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Friends on the Road
The allure of solo travel can promise what sounds like an easy escape into uncharted waters. New lands to be discovered by your feet and new sensations to be snorted up by your senses. Because you, my squirmish friend, have been stuck in the trap of the humdrum, day-to-day existence of ordinary life. You’ve already had…
The Last Stop
The smell of rain does not rise from the grass to be ignored, but my disregard that morning as I set out left me a weeping fool, caught beneath a dead lamppost as it poured.  Back home, I would have drawn the curtains back together and entertained the idea that it is okay to do nothing.…
A Gay Atheist Goes To Church
I’m an atheist. It’s never normally hard for me to admit that. But last time I settled myself in a city overseas, while looking for community, I found myself in a circle of Christian men that made me their prey. Personally, I’ve always found church a bit hard to swallow. Perhaps it is the remnants…
Uncle
I felt a surge of magnetism from the rock as soon as I pulled into the national park in my dust-encrusted van. I’d just taken her five hours off-roading on a wild corrugated adventure in search of the ‘painted desert’. Every nook, cranny and tin of chickpeas was now covered in a pale orange powder.…
Finding Solace in Solitude at Eighteen
After hours cruising along the lone highway with nothing but my own thoughts, the bustling city centres that loom beyond exit signs seem ironically uninviting. Daunting, even. It was a shivering autumn's day when I tentatively told my friends at lunch that I wanted to buy a van. In between classes, those 40 minutes gave…
Smoking Saved My Life
“Fuck this stupid ass machine.” My feet sloppily kicked a rusty old Marlboro cigarette dispenser as I muttered under beer-drenched breath. By then, I had been consumed by joyous Latin salsa for hours — a far cry from the longing acoustic Fado that soundtracked Lisbon by day. Between pumping live brass, liquid flowing hips and…
An Orwellian Bus Tour from Shanghai to Beijing
The savannah has been drained of life. Its blooming grasslands have shrivelled and are bleached. The great beast pants, searching for the blanketing comforts of an acacia tree, but is rewarded only with the monolithic ceiling looming above. Where once beams of light would filter through emerald shrubbery, now three singular strands wiggle their way…
The Real Tokyo Blues
The black coffee reflects the vague shape of a little boy who thinks he's a man. It's rather off-putting, to be honest. Like the transition stage between looking too young to be considered old, but looking too old to be considered young. He scrutinises this a bit more; his nose is swollen and kinda twisted.…
Lonely in a Sea of 8.9 Million
The groggy fog of your afternoon nap begins to dissipate. The thundery rumble of an ignored stomach calls you to action, and when the gnawing reaches fever pitch, you know it’s time to go. Of course, because you’re not a local, you don’t know where. The suggestions of a previous traveller, a close friend, ring…
The Taxi Driver of Podgorica
Touch down in Podgorica Airport. The chill of Eastern European air encourages the hairs on my arm to stand in formation. Small pools of sweat slowly form underneath my black polar-fleece turtleneck after lugging my suitcase across the European continent. We’ve flown from Zurich to Podgorica, the capital of Montenegro, and the sleek Swiss charm…

Astray is a storytelling project centred on travel, place, culture and identity.

We’re run by a team of writers who mostly live, work and play in nipaluna / Hobart. With reverence, we acknowledge the Tasmanian Aboriginal people as the traditional and ongoing custodians of trouwunna / lutruwita / Tasmania: land that was stolen and never ceded. We pay our respects to Elders past, present and emerging.