Travel to Australia

Cold Beer and Crocodiles: A Bicycle Journey into Australia (Adventure Press)

Format: Paperback
Author: Roff Smith
ReleaseDate: 01 November, 2001
Publisher: National Geographic
Rating:

Cold Beer and Crocodiles : A Bicycle Journey into Australia
While I never intend to pedal around Oz, I think Smith captured the spirit of the country. Having travelled through Australia a number of times by airplane, car, and train, I found the perpspective of a bicylist to be enlightening, funny, and exasperating. It was a good read. I would recommend the book but not the means of transport. . . . .

True to the cycle touring experience
I'm at a loss to understand just how he went about getting into the situations he did. Having finished only half the book, I'm amazed at the experiences he has. And yet, being a cycle-tourist myself, I can understand.

Let me explain a bit. While Smith was riding inland, in central Queensland, he decided he wanted to visit a sheep station (ranch) and see how it operated. Somehow he got in contact with the MacIntoshes of Fairfield Station. He stayed for days, helping out on the ranch.

Later, while pedaling through hot plains of Northern Queensland in the dry season, a couple of guys pulled up behind him in a Land Rover and offered him a beer. They got to talking, and again Smith spent days with newfound friends in the outback. They camped, fished, and in the end Smith was invited to a wedding.

And time after time, the author was invited to stay over for dinner or to sleep in the spare bedroom at various homes along the way.

During my everyday comings and goings, it's hard to imagine that one could so easily make new friends and have such adventures. People are not so trusting, so willing to share their lives. I thought to myself, this isn't the way things work. And then I remembered what it was like to pedal from Phoenix, Arizona to El Paso, Texas. And then Smith's adventure seemed plausible - even made sense.

While on a bike ride through the Southwestern US, a friend and I experienced quite a few gestures of goodwill. A woman drove twenty miles to offer us a ride when several spokes snapped. A man opened his home to me and offered up his computer, refrigerator, and even his shower. Three families on holiday in the mountains shared their meal with us and were more than willing to give us a ride down the mountain to a New Year's party the community was putting on at the community center.

When I think back, people are anxious to share and offer a helping hand, sometimes. But why isn't every day life like this?

Perhaps it's something to do with being a cyclist on the road. Maybe it's because being a cyclist in the middle of a desert is a good icebreaker. Or perhaps people feel inclined to help someone so vulnerable to the elements. Or maybe they're just curious.

Whatever the case, I both identify with Smith's experiences and am baffled by them. It's a book I can hardly put down. .

A Great Journey
Since he hadn't really seen or experienced Australia like he felt he should have, how could he be expected to make a decision as to whether he should stay? The only solution, of course, was to hop on his bicycle and pedal 10,000 miles around the entire island. Roff Smith hit a crossroads one day and didn't know whether he should stay in Australia or move back to the US.

Along the way he meets up with the requisite cast of weird characters, tries as much Australian outback life as he can handle, and just plain experiences Australia. He writes about his struggles, emotional and physical, to actually complete the trip. But whether it's bad luck, hurt legs, a chance encounter with a tcomplete jerk, all his setbacks are rendered unimportant when he gets a chance to see the things that make Australia what it is. It's a great book.

The only valid complaint I can voice has already been said by most of the other reviewers: the book is too short. The author spends the first half of the book going about one-third of his trip. The last half of his trip occupies barely the last quarter of the book. The addition of another 100 pages wouldn't make this book too long or unreadable; it would only serve to fully flesh it out.

Perhaps one other disadvantage is that the book may inspire you to want to take a bicycle journey of your own! Hmmm, I know that Australia's been done . . . has anyone pedalled all around New Zealand?.

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