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Review
Hill and O?Carroll take great delight in focusing on both obscure bits of Australiana and unusual people and places. -- Booklist "Booklist"
Product Description
Geoff Hill and Colin O'Carroll take on Australia s legendary Highway 1 on their trusty Triumph motorbikes, circumnavigating the country from Adelaide to Adelaide. At over 15,000 miles long, Highway 1 is the world s longest national highway, covering practically every major inhabited part of Australia capital cities, busy holiday resorts, dramatic coastlines, tropical forests, scrublands and deserts. Join Colin who grew up in Australia wrestling sharks, snogging kangaroos and riding dirt bikes and Geoff, who has never snogged a kangaroo, as they take on wombats, emus and a plague of giant grasshoppers in an adventure that takes them from Port Fairy a little town that used to be known as Belfast to Botany Bay, Sydney and across the wilderness of the Nullarbor desert. And follow the extraordinary story of Australia, told by a cast that includes Captain James Cook, Crocodile Dundee, countless migrants and settlers, legendary explorers Robert Burke and William Wills, the folk hero Ned Kelly, and an unreliable camper van called Matilda.
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Customer Reviews
Most Helpful Customer Reviews
2 of 2 people found the following review helpful
Format:Paperback
I have to say I have only read half the book and just can not get any ennthusiam to finish it. I thought it was a travel book, I have driven around Australia in 1970 and was reallly looking forward to reviving some memories. The book is more about the Authors, of which which I have no interest in, rather than the trip.
4 of 5 people found the following review helpful
Format:Paperback
Oz is the story of the authors' three-month, 15,000-mile road trip, counter-clockwise around Australia's fabled Highway One from Adelaide to Adelaide, aboard a pair of Triumph Tigers.
It's a trip I'd love to make myself, and I always enjoy Geoff Hill's writing, so it's no surprise that I really enjoyed the read. The book is co-written with fellow journalist Colin O'Carroll, and they take a page or two by turns. This works surprisingly well because although there are two distinct voices, they complement one another - Hill dispensing wry observations with his easy style and typically offbeat humour; O'Carroll (who spent his youth in Australia, refers to Australians as 'us' and is clearly on an emotional as well as an epic journey) giving it to us straight by comparison; but both men sharing their love of adventure and the open road with an exuberance which is infectious. This is Geoff Hill on Queensland's Great Dividing Range:
'...we swooped and dived through lush grassland, copse and sugar plantations, on a road of such seductive curves that if it had been a woman , you would have married it and had its children, never mind the pain.
Finally, as the sun kissed the gold and azure sky farewell for another day...there was the Koorawatha Motel on our left, so sudden that we almost shot past it. We rolled up the gravel drive to its front door, laughing with happiness at the day to end all days.'
I forgive Hill and O'Carroll their appalling omission when they got to Longreach, gateway to the outback, in choosing to experience, respectively, the Qantas Founders Museum and a free barbeque in the local Rotary Park, instead of the Stockman's Hall of Fame, because Hill is a flier, O'Carroll obviously likes his tucker and it's still a great book - but it very nearly cost them the fifth star, as the Stockman's will be a highlight of my trip, if I ever make it..
It's a trip I'd love to make myself, and I always enjoy Geoff Hill's writing, so it's no surprise that I really enjoyed the read. The book is co-written with fellow journalist Colin O'Carroll, and they take a page or two by turns. This works surprisingly well because although there are two distinct voices, they complement one another - Hill dispensing wry observations with his easy style and typically offbeat humour; O'Carroll (who spent his youth in Australia, refers to Australians as 'us' and is clearly on an emotional as well as an epic journey) giving it to us straight by comparison; but both men sharing their love of adventure and the open road with an exuberance which is infectious. This is Geoff Hill on Queensland's Great Dividing Range:
'...we swooped and dived through lush grassland, copse and sugar plantations, on a road of such seductive curves that if it had been a woman , you would have married it and had its children, never mind the pain.
Finally, as the sun kissed the gold and azure sky farewell for another day...there was the Koorawatha Motel on our left, so sudden that we almost shot past it. We rolled up the gravel drive to its front door, laughing with happiness at the day to end all days.'
I forgive Hill and O'Carroll their appalling omission when they got to Longreach, gateway to the outback, in choosing to experience, respectively, the Qantas Founders Museum and a free barbeque in the local Rotary Park, instead of the Stockman's Hall of Fame, because Hill is a flier, O'Carroll obviously likes his tucker and it's still a great book - but it very nearly cost them the fifth star, as the Stockman's will be a highlight of my trip, if I ever make it..
Format:Paperback
Now I'll be honest and say up front I'm big Geoff Hill fan and have all of his previous books, both bike related and otherwise.
While its not a bad book its not to Geoff's usual standard. Not sure if its down to the dueal authorship which stops it quite getting into its stride.
Dont get me wrong Geoff is his entertaining and informative self it just seems a little disjointed and not as many laugh out loud moments.
Unlike his other books which made me want to pack the bike or case within the first couple of chapters this one left me a little less enthused.
Hope its just a minor glitch and I would reccomend all of his other books wholeheartedly
While its not a bad book its not to Geoff's usual standard. Not sure if its down to the dueal authorship which stops it quite getting into its stride.
Dont get me wrong Geoff is his entertaining and informative self it just seems a little disjointed and not as many laugh out loud moments.
Unlike his other books which made me want to pack the bike or case within the first couple of chapters this one left me a little less enthused.
Hope its just a minor glitch and I would reccomend all of his other books wholeheartedly
Most Recent Customer Reviews
Disappointing
Having read one of Geoff Hills previous books and enjoyed it, I had hoped for more of the same. I was interested in the 'round Australia' aspect. Read more
Published 11 months ago by Johannsen
Journalists on tour (for free)
I enjoyed Geoff Hills previous two books on motorcycle travel, he is very funny and when travelling through exotic places sums up local conditions well. Read more
Published 17 months ago by MVD944L
Thoroughly entertaining
I thoroughly enjoyed this new book from Goeff Hill. It was informative, quirky and funny and I would recommend it to anyone.
Published 17 months ago by Doc
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