Customer Reviews:
 True to the cycle touring experience December 21, 2004
2 out of 2 found this review helpful
Having finished only half the book, I'm amazed at the experiences he has. I'm at a loss to understand just how he went about getting into the situations he did. And yet, being a cycle-tourist myself, I can understand.
Let me explain a bit. While Smith was riding inland, in central Queensland, he decided he wanted to visit a sheep station (ranch) and see how it operated. Somehow he got in contact with the MacIntoshes of Fairfield Station. He stayed for days, helping out on the ranch.
Later, while pedaling through hot plains of Northern Queensland in the dry season, a couple of guys pulled up behind him in a Land Rover and offered him a beer. They got to talking, and again Smith spent days with newfound friends in the outback. They camped, fished, and in the end Smith was invited to a wedding.
And time after time, the author was invited to stay over for dinner or to sleep in the spare bedroom at various homes along the way.
During my everyday comings and goings, it's hard to imagine that one could so easily make new friends and have such adventures. People are not so trusting, so willing to share their lives. I thought to myself, this isn't the way things work. And then I remembered what it was like to pedal from Phoenix, Arizona to El Paso, Texas. And then Smith's adventure seemed plausible - even made sense.
While on a bike ride through the Southwestern US, a friend and I experienced quite a few gestures of goodwill. A woman drove twenty miles to offer us a ride when several spokes snapped. A man opened his home to me and offered up his computer, refrigerator, and even his shower. Three families on holiday in the mountains shared their meal with us and were more than willing to give us a ride down the mountain to a New Year's party the community was putting on at the community center.
When I think back, people are anxious to share and offer a helping hand, sometimes. But why isn't every day life like this?
Perhaps it's something to do with being a cyclist on the road. Maybe it's because being a cyclist in the middle of a desert is a good icebreaker. Or perhaps people feel inclined to help someone so vulnerable to the elements. Or maybe they're just curious.
Whatever the case, I both identify with Smith's experiences and am baffled by them. It's a book I can hardly put down.
A Great Journey August 24, 2004
1 out of 1 found this review helpful
Roff Smith hit a crossroads one day and didn't know whether he should stay in Australia or move back to the US. Since he hadn't really seen or experienced Australia like he felt he should have, how could he be expected to make a decision as to whether he should stay? The only solution, of course, was to hop on his bicycle and pedal 10,000 miles around the entire island.
Along the way he meets up with the requisite cast of weird characters, tries as much Australian outback life as he can handle, and just plain experiences Australia. He writes about his struggles, emotional and physical, to actually complete the trip. But whether it's bad luck, hurt legs, a chance encounter with a tcomplete jerk, all his setbacks are rendered unimportant when he gets a chance to see the things that make Australia what it is. It's a great book.
The only valid complaint I can voice has already been said by most of the other reviewers: the book is too short. The author spends the first half of the book going about one-third of his trip. The last half of his trip occupies barely the last quarter of the book. The addition of another 100 pages wouldn't make this book too long or unreadable; it would only serve to fully flesh it out.
Perhaps one other disadvantage is that the book may inspire you to want to take a bicycle journey of your own! Hmmm, I know that Australia's been done ... has anyone pedalled all around New Zealand?
Duel in the Sun. June 5, 2003
7 out of 7 found this review helpful
Cold Beer and Crocodiles (crocodiles barely feature at all!) is an excellent travel adventure which will appeal to anyone who cosily enjoys the vicarious experience of someone else battling to survive in an extreme landscape : in this case, the Australian Outback. Having lived in Australia for 15 years without developing any emotional attachment to the country, Roff Smith quit his job at Time magazine to undertake a mammoth 10,000 mile round trip of Australia, his rationale being a desire to try to engage emotionally "with the country I'd lived in as a stranger all these years". His chosen mode of transport, a 21 speed touring bicycle would let him get close to the land, experience Australia, its sights, sounds and smells.In the early stages, Smith expends much pedal power shaking off the Sydney suburbs and running the gauntlet of heavy, aggressive traffic. City and suburbs sloughed off, six months of gruelling Outback travel follow : its when he hits the furnace of the Outback that the words blaze off the page as he is plagued for months on end by flies, thirst, dust, scorching heat and feelings of loneliness ; is overtaken by huge triple roadtrains barrelling down desert highways ; witnesses spectacular thunder and lightning desert storms ; bivouacs in scrub under night skies "full of stars as sharp as needles"; works in sheep and cattle stations; picks melons ; visits an Aboriginal Community; duels for weeks on end with the vast, hostile expanses of empty reddish plains baking under the blistering sun - "so much nothing out there...just miles and miles of nothing" .Surviving to the next roadhouse is the order of each day! On his travels, Smith encounters a mixed bag of people ( a few dodgy, most helpful) often in remote roadhouses, isolated settlements or outstations hundreds of miles of sand, scrub and spinifex away from the nearest town. If the thought of living on the edge appeals to you, read this book. Now try "One For The Road" by Tony Horwitz, another equally good travel venture into the Australian Outback but this time from the very different perspective of a hitch-hiker. Both books strongly recommended!
 Takes you there! May 26, 2003
1 out of 1 found this review helpful
...but I wouldn't have wanted to have been there with him. The author does an exceptional job writing up the landscapes, his experiences and thoughts. I was captive. I didn't want this book to end.
As other reviewers have stated, the only flaw is that we would have wanted more detail, more information. If ever there is a second edition, I will be among the first to buy the book. I would love to take the trip again, looking for more details in every encounter and circumstance. I highly recommend reading about this painful, enjoyable, amazing journey.
Pretty Good Story January 29, 2003
This was an enjoyable, light read about a guy's bicycle trip around Australia. He has lots of interesting adventures and gives detailed descriptions of the scenery. I wished he had given a little more info on what his circumstances were that led him to decide to do this trip (he wasn't an athlete or bicycle racer), and how it changed him after it was over. But overall it was a pretty good story about adventures with the people and places in Australia.
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