Roff Smith.
Cold Beer and Crocodiles: A Bicycle Journey into Australia.
Washington, D.C.: National Geographic, 2000 (reprint 2001).
Book information: Amazon.com.

I would be happier if this book were twice as long and had more pictures (many Amazon reviewers also comment that the book seems too short to them). The author bicycled a counter-clockwise route around Australia starting and ending in Sydney during 1996/1997. Most of the text discusses the regions he visited during the first half of his trip: New South Wales, Queensland, and the Top End. He has very little to say about southwestern Western Australia, South Australia, Victoria and Tasmania. He relates many stories of encounters with the inhabitants during the first half of his trip; after that his interest in the adventure wanes. The desolation of the northwestern, western and southern coasts, a crash with injuries in Western Australia that required a 3 week recovery, followed by the Nullarbor Plain, cumulatively seems to have broken his spirit (the author admits this on page 277). Then he picked up a viral infection in South Australia that hindered the remainder of the trip. The book may be insightful for NSW, QLD, NT and parts of WA; it is very weak for SA, VIC, TAS.