Australians. Everywhere.

So it's true! Europe is saturated with Australians! And it just turns out that all the musical ones are in Munich!



Not a bad way to spend a Monday...work anyone?!

My favourite German words.

It's not every day you see a Leper.

Then again, it's not every day that I dress up as medieval man (i only found out that I was dressed as a man while we were on the train)...



...and spend an entire weekend surrounded by medieval and fantasy enthusiasts. God love the Germans.







It was an interesting weekend to say the least. The Germans love a bit of dress up, and the thought that the majority of these people were probably office workers in their normal lives made the whole thing just that more entertaining.

And I was one of them.
Trust me.
There is nothing like the feeling of a bit of loose linen and a good bit of leather. Maybe "Brandara" can temporarily become this, no?!



The medieval stores, the big slabs of meat and the knives, oh! the knives were a treat! Crocodile Dundee had nothing on these guys...

Bring out yer dead!

So there comes a point in every medieval market where one must go in search of people with the plague.



Standard operation really.
The doctor (pictured wearing this mask to protect his nose from the sick) goes around the village and searches for the plague-infected people.



And all of the non-sick villager people (me included), go around spotting people so we can burn them! Yes! That's right! Burn them! Good times!





Crazy Germans...

A Drunken Sailor.

Dressed up as a medieval man, drinking cherry beer out of my new horn cup whilst listening to the bagpipe medieval rock band play "What shall we do with a drunken sailor".



As a side note, who knew that "Put him in the bed with the captain's daughter" was the answer and much unpublicised second verse?!

In case you're wondering what that all may sound like, click here to see the same band playing at a different medieval festival.

You can take the girl out of Terrey Hills...

Riding 600km around a lake during the European summer sounded like fun.


Now, call me Darrianne Jr, but there was a point during this trip (ok, it was within the first 3 hours) when I thought to myself "get me some clean sheets, a sav blanc, a resort pool and a buffet".

Actually, make that a daily thought.
It was ever so traumatic.
This is the face of "not happy to be in this tent right now" Dara.

German Caravan Parks

So we reached a compromise.



In order to keep "Safety First" Dara happy, I left my comrades nightly for a one-man tent experience in German caravan parks, while they went furiously searching in the BLACK FOREST for somewhere to set up a tent IN THE DARK.

Now call me precious, but the 10€ was worth every cent for a hot shower and a designated ferocious animal-free zone.

Three countries, seven days

So when you ride around this lake Constance, you literally pass in and out of countries as you go along. Oh! We are in in Switzerland today! Did anyone say "Austrian sausage?!"...

And yes, once I got over my initial (actually, somewhat continuous) frustrations about being on a bike that was older than me and having to eat pretzels every day, the sights were quite spectacular...

You had your standard phenomenal sunset...



Your hectic sand sculpture championships...



An abundance of castles with cool rooms of armour...



And wicked little villages that look like movie sets...



In the end, it did actually make for one "Peaceful and happy to be here" Dara...

Mum vs. The World

It would appear that my mum has become somewhat of a pioneer.
According to the papers. She has made history.


I mean, not that we all weren't aware of her regular appearances on Today Tonight, but to hit up ninemsn.com, The Australian, The Herald Sun, The Daily Telegraph (the list goes on), all in one day is somewhat of an outstanding feat. And she beat me to it! Even with my dad being the accountant, she even beat him to appear on Page 3 of The Financial Review!

In case you have been sitting under a rock, Darrianne Donnelly is totally shaking up the fashion world by helping to create the first ever appearance of larger size models in a mainstream, highly contested fashion show.


She IS that woman. The one who changes things. The one who has been fighting the good fight for ten years and has finally made some serious impact.


The coverage is endless. And while she is not always named as the instigator, believe me, this is all her doing!

Channel 9 Video
Channel 10 Video


Seeing as how she has been the first Donnelly to conquer Australia, I have no choice but to contest her for World domination.

The race is on, mum. Who will get to Oprah first?

A mid-Knight walk

Ahh, I think the video speaks for itself really...

Big Daz takes over ninemsn.

Who would have thought that my darling mother would make the ninemsn homepage today?!

Ok, well actually you're right.
No surprises there.
It had to happen.

I'm just jealous she got there before me!

She is once again on her Australian tour to find those big boned beauties and I must admit, she is looking INCREDIBLY comfortable in front of the camera these days!

Check out the full video right here:

Make me feel proud.

There is a reason why gay anthems revolve around "the PM".

"I love the nightlife" was always going to be the better option to "I love mid-morning".

This is why during the season of gay festivities I always find it rather odd that we should converge in the daylight. There are just some things that are better left to the backrooms of the homo-high streets.

So a daylight Pride march in Brighton, UK was always going to be an interesting one. especially because the forecast (not surprisingly) was for RAIN.

Some of us were prepared. Most of us had to fork out £8 for the umbrella that was just never going to be sufficient. We put on a brave face.

Unfortunately, there was a sufficient lack of spontaneous gay (happy) nakedness that I'm sure my Australian counterparts would have indulged in.

Looks like heaps of fun doesn't it?!

You see?! We should have all stayed in doors!!

Singing in the rain.

I come from a musical family.

Not musical in the sense that we sat around a campfire on the weekend singing kumbayah in three part harmony (our idea of camping was getting the front row "cabin" in a caravan park, complete with spa bath...), but in the sense that I was singing "Lovely Ladies" from Les Mis well before I was singing "Toffee Apple" by Peter Coombes...

As a consequence, it would be very interesting to silently follow me while I'm "out bush".

I have spent the last week wandering through the Lake District of England. Think hills, lakes and a SHIT LOAD OF RAIN. In an observation of myself, it would appear that nothing is better than 10kg worth of backpack strapped to me, a hill to walk up and a musical tune to belt out:

This is me in the middle of the "shalllllllllllll" in "Shall we dance..."

A little azy-cay in the ead-hay. Yes.

This was followed very closely by my "Joseph and the not-so-Technicolour dreamcoat" impersonation...

I cannot stress this enough:

SO MUCH CAN HAPPEN IN A DAY OF WALKING.

Especially walking by yourself.

The insights are priceless.

Many of which I am now sufficiently addicted to.

1. You can get seriously reflective and have the tendency to take photo's of these ridiculously pensive moments: Chel tells me this looks like my very own Nike ad...

2. You learn to trust your instincts in terms of direction. Or as i like to call it "the way of the stick".

3. You figure it out. And by this I mean you learn NEVER TO DO THAT AGAIN.

4. You ignite that child-like wonder and end up in hectic places like Slate Mines learning about volcanic ash.

5. You learn how to share space in a hostel and the benefit of labeling your food.

6. You realise that there is WAY MORE to life than the office...

A Walking Bassline...

Fame! (Remember my name)

Continuing on from my quest to star in a musical (it was on the life list), an opportunity was thrown my way that one just couldn't resist.

Participate in a reenactment of the famous street scene from Fame!

Yes people! I have officially made it on the TV screens of cable-loving Londoners. T'was only fitting that it should be (a) for a musical number and (b) for Fame!

So my very good friend Al (red shirt):

Decided to go and get a little directing/producing/editing job in London directing this shoot.

Clearly his first preference was to let his little friend Dara (we were blind dates to my Year 12 formal) get all the airtime possible. Would you believe he gave me an entire second!! Yes dear-hearts, in a "blink-and-you-will-probably-miss-it" role, I have officially cracked London. At 1:14 the screen is clearly all mine.

Click here to see it on Youtube.

Now with all of my new found fame and fortune, it may come as no surprise to you that I will be working (illegally and therefore for free) on a documentary this week for a certain celebrity... Stay tuned...

¡Hola Amigos!

Your preemptive questions. Answered!

So I'm going to assume that you all have a few questions and I'm going to do my best to answer them, BEFORE YOU'VE EVEN ASKED! The Camino power has given me the gift of prediction! You just have to figure out what the question was. (It's a game, you'll like it).

1. 812km
2. 20 was a slow day, 25 was an average day, 50 was a hero day
3. Behind a bush on the side of the trail - although you can be sure that if YOU think it's a good spot, so have twenty other pilgrims already
4. Yes, about 4kg
5. Average would be 6am. You would wish the curse of blisters on those damn bag rustlers of a morning
6. Pretty much done by lunch
7. 3-9 Euro, never more
8. Vegemite, and my osteopath
9. Snorers
10. Only once, and that was after having a lengthy discussion with someone in the morning about the backpacker murders. I was quite convinced the Spanish version of Ivan Milat was going to jump out of the bush. Around this time I acquired my stick.
11. Yes
12. No
13. The first seven and the last hundred
14. Resting
15. Yes, it's 42
16. That there are two types of people in this world - complicated and uncomplicated ones. The complicated ones are all walking the Camino.
17. The population of Sydney, which I STILL don't know!
18. Yes, well, enough to order a beer at a bar and buy oranges from the side of the road
19. Too hot. Average would be 35 degrees. It's why you wanted to get your walking done early.
20. Only if I was going to write a book about it, or do it with my kids.

Let's get a few things out of the way

Ok, some vital information here, so let's be efficient about it.
The "Camino di Santiago" (or "The Way of St James) is a medieval Catholic Pilgrimage, dating back to 400AD. We walk from all over Europe to see the Cathedral at Santiago, which has the remains of St James in it.



It's all about the scallop shell really. This is the symbol of the Camino - it is supposed to signify the path of all roads leading to one destination.



In fact we all wear scallop shells on our backpacks so people know we are pilgrims.



Oh, and yellow arrows and red stripes tell us the way to go.




Ok, let's begin. Day in the life of a Pilgrim:

We wake up VERY early to start (so it's not so hot),


And feel the sunrise on our backs as we start walking (we're always heading west).



We walk through beautiful open fields,



Or little Villages in the middle of nowhere,



Stopping to admire the smallest details.



We walk alone,




Or with friends,




We try to avoid the traffic,



Maybe grab some lunch,


Top up with some Dencorub,


And take a break if it all gets too hard.


We find a hostel to sleep in called "Albergue's"



And have 25 seconds worth of a mildly warm shower.




We do our washing,


And eat pilgrim meals,


Before going to bed with 80 other people at about 8:30pm.


And that's it! For a solid month, the Pilgrim routine never changes. The life changing stuff happens between all of this!