousands of years, however, the ground was sparsely populated and surveyor William Light decided alone the location of the city, Adelaïde.

He made a symmetrical design to built the town as in most of the American cities. No convict was used for construction in this part of Australia.

The great well-known historical tolerance of the city inspired me to go and have a stay downtown. Indeed, religious minorities sometimes prosecuted purchase this land, hoping to live in peace in the heart of this new city.

Irrigated by the Murray River, the largest in Australia, the soil is fertile and the vines grow next to farms and mines which ensure an autonomy to the community. The region is rich.

The scenery is gorgeous: thanks to rain, fauna and as always in the continent free spaces around. Bed and breakfast located downtown, my couple of landlords’ retirees suggests me to lead my pedestrian visit to explore the old monuments. In fact, public transportation networks are not dense and only car rentals can overcome distances. Reach the island kangaroos off Adelaide, for example, requires up to the nearest point to the southwest of the city, Cape Jarvis, to take a boat shuttle to the paradise.

Botanical gardens created in 1855 are dotted with artificial lakes on 20 acres. A beautiful greenhouse Bicentennial conservatory contains tropical plants. The city is airy and green as often in the country. The town hall is curiously Italian style and my landlords tell me it was inaugurated in 1866, at a time when the city is finalizing.

The cultural center Tendanya contains works of art and entertainment locations linked to Aboriginal millennium culture. Further, the Rundle Mall gather stores and concentrates the largest crowd in this city of 1, 7 millions inhabitants. The place is perfect to buy a gift, a box of chocolate for my lovely guest … All hikers will tell you that strong ties are forged between walkers of « cultural » trips…

The beautiful Ayers House in the north terrace avenue, downtown can be visited in part. It was the residence of a Prime Minister of the state, Sir Henry Ayers, a son of a handler in Hampshire in Britain. The House belongs to the national trust and has the style of the late 19th century holding several artworks. 2 restaurants offer Australian dishes that is not used when you arrive from Europe. The kangaroo and crocodile are not really on the menu cards of Paris. We must therefore try nets that food whose taste is not far from that of chicken.

Our imagination puts Kangaroo in the nice animal category, certainly following a television series on Skippy, a friendly kangaroo. Eat Skippy was heartbreaking! But this is my culture to try foreign habits and landlords were looking at me and my torments with great amusement. They tell me that eating frogs in Paris would not be easy for them either! We will stay in touch as they know so much things and people in Australia.

Leave Adelaide and her sweet life was a real tear but the idea that Hobart, then Melbourne is waiting for me before Sydney, a real joy!

Didier Rancher

The Australian trip – The west

Beyond the horizon, 2nd episode

When I arrived first in Perth in the Southwest, I was astonished by the by distance from the city of all other inhabited areas. Perth seems to be a lost island in a continent as well as being the capital of Western Australia.

My choice was to visit the country step by step, starting from the eastern coast, the closest from Europe. Founded by John Stirling in particular, they are convicts who established the foundations of this pearl which is spread beside a loop around the Swan River as around a beautiful bay. The city seems to have been rebuilt several times.

The religious buildings of the old city center are all close the old fire station and the government house in the middle of incredibly green parks. The real lungs of the city (supreme court garden and St Mary’s Catholic Church…), the avenues open to the skyscrapers of the river create architectural anachronisms.

The city is alive around his history and his present economy. My landlady, Elena, is proving very Francophile and we have long chat before any visit downtown. She had an active day life with a couple of rooms rent to the tourists from several countries. With her charming accent, she explained the location of Northbridge where the night activities are more interesting. She mixed these explanations with another spot more cultural: the interest of the Western Australian museum where an old jail (19th centuries) can be visited with an exhibition of the past life of this territory…

Laughing, she mentioned that the lack of washing machines and coffee machines had to be terrible at the ancient time…

Even if the transportation system is correct to join the city of Fremantle of to get the shoreline after Hillary’s boat Harbor, it seems better to rent a car. Distances in Australia offers a chance to have space for everybody but the travel time have to be accurately assessed.

To give an idea of such territory the “kings park” in the south east of the city along the swan river covers 400 hectares or 500 football fields… a city in the city!

The coastline out Perth consists of beautiful beaches on a long distance driving… The idea of ​​being a Robinson touches us as the low number of houses and bathers. First impressions of excess, spaces are confirmed by the taxi driver, Evan, who leads me from one end to another city as a guide.

The access to the population is easy and every shop is an opportunity to realize it. As soon as the seller realizes that I am a foreigner in love with the region, it fits proudly with kindness and desire to help. The next few weeks to spend in Australia of my dreams will be facilitated…

Didier RANCHER

Stay in Canada… kindness and humanity!

The arrival on Canadian soil, in which I have done several trips East & West side is always a delight. The country offers a gigantic ball of oxygen with spaces, forests and lakes, a myriad of colors and extreme kindness of the population that adds to my relaxation.
Some time before one of my last visits, a few years ago, I had to get a valid record sponsored by the Canadian Transport Ministry to reactivate my Canadian pilot license (CPL). In France, the medical examination succeeds with a physician licensed by the Ministry of transport linked to the Canada. But a bad checked in the record emphasized me as a blind person… as the global document under the signature of the doctor demonstrated my perfect ability as a pilot to take off any plane…!
My mobile phone rang one afternoon and I heard the charming Canadian accent of a civil servant of Montreal. Taking the initiative to « serve the public », she was in touch with me on these 2 points assuming a simple clerical error… My doctor joined by telephone confirmed the clerical error and sent a fax in a rush to Transport Canada in order to confirm the clearance.
One hour later, I heard again at the charming accent across the Atlantic confirming that my file was green… But, not fully satisfied with his perfect service, my Canadian correspondent asked me for my date of arrival. No doubt for her, I could not receive in time the transatlantic mail folder with her clearance? She offered to send it to the chief pilot school of Montreal. Landing later on in Montreal, the school had got the full record stamped and signed.
This type of quality service and dedication is fairly typical of the Canadian spirit of service to the public above all.
Canada is a huge country and the plane a useful means to travel above a rich nature and beautiful landscapes!
Arriving one day to qualify my long range ability in Chibougamau, a small town in the cold north, I met a kind employee with several ability… controller, engineer, snow man, household human fighter pilot… In the blizzard and the lively local cold, it railing to weatherproof coating Seneca engines so I could restart.
I had a heater failure on board half an hour before landind and my hands had suffered from the brutal fall of temperature in the pilot cabin.
Then, while I was trying to resurrect my frozen fingers under the ladies washroom hand dryer, (the only one in service in the small hall), I asked him how to have lunch in the remote village of a few kilometers.
With great bonhomie, our versatile official handed me the keys to his own car parked in the snow, in the parking spot… There was what, in any event, no buses and no taxi on the white horizon in the vicinity of the airport…
Very embarrassed, I wanted to refuse but he insisted explaining be upset if I didn’t get his keys…. I then rode on a big American limousine with his tapes and personal items to the village. The huge car was dancing on the unstable snow, scaring me a lot for a while… !
In the village, where I was the first tourist for a long while, I was greeted at the hostel with warmth and friendship as if I was part of the landscape forever. The meat and potatoes dishes strengthen resistance to the cold temperature… for bears!
Back at the airport, it was not possible to reward my lender of cars other than long thanks. It is with regret that exiting the CTR (Control Zone – zone of an airport air traffic management), I say a long goodbye to my landlord on behalf also of my frozen fingers and my craving!
Every day adventures like this highlighted the dedication and kindness of Canadians who are wonderful people.
Leaving to France after reactivated my aviation qualifications in a very severe practical flight test, I resumed a bus to Montreal and a commercial aircraft.
Carrying my heavy suitcases, I’m making back pain while climbing in the car… A few hours later, boarding the airbus plane, I even had the penalty to load the small cabin suitcase in the luggage compartment above. My face was marked by the suffering while I sat in my seat window, breathless…
Next door, my neighbor, a lovely Canadian and her daughter, going on vacation in France, spoke softly in his ear. Full respect for my suffering too much visible, the mother said her daughter…. « Do not disturb this man, honey, he has to be afraid by plane »!
Didier Rancher

The country of real human

Staying in Thailand, it seems difficult to imagine the story of the fratricidal struggle that took place here. Faced with a people friendly and playful who seem to place the human relationship and courtesy to a high standard, I can’t recall the images of the past Bangkok’s fights.
To compare with Sarajevo before the 1990’s and with Beirut in the midst of the 70’s, where I share for a while the inhabitant’s martyr, there was no prospect that some cruel wars would take place in this land of civilization….Only keen observers of social tension, ethnic and political had anticipated the weak signals of these conflicts.
For Thailand also, afterthought, it seems impossible to live any conflict (fortunately less serious). It’s a dream… a bad dream! But the crisis is now behind and we hope that life has returned to normal as we arrive in this fabulous country.
We walk in Bangkok without feeling any aggression, any fear as often in major capitals. We breathe the flower markets. We feel deeply the Thai for a moment among the crowd. Heat disappears beneath the shadows of multiple canopies covered walkways and thousands of electric son.
To go quickly through the capital, it is refreshed to board modern rickshaws that are tuk-tuk motor. They drive with a curious sense of the poise and a good trim. The Chao Phraya river is also another way to help for any particular trip in Bangkok with a magnificent view on the city. It offers numerous off river with the well organized boats, carrying workers and tourists mixed and tight against the bulwarks.
In the busy and noisy streets, the mothers and traders call out in intense cultural confabulations. They don’t care of us except if you need something and publicly show your needs… They stop and gather to help even if they don’t speak English using “smile words” and body language to answer at the best any request.
We felt comfortable with their visible will to provide a good image of their population and country. This seems like a natural behavior as their constant smile, joining hands in a short prayer of thanks and welcome.
Sometimes, a place is dedicated to massage and a lot of citizens are massing themselves. It’s a lifestyle deeply unassailable in the culture. They offer welfare to their relatives, neighbors or tourists in this way. The Buddha culture is real and it offer a lot of spot to visit helping us understand the ancient tradition of this millennium civilization.
Their king is recovering in a hospital on the front of the river for a couple of years. A military boat guards the access as we state the deep respect of the population when they cross the front of the building. Official palaces can be visit also and we commend the luxury gardens, the changing of the guard in a British attitude.
Further in the floating market, we discover another face of this nice country with numerous boat traders… Colors are fabulous and the scents of cooking fish and meat, sold directly to consumers incenses the typical atmosphere. Houses on stilts are inhabited by families and youths who bathe in water full of snakes and other scary animals…
Yes, really, Thailand is is an exotic place where you can change skins, dream and think for a moment to a better humanity, flirting with utopia… Make the trip!
Didier RANCHER

“The Australian dream”

Beyond the horizon

I was fascinated by Australia for a while. Probably because I love the great outdoors, a notion of freedom and I thirst for adventure. Comparable size in the U.S., this country is contrasted between continental deserts and fertile areas. I loved all my trips drive from east to west and south, up Tasmania.
The discovery of the territory seems to appear in France through very old maps found at the harbor of Dieppe in 1560. The Portuguese sailors could also have found the continent if one interprets maps poorly located at the time.
The real discovery is more certain with the dutch Willem Jansz and later the Dutch Dirk Hartog who certainly identified Australia and of course Abel Tasman who gave his name to the Tasmania island.
The British were more adventurous and the captain William Dampier walked on in 1688 before James Cook who was the first explorer to conquer Australia for the King Georges III in 1770.
The modern history of Australia has only 242 years behind to compare with the mankind history of this land which dates back about 60,000 years. The first map of Australia was draft in 1801 and the 19° century and the exploration through the Blue Mountains start in 1813. Numerous groups of explorers stand up some villages and built roads from 1804 to 1862 with the entire cross of the continent directed by John Mac Douall Stuart.
The gold fever in the 1850’s accelerating the construction of cities and the presence of manpower coming from Europe gave this young country a modern aspect at the beginning of the 20th century.
An avid history of this country, I will write some reviews of my feelings on future trips in the next episodes.

Didier RANCHER