On the Road meets Down Under in this really rough guide to the adventures of an English hitchhiker and his reluctant French girlfriend in the Australian Outback! Thumbs Up Australia: A Hitchhiker's Guide to the Real Outback is the true story of Tom Parry's journey through the Outback. As Parry and his girlfriend hitch their way around the near-empty highways, they encounter a wide cross-section of Aussie society along the dusty roads: from a yarn-spinning opal miner turned mechanic, to the grizzled Aboriginal elder with his tales of dreamtime, to the Dutch hitchhiker who paused at a commune twenty years ago and never left. We see a country of opportunity and boundless freedoms, of mountains and beaches and thousands of miles of nearly uninhabited wilderness and, as our travelers come to realize, people whose pioneer spirit is very much alive. Full of wonderful anecdotes and endearing tales, Thumbs Up Australia is essential reading for anyone bound for the bush - or dreaming of it from their backyard.
Thumbs Up Australia : Hitchhiking the Outback
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Book Description
Editorial Reviews
Review
"Standing on near-empty highways, Parry and his girlfriend often meet eccentrics from the outback, Aboriginal elders, road-train drivers, hippies, and fellow travelers who had ventured off the usual tourist routes. His account of their 8000-mile journey is humorous and insightful...Recommended." -- Library Journal, Nov. 1, 2006
From the Publisher
"A very readable and enjoyable tour of Oz that will only inspire the adventurous traveller to get off the well-trodden path and explore the wilderness that is one of this country's greatest assets. And if you're planning on a spot of hitchhiking, then the advice given here is not to be missed."
Real Travel Magazine
Real Travel Magazine
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Format:Paperback
If you have a sense of adventure, grab a copy of this book. While I would probably never hitchike the Australian Outback myself, I really enjoyed reading about someone's adventure doing just that. Tom Parry's book is witty and sharp, and made me laugh at various points, and to comtemplate this wild and untamed land. The book reminded me of another travel adventure, One For the Road, written by Tony Horwitz some 20 years ago. If you have ever had a desire to explore the unexplored, you will enjoy this book -- Thumbs Up!
Format:Paperback|Amazon Verified Purchase
If you plan a trip to the outback I cannot recommend a better book to take along. A good friend of mine goes every year to fish and I gave this book to him and he reports it is an excellent guide for those who want to excperience rural Austraila.
Format:Paperback
I very much enjoyed this novel and found it to be a real page-turner in that it was a tale of endeavour and continually emergent experiences. This novel touched on an area most Australian's seem to be little aware of and seem themselves to experience almost as a foreign country most notably the centre and north of this massive country/continent. Indeed an area that most of us won't experience whilst traversing the urban parts so well advertised by the brochures. As such I found it a fascinating contrast from that given by the rather conservative and urbanised travelogues I'd read on this country by Bill Bryson's `Down Under' although in itself an interesting travelogue. Bill Bryson's travelogue was the last book I bought for my brother when he left for Australia three years ago, this will be my next one.
Inside This Book
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First Sentence:
Port Wakefield: 98 kilometres north of Adelaide, not far from what I once heard one Aussie call "the great bugger all". Read the first page Key Phrases - Statistically Improbable Phrases (SIPs): (learn more)
fair dinkum, cattle stations, caravan park Key Phrases - Capitalized Phrases (CAPs): (learn more)
Alice Springs, National Park, South Australia, Port Augusta, Port Wakefield, Northern Territory, Coober Pedy, Tennant Creek, Top End, Flinders Ranges, New South Wales, Ali Curang, Anzac Day, Ayers Rock, Blue Mountains, Cape Tribulation, Farmer Bert, Mount Connor, Mount Isa, Second World War, Stirling North, Western Australia, Wilpena Pound, Arnhem Land, Botany Bay New!
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Front Cover | Table of Contents | First Pages | Surprise Me!
Port Wakefield: 98 kilometres north of Adelaide, not far from what I once heard one Aussie call "the great bugger all". Read the first page Key Phrases - Statistically Improbable Phrases (SIPs): (learn more)
fair dinkum, cattle stations, caravan park Key Phrases - Capitalized Phrases (CAPs): (learn more)
Alice Springs, National Park, South Australia, Port Augusta, Port Wakefield, Northern Territory, Coober Pedy, Tennant Creek, Top End, Flinders Ranges, New South Wales, Ali Curang, Anzac Day, Ayers Rock, Blue Mountains, Cape Tribulation, Farmer Bert, Mount Connor, Mount Isa, Second World War, Stirling North, Western Australia, Wilpena Pound, Arnhem Land, Botany Bay New!
Books on Related Topics | Concordance | Text Stats Browse Sample Pages:
Front Cover | Table of Contents | First Pages | Surprise Me!
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