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Dirty Knickers
I am plagued by dirty knickers. Not those lingering in the washing basket for weeks because you’ve had “no time” to do the laundry, nor the pair you’re wearing to spare the Uber driver a flash of your still-engorged clitoris after a one-nighter. I’m haunted by these underwear because they’ve been smothering my crotch…
A Cat Lady in Tokyo
Traditionally, being a cat lady means living in a house that always smells of Fancy Feast tinned food and not owning a single piece of clothing devoid of faux fur. Deeper than that, it’s an insult reserved for unpartnered older women – whatever older means these days – to dismiss them for not fitting the…
Untethered
I prepare for Tokyo by quitting vapes. One week until departure, and I’ve not bought a single item on my list. I’m a zombie, moving through life in a cloud of smoke. My share house from the last six months is ejecting me. I have nowhere to live. It’s a repeat of last January, when…
The Trail of the Meraki Man
Before you nestle in and dive into the tale below, I would like to paint a picture for you. Consider somewhere out there resides a young traveller, on their first or second time overseas, having trekked to the faraway shores of Peru. Awaiting the dawn of a new adventure from the confines of their hostel,…
My Worth is a Wandering Elephant
The bush trills with insects in the hour before dawn. Weaver birds chitter and call above us, their grass-woven houses bobbing in the morning breeze. Our little group is nervous. We step carefully through the undergrowth, the two rangers leading the way with loaded rifles on their shoulders. We’ve all been thoroughly briefed. There are…
Santiago Colapsa
Concrete dust catches in my lungs and burnt air stings my eyes as I try to make out which part of the stairs leading down to the metro is still smouldering. As rubble from once grand buildings shifts under my boots; a small voice within speaks a confusion I’d wanted to ignore. This isn’t what…

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.