There's an old saying – travel broadens the mind – and over the last few weeks, that's been reaffirmed to me. The RV Daily team has just returned to home base following three weeks on the road filming our new TV series Foodie Trails (Channel 10, Dec 1, 3.30pm). 

We headed north to Bundaberg and then toured the Queensland coast and Hinterland regions before wrapping in the town of Stanthorpe. Coincidentally, our return from filming episodes five to eight trod the same path as the opening one to four; the Central West.

During the journey, we met wonderful and inspiring people. You might expect me to say that, but when the show is researched, we have no idea of the stories or the personalities behind a voice on the phone. It's easy to make assumptions, as many do. Outside looking in? Judging a book by its cover, and the grass is always greener? The metaphorical grass.

Where we’ve been, the real grass has been anything but green. It’s been brown and, as you’re no doubt aware, it’s been black, too. Drought and fire, two of the poetic characteristics of this wide brown land, have been in the news for too long, with flooding rains reserved for more northerly parts of Asia.

Fire is dramatic and easier to understand. As humans, we're scared of it by instinct, although thankfully, some men and women have a healthy respect for fire. Enough to protect the rest of us from it in the fire service, be that paid or volunteer. Their bravery is hard to comprehend.

Drought, though, is less obvious. It's a term we hear on the news, but it's a creeping, insidious thing that cracks the spirit and the earth it parches. We saw swathes of countryside in this condition, river beds dry, and stock eating bought-in feed.

As I delve further into my book of old sayings, I reach for: necessity is the mother of invention.

And this is what we witnessed first-hand during our travels. Given that our series centres around caravan travel to search out delicious food, the stories behind the food production or origins proved fascinating. We met people who took extraordinary leaps of faith into new crops or animals; grew new plants, welcomed visitors, made wine or brewed beer or managed to maintain a legacy of historic farming by adaptation and sheer persistence despite nature's onslaught. We found positivity where you'd expect there to be none, in some cases, and found huge inspiration. Many of our visits discovered people who had no experience of their new venture and ended up taking out industry awards for their efforts. Whether blind luck or passion it doesn't matter, that's the building blocks of something substantial.

And we have only scratched the surface it seems, because in small towns we’d stop for a coffee between film shoots and talk to other, equally as worthy people with a story to tell as the subjects for the show. These stories are centred around communities, where people are together, to support each other in friendship as well as commerce.

So, travel. Broaden your mind. Have a conversation. And, as we have discovered, you don’t need to pile thousands of kilometres under your wheels – pick a region and tour it. Look for roadside stalls, and signs, farm tours and stays, try local produce often at the source; people want to talk, and their stories are fascinating.

Of course, we want you to watch Foodie Trails; you will make us happy, but more so because you will meet the people we met, and they're worth it. On top of that, it will inspire you to go out and meet all the other Australians with tales to tell. It all keeps the economy turning, and the locals (all of us) need that, but you will feel better and be catered for with mouth-watering food and drink that will dissolve any preconceptions you ever had.

Try it all; you will like it.

YOU SHOULD ORDER THE AUSTRALIAN GRAZING PLATTER

TIM SCOTT EDITOR - RV DAILY

NEWS Ed's Letter

There's an old saying – travel broadens the mind – and over the last few weeks, that's been reaffirmed to me. The RV Daily team has just returned to home base following three weeks on the road filming our new TV series Foodie Trails (Channel 10, Dec 1, 3.30pm). 

We headed north to Bundaberg and then toured the Queensland coast and Hinterland regions before wrapping in the town of Stanthorpe. Coincidentally, our return from filming episodes five to eight trod the same path as the opening one to four; the Central West.

During the journey, we met wonderful and inspiring people. You might expect me to say that, but when the show is researched, we have no idea of the stories or the personalities behind a voice on the phone. It's easy to make assumptions, as many do. Outside looking in? Judging a book by its cover, and the grass is always greener? The metaphorical grass.

Where we’ve been, the real grass has been anything but green. It’s been brown and, as you’re no doubt aware, it’s been black, too. Drought and fire, two of the poetic characteristics of this wide brown land, have been in the news for too long, with flooding rains reserved for more northerly parts of Asia.

Fire is dramatic and easier to understand. As humans, we're scared of it by instinct, although thankfully, some men and women have a healthy respect for fire. Enough to protect the rest of us from it in the fire service, be that paid or volunteer. Their bravery is hard to comprehend.

Drought, though, is less obvious. It's a term we hear on the news, but it's a creeping, insidious thing that cracks the spirit and the earth it parches. We saw swathes of countryside in this condition, river beds dry, and stock eating bought-in feed.

As I delve further into my book of old sayings, I reach for: necessity is the mother of invention.

And this is what we witnessed first-hand during our travels. Given that our series centres around caravan travel to search out delicious food, the stories behind the food production or origins proved fascinating. We met people who took extraordinary leaps of faith into new crops or animals; grew new plants, welcomed visitors, made wine or brewed beer or managed to maintain a legacy of historic farming by adaptation and sheer persistence despite nature's onslaught. We found positivity where you'd expect there to be none, in some cases, and found huge inspiration. Many of our visits discovered people who had no experience of their new venture and ended up taking out industry awards for their efforts. Whether blind luck or passion it doesn't matter, that's the building blocks of something substantial.

And we have only scratched the surface it seems, because in small towns we’d stop for a coffee between film shoots and talk to other, equally as worthy people with a story to tell as the subjects for the show. These stories are centred around communities, where people are together, to support each other in friendship as well as commerce.

So, travel. Broaden your mind. Have a conversation. And, as we have discovered, you don’t need to pile thousands of kilometres under your wheels – pick a region and tour it. Look for roadside stalls, and signs, farm tours and stays, try local produce often at the source; people want to talk, and their stories are fascinating.

Of course, we want you to watch Foodie Trails; you will make us happy, but more so because you will meet the people we met, and they're worth it. On top of that, it will inspire you to go out and meet all the other Australians with tales to tell. It all keeps the economy turning, and the locals (all of us) need that, but you will feel better and be catered for with mouth-watering food and drink that will dissolve any preconceptions you ever had.

Try it all; you will like it.

YOU SHOULD ORDER THE AUSTRALIAN GRAZING PLATTER

TIM SCOTT EDITOR - RV DAILY

NEWS Ed's Letter

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