Check In | April 29 2020

SPECIAL ADVERTISEMENT SUPPLEMENT SPECIAL ADVERTISEMENT SUPPLEMENT Page 2 Page 3 DailyMail, Wednesday, April 29, 2020 DailyMail, Wednesday, April 29, 2020 ELCOME to our inaugural Check In Special Edition, an unusual travel supplement for extremely unusual times. Life under lockdown is teaching us much about ourselves, and changing us, too. Many of us are only now realising how much travel means to us, and vowing to live life more fully once restrictions ease. Now, while the frenetic pace of life has let up for a while, is the perfect time to dream of – and plan – your next trip. I hope this issue, which we’ve dedicated to Australia because it’s almost as far from home as you can get, will whet the appetite and inspire your next holiday. Future issues will look at a range of tempting locations, from the Caribbean to Europe and beyond. We also want to show our support to the vibrant, varied and absolutely vital travel industry, from tourist boards to travel agents and small owner-operators. The first trip after lockdown will be arguably the most memorable of your life, so make it a good one. HIS is what I’m going to do when we can all travel again: I’m going to back the old grey Jag out of the garage in Sydney, and my wife, Sas and I are going to drive to Mollymook down the Princes Highway. Because it’s been so long, every step of the journey will be like a newmorning. We’ll go past Kingsford Smith [Sydney] Airport, where the planes will be coming in again, trundling over the underpass as we drive beneath them. The car is about 20 years old. I suppose we should change it, but it’s got a 3.8 engine, smells of old leather, and I love the V8 burble as we amble through Brighton-Le-Sands, with all the Greek restaurants on one side, and a flat view over Botany Bay on the other. I’ll have to remember to slow down from 100kph [62mph] to 60kph [37mph] going through Heathcote – you think you’re already on the freeway, well out of Sydney, but there it is. There’s a fish restaurant in the next place, Waterfall, called Legendary Fish & Chips. I always mean to check out the legend, but I only see it on the way back fromMollymook. Then there’s the very steep road down the Illawarra Escarpment into Wollongong. Every time I go down it, I wonder howmany trucks have brake failure and run up an escape route filled with deep sand on the side. Next is Kiama. I was looking to open a fish and chip place here years ago; it’s such a lovely town, right on the ocean beach. Now comes the best bit: Kiama to Mollymook – maybe I’ll turn off the new highway into Berry for a chicken and avocado sandwich, and a Bundaberg ginger beer. It’s no distance to Nowra and the Shoalhaven River. There are some oysters at the mouth of the river, a place called Greenwell Point; I was very interested in taking over a fish restaurant there, too, once upon a time. After Nowra, the terrain changes from open dairy land to eucalyptus forests, and you pass through places with fabulous names such as Wandandian, Jerrawangala and Yatte Yattah. Then you reach the high street of Milton, with its immaculate courthouse and assortment of little one-man-band shops selling not your normal high street stuff, but clothes and homewares made in Australia. There are also some tiny family-owned restaurants, like Pilgrims and Small Town. Then it’s into Mollymook, past rolling green pastures and corrugated-iron roofs straight into Bannisters hotel, where I run the restaurant, into the Pool Bar for an early evening glass of local Coolangatta Estate Semillon and a heap of Illawarra prawns and mayo. Oh, to sit by that clear, slightly weird, triangular-shaped infinity pool with the restless blue Pacific ocean through the trees. To me it’s an atmosphere of Therehas never been a better timetoplan aholiday... New South Wales and those friendly little country towns such as Tumut or Trangie, the emptiness of a pub on a rural road at lunchtime in summer when the heat going in is crushing but the ice-cold beer or lemon squash in frosted glasses provides one of life’s great mysteries: how could be this be so good? When I first visited Australia, I travelled through most of the country – I even ventured into the centre and worked on the Adelaide to Alice Springs railway line, the Ghan. My job was helping to maintain the track, and the name of my occupation – a good one for a pub quiz – was a ‘fettler’. It was the four months out there at a place called Deepwell that sealed my love for Australia. Every night, there were totally clear night skies with so many stars it was like the black sky was lit with silver – I remember that so well, and the smell of red dirt and the giant rocky outcrops like Uluru, changing comfort and innocence, to be truly back in rural Australia again. I first came to Australia in the mid-1960s, and it’s been my second home ever since. Some of it’s been a struggle – Vegemite was a long one, and Jatz biscuits, but I was always a pushover for the Aussies... the weather, the sea, the fish, rural For more information, visit www.bannisters. com.au/rick-stein. For tips and recipes that you can try at home now, follow Rick on Instagram@chefrickstein THE INFO T CHEF’SSPECIAL: RickSteinandwife Sarah, above; Bannistersby the sea,Mollymook Beach,where local seafood ison the menu, below; Kiamaharbour, above left W Harriet Arkell Commercial Editor Harriet colour from orange to red to purple as the day progressed. The sight of the spinifex [grassy plants] rolling through the flats, landing a breeze, and the distant wail of the train arriving from Alice Springs. One day I mean to go back there, to Ooraminna, which was the next track maintenance camp down the line back in those days. There’s a station homestead near there now, luxury accommodation. It will seem a bit odd remembering the tough simplicity of times past, but entirely pleasurable, I think. If someone had predicted just months ago that we would find ourselves in our current circumstances, we likely would not have believed them. Though travel may be on pause for now, this can still be a time to look to the future and plan for the day that we will explore the world again, with a renewed sense of appreciation. Our thanks go to the team at the Daily Mail who have created this supplement so that you can explore Australia from the safety of home, at least for today. If you’ve visited us before, the stories within will hopefully trigger fond memories that you’ll want to retrace, and if you’re yet to visit us, I hope they will entice you to do so. The UK and Australia undoubtedly share a special bond of mateship that has endured many challenging periods in history, as it will this one that we face now. We stand with you, and we look forward to welcoming you to Australia and making your visit special, one day soon enough. Until the day that we can say ‘G’day’ again. Phillipa Harrison, Managing Director, TourismAustralia LOOK I NG TO THE FUTUR E L E T T E R Editor’s ©DESTINATION NSW By Rick Stein WHY I Australia hasaspecial place in the TV chef’s heart, and he can’t wait to get back there