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Cold Beer and Crocodiles: A Bicycle Journey into Australia
by Roff Smith
Product Group: Book
Publisher: National Geographic (2000-08-15)
ISBN: 0792279522
EAN: 9780792279525
Dewy Decimal #: 919.40465
Hardcover: 284 pages
Release Date: 2000-09-01
SKU: 23218
Condition: New
Comments: National Geo, 2000. THE UNABRIDGED 1ST EDITION. WITH GREAT COLORED PHOTOGRAPHS! HARDCOVER WITH GILT LETTERING, DUST COVER and pages are NEW! Rapid shipping w/FREE tracking, AIR MAIL.
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Editorial Reviews
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Product Description
The born wayfarer takes his time, stays close to the land, and lives by its rhythms, always ready when a friendly nod turns into a dinner invitation but just as happy to camp alone under the Southern Cross. He's a free spirit, following the road map of his own adventurous imagination. When he happens to be a keen observer and a vivid writer as well, the result is a classic travel book. American Roff Smith had been living in Australia for 15 years when he quit his job, pared his life to what could be carried in the panniers of his bicycle, and pedaled off on a 10,000-mile circuit of the continent. By the time he coasted back into Sydney nine months later, he had discovered an Australia that eludes the casual traveler; "Cold Beer and Crocodiles" is his evocative, eventful report from the highways and byways of "Oz," an affectionate portrait of his adopted country and its colorful people. It's a tale worthy of the bold explorers who lived -- and sometimes died -- to open up this vast, isolated, beautiful world, from chilly Tasmania to the arid, blistering outback, where temperatures soar to 140 degrees in the midday sun. On a good day, 100 miles or more might unreel smoothly beneath Smith's tires; on a bad day, he often staggered into a desert roadhouse, exhausted, out of water, and all but dead. There are narrow escapes, wild tropical storms, a grisly crash, and a wonderful variety of unexpected scenes that capture the many faces of Australia and the men and women who call it home. We meet rancher Rob Macintosh and his family, who offer Smith a warm welcome and a job on a working sheep station, and a quartet of matey diggers who whisk him off to a lush canyon oasis hiddenbetween the folds of an apocalyptic landscape. We meet soft-spoken Aborigines of unfailing courtesy and generosity, as well as drifters and tourists, craftsmen and farmers, roadhouse keepers and their trademark customers -- the fabled long-distance drivers who barrel across the empty sands in the cab of a road train as long as a football field. Though there's a wealth of good company here, this is a book that savors solitude, too, the quietly stunning moments that reward the self-sufficient traveler -- a black-velvet sky studded with stars, the green flash at the instant of sunset in the old pearling port of Broome, restless swells that sweep in from the South Pole to crash against breathtaking cliffs at the desolate edge of the world. With a sure sense of place and an engaging, entertaining, and above all honest voice, Roff Smith interweaves the history and lore of Australia with his own hard-won journey of discovery -- the kind of revelation that rewards those who travel not through a country but into it.
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Amazon.com Review
It's not every day that a fellow decides to pack in a good job, pack up his saddlebags, and set off by bicycle to make a circumferential journey around Australia. In 1996, that's just what American-born Time magazine correspondent Roff Martin Smith did, though; as he explains, he'd been living in Australia for 14 years but didn't really know the country, and he "felt no emotional bond to it." About to turn 38, a few pounds over his ideal weight, and untested as a distance bicyclist, Smith faced up to considerable odds, but he survived to tell the tale. And a rollicking tale it is, as Smith meets with an odd assortment of humans and critters along his sometimes torturous path. (One all-too-long stretch of road, for instance, he calls "the most dangerous and frightening I've ever had the misfortune to ride: a suicide run of hammering trucks, heavy construction, muddy detours, and lane closures.") Smith logs time in crocodile country, too, in the far northern Australian rainforest, where he counts the awful moments until antediluvian doom strikes. It never does, and in any event the crocs are nothing compared to the errant sheep, emus, kangaroos, and death adders he encounters, to say nothing of the 108-degree gusts euphemistically referred to by local weathercasters as "sea breezes"--none of which poses quite the dangers that his fellow humans offer out on the beery highways of Oz. Difficult though the journey is, Smith keeps up his good cheer throughout these lively pages, and, if he's not quite unflappable, he's certainly a sympathetic narrator. Expanded from his popular three-part series in National Geographic magazine, Smith's pedal-powered epic is an instructive manual for anyone contemplating a life-changing journey--and, for the rest of us, a highly enjoyable, altogether unexpected tour of the outback. --Gregory McNamee
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Customer Reviews
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Overall a decent read, but...
Rating  (2)
Date: 2008-05-15
0 out of 1 customers found this reveiw helpful
...he tends to repeat himself, maybe this is as the previous gentleman stated, because this was a series of magazine articles to begin with but I got tired of hearing the phrase "ribbon of _______" (whatever the Aussies call Asphalt over there , begins with a "B")used every time he was refering to the road. At one point this overused phrase was repeated two pages in a row, which I found simply ridiculous.
There were a few other descriptions that were phrased too close for comfort as well thoroughout the book. I guess this tale really needed an editor to point out the obvious flaws. I mean I'm no literary expert and even I saw these things.
But, as I hinted at with the title to this "review", overall it was a fair read. I finished it in two marathon sessions and once he gets going, this book sails pretty seemlessly.
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Probably the best book I will read in 2008
Rating  (5)
Date: 2008-01-14
This is, hands down, the best book I read in 2007 and will be tough to beat in 2008. By the time I finished it I needed a nap as I had felt every mile. Roff Smith needs to write more of his adventures as he draws you in with word one and doesn't release you until way after the adventure is done. Well done mate.
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10,000 miles and a beer
Rating  (4)
Date: 2007-12-31
1 out of 1 customers found this reveiw helpful
Roff Smith's adventure created quite the resume for his job with National Geographic! His bicycle trip around Australia made me wax nostalgic about the trip I made across the heartland of the US in the summer of 1982. I understand why there were periods of hundreds of miles where he didn't write any words. Or as he was making the trip from Eucla Pass and on in to Melbourne that he didn't remember much of that part of the trip. He was bone weary and ready to chuck it in. I felt that way by the time I got to Trail of Tears State Park in Missouri from Portsmouth, New Hampshire. The wind in your face, the heat (though shy of the 130 degree oven that he slogged through). I enjoyed the descriptions of friends he made along the way and good times. I think probably by the time you've made your way to the middle of nowhere and find kindred spirits, you care less for formality. I didn't incurr any of the road rash such as he got careening out of control outside of Perth, but when you are on a bicycle, you are more at the mercy of the elements and the good will of strangers than you are when you would be traveling by greyhound or by auto.
This was a thoroughly enjoyable read. I am preparing for a trip to Australia. It gave good insight into the customs and people. Though I may bicycle some, I don't think I'll be traveling but a hundredth of the distance he covered on bike.
UPDATE - Jamie and I traveled to Australia and used the CityRail to get us to downtown Sydney as the first stop. We used Rolf's "Australian Traveler Guide" (National Geographic) and wound our way through the Royal Botanic Garden from the St. James train stop. This was an absolutely wonderful introduction to Sydney and Australia. Thanks again to Roff Smith. You can tell the man loves Australia!
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Now I want to ride around Australia...
Rating (5)
Date: 2007-04-06
2 out of 2 customers found this reveiw helpful
I loved this book. I like reading adventure travel books, but this one really caught my imagination. Roff Smith is a humorous writer with a knack for capturing the nuances of speech and behavior that make Aussies Aussies. Unlike many travel writers, Smith is neither condescending to his subject nor is he blind to the faults of the subject matter. Instead, he discusses the Australian psyche from the viewpoint of an adopted son, pointing out both the foibles of the Aussies as well as the things that make them a great country.
HIGHLY recommended for anyone with an interest in our antipodean neighbor or in bicycling!
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Cold Beer and Crocodiles : A Bicycle Journey into Australia
Rating (4)
Date: 2006-06-29
2 out of 2 customers found this reveiw helpful
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. While I never intend to pedal around Oz, I think Smith captured the spirit of the country. It was a good read. I would recommend the book but not the means of transport....
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