Aged seventeen I arrived in Sydney, Australia to immediately fall in love with the fabulous surfing beaches and exciting new lifestyle that enabled a wide variety of work and travel. Eventually becoming a professional musician provided the best possible MO to further travel the world and experience different cultures and diverse ways of life. Along the way the many and varied jobs included builders laborer, taxi driver, wharfie, salesman, and plant machine operator in Port Headland’s iron ore industry to eventually become a seaman on the Port Hedland tugs and writing four books.
Here I met Dineke and after settling into our relationship we decided to buy a coastal block of land at Cervantes to custom-design / purpose-build a budget holiday accommodation facility. This took the form of Pinnacles Beach Backpackers commissioned in January 1997 and was added to with the more upmarket Cervantes Lodge Motel and Don Quixote’s Restaurant in 2003. We went on to win the WA Tourism Award three years in a row and proudly represented WA in our category at the national tourism awards. Pictured below is the accommodation facility we designed and built which has been repurposed and undergone major redevelopment.
From then till now.
I’m eternally grateful for being born & raised in Hastings, Sussex – UK, where a fun-filled childhood exploring unspoiled woodlands instilled a powerful sense of adventure. Aged sixteen I hitch-hiked to Spain with the princely sum of 10 pounds in my pocket. Initially rough sleeping on the beach I was eventually hosted by kind locals concerned for my safety. I lasted three months by working in bars where I began learning guitar and basic Spanish. This life changing experience kick-started a lifetime journey of authentic adventure.
One month short of twenty years successful tourism and hospitality operations we sold the business and retired to Secret Harbour which is an equally wonderful place where another exciting new chapter begins. Pictured below was Cervantes Lodge as we left it. It’s subsequently been repurposed and redeveloped.
Travel is fatal to prejudice, bigotry, and narrow-mindedness.
Mark Twain