Australia : True Stories of Life Down Under

Travelers' Tales Guides

by Larry Habegger

For the many thousands of visitors heading to Australia for the 2000 Olympics, and the millions of armchair travelers who will tune into the Olympics, this collection of stories will captivate and enchant those fascinated by the land down under. From outback to rain forest, Great Barrier Reef to the Red Center, Australia offers a chance for adventure beyond your wildest dreams. Whether it's biking across the Nullarbor Plateau, drifting through a billibong searching for crocs, surfing the big one, or walking a Songline, you will find it in OZ, and in this collection of true and fascinating stories that reveal the many facets of Australia. Most people have a particular set image of Australia, such as the Opera House or Ayers Rock, yet these famous icons do little justice to the abundance of Australia's natural treasures and its cultural diversity. Australia offers a wealth of travel experiences, from the drama of the Outback and the spectacle of the Great Barrier Reef to the cosmopolitanism of Sydney. Notable authors include Paul Theroux, Robyn Davidson, Tim Cahill, Bruce Chatwin, Robert Hughes, Tony Horwitz, Jill Ker Conway, Pico Iyer, Ronald Wright, and more.

Genres: Travel

392 pages, Paperback

First published November 1, 1999

About the author

Larry Habegger was born in Minneapolis in 1952 and grew up in Minnesota's landlocked expanses. As a child he had three compelling dreams: to see a mountain, to see an ocean, and to play Major League Baseball. He was able to fulfill two of those dreams. He saw his first ocean and mountain when he was 14 on a family trip from Minnesota to Florida. The closest he got to the Big Leagues was when he flied out against future Hall of Famer Dave Winfield when they faced each other in their teens in American Legion Baseball.

After graduating from Dartmouth College with a degree in English, he decided to see as much of the USA as possible, gradually making his way to San Francisco. He thought he would wait until he had seen more of America before going abroad, but an off-hand comment from a friend who was leaving in a few days for Central America set a spark to the kindling. In days, he was off on a whirlwind journey that took him from Mexico City to Belize, Guatemala, and Honduras. Those sleepless nights on buses haunted his waking dreams, and upon returning to San Francisco he began planning his next escape.

Habegger began publishing his writing about adventure and offbeat travel in 1980. His travel stories have appeared in magazines and newspapers in the U.S. and abroad, including Outside, Travel & Leisure, and the Los Angeles Times. In the early 1980s he co-authored mystery serials for the San Francisco Examiner with James O'Reilly, his old friend from Dartmouth and former disc jockey partner. Since 1985 their safety and security column, "World Travel Watch," has been syndicated in major newspapers in five countries. In 1993 Habegger and O'Reilly founded the publishing company Travelers' Tales with James's brother Tim. Larry and James have worked on more than fifty titles, winning many awards for excellence, including the Lowell Thomas Award for best travel book of the year. For many years, Larry has been an active member of the Society of American Travel Writers (SATW) and the Bay Area Travel Writers.

Habegger has visited almost fifty countries and six of the seven continents, traveling from the frozen arctic to equatorial rain forest, the high Himalayas to the Dead Sea. He lives with his family on Telegraph Hill in San Francisco where he has served on the board of directors of the Telegraph Hill Dwellers, a neighborhood community group, and is president of a grassroots organization formed to protect and maintain Telegraph Hill's world-famous Grace Marchant Garden. He travels whenever possible, feeling that exposure to the greater world and its diverse cultures is the best way to understand yourself.

Reviews

[Άννα Morta ⛧⛧⛧ · Rating 4 out of 5]

This book contains a vibrant variety of stories from Down Under 🖤

[Amy · Rating 3 out of 5]

A collection of various stories relating to Australia. Some of them I found compelling, some I had to skip altogether. So averaged together, I would say the book in its entirety is “okay.”

[Linda · Rating 5 out of 5]

I hope to get to Oz in the coming year. Traveler’s Tales in Australia seemed a perfect place to begin my adventure. A gaggle of my favorite authors, like Tim Cahill, Paul Theroux, and Tony Horwitz give their take on the place with more stinging and biting creatures on the planet. Their tales convinced me I need not go to the endless outback where zillions of flies conspire to suck the liquid from your eyes, rather I will shoot for north Queensland and the Daintree forest where I need only fear snakes, salties (the largest crocodiles on the planet) and humungous spiders. Jelly fish called stingers with venom that will quickly kill the foolish human swimming in the waters with them, and a few sharks, can hardly deter the intrepid tourist. Yes, even after reading tales of back-fired adventures, I still want to go and experience the amazing geologic diversity and bizarre creatures in the wilds of the mysterious land down under.Lost Angel Walkabout: One Traveler's Tales

[Jonathan · Rating 3 out of 5]

This book consists of a bunch of short stories written by mostly Americans and British, and they tell of their adventures in Australia. Australia is described as a continent still on the frontier. Most of its inhabitants live in the coastal cities, and almost no one lives in the interior called the Outback. The stories talk a lot about Australia's laid-back temperment, their racist past, and their horrible treatment of aborigines. Australia's abundant and often dangerous wildlife certainly makes visitors' trips there interesting. A lady talked about being drug underwater three times by a crocodile, another lady talked about how her van filled up with mice while she was sleeping in it, a man talked about how he used salt to get leeches off of his arm, and another man spoke of how he thought he had stepped on a poisonous snake. Australia seems like a good place for the adventurous to visit.

[Eileen · Rating 4 out of 5]

Bought this in anticipation of my trip to the land down-under. What a great collection of travel stories! I would recommend this for anyone who wants a bit of background on Australia and is more interested in experiences than recommendations from a tourist guide. Enjoyable to read even if you never get to Australia!