Book details

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: Hitchhiking the 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 is Tom Parry's gripping, funny and enlightening account of an 8,000-mile hitchhike around Oz. In tow is his reluctant French girlfriend Katia, who would much rather be traveling in a 'Jagwar' than an endless assortment of road-trains, camper vans and Landcruisers. However, the people they meet provide a fascinating and highly colorful insight into the harsh Outback." --Daily Mirror "A very readable and enjoyable tour of Oz that will only inspire the adventurous traveler to get off the well-trodden path and explore the wilderness that is one of this country's greatest assets. And if you are planning on a spot of hitchhiking, then the advice given here is not to be missed." --Ian Waller, editor of Real Travel CONTENTS Where the Woop Woop Begins The Overland Telegraph Song Line Outback Rules of Thumb Breakdown on Gibber Plain Sacred Sightseeing Dead Heartache Croc Monsieur Going Troppo Burke's Great Bugger All How Mount Sorrow Got Its Name Roadtrain Rage Pacific Highway Paradise The Lucky Country Hopping to the Finishing Line Stuart Highway Blues