Official Review: Should I" Go Walkabout" in Aus...
Posted: 01 Jun 2020, 23:56
[Following is an official OnlineBookClub.org review of "Should I" Go Walkabout" in Australia" by John Timms.]
Australia has always interested me. When I started reading this book, the pandemic still had everything completely shut down. Since travel wasn’t possible, I chose to escape into a book about traveling Australia. Should I “Go Walkabout” in Australia, a Motorhome Adventure is published as being authored by John Timms. This book is actually the journaling of Elizabeth (Lisa) Timms, John’s wife, and was originally titled “Should I Tour Australia?”. Lisa died shortly after their second trip through Australia and this book is published after her death.
This book is a compilation of the journals and emails from their first nine-month trip. The plan was to start at the Gold Coast, where they are from, and go all the way around Australia along the coast. In the nine months they traveled, they barely made it along the eastern coast. The journal detailed the routes they followed as well as the problems they had with vehicles and appliances in their motorhome, which was brand new and shipped in from the United States. With much detail, Lisa described the attractions and van parks they visited. Since they were traveling with their two dogs, Jack and Callie, many attractions were off limits as dogs weren’t allowed. They still explored many places along the way. They visited beautiful beaches with pristine water, drove through the tree surrounded routes, beheld the mountains from their Ute, and even fed the stingrays in Lake Conjola. Lisa and John had an unusually large motorhome and usually got amazing sites. Many were close to water or parks where they could run and play with their dogs. The trip wasn’t always fun, though. Lisa spent most of the first half wanting to go home. She didn’t enjoy the nomadic lifestyle and missed her family. However, once they slowed down and started taking in more of the sites, she found she enjoyed the travel more. John would check out the many golf courses they came across, and Lisa enjoyed the shops, especially the book stores. Lisa even wrote about avoiding shops that had imported goods because she wanted nothing but Australian made mementos.
This book was very informative for me. My knowledge of Australia is limited to what is shown on the television and in magazines. This book is not only a journal of their trip, but a travel guide on the best van parks that were pet friendly and scenic roads to provide the best views. Lisa was candid and didn’t hold anything back. She wasn’t afraid to recommend avoiding places, usually because they were filthy and had trash everywhere. I loved that they started with an intended route but chose to take recommendations of those they met along the way instead. This book was difficult to get into at first because Lisa’s tone was negative and she wasn’t thrilled to travel. But as her writing continued, she relaxed and seemed to enjoy herself. Her descriptions became more vivid and happy. The only thing I didn’t like was the inconsistently stated dates since it was essentially a journal. I would have liked to know how long they spent in a particular place. She mentioned a few times they planned to stay in a place for a couple of days or another location for a week, though. The thing that establishes her point of view as more relatable to me is that they aren’t native to Australia. Lisa is from Wales and tremendously enjoyed the green and cooler areas that reminded her of home. Her summation of their trip in the concluding chapters was a pleasant ending. It was good to see she wanted the reader to realize there was a method to what she wrote and could use this book as a travel resource. As stated in her introduction, this book was primarily written with her friends in mind. As an animal lover, it was especially fun to read about the reactions the dogs had when seeing their first horses, cows, and kangaroos.
The book consisted of 88 relatively brief chapters. Several pages possessed pictures from their travels, including the extraordinary picture of John feeding the stingray. It begins with Lisa’s introduction and ends with a list of the places they visited and the route they took. However, the Kindle format made it difficult to track the route. I kept an Australian map handy as I read to see where they were. The introduction mentions a second book that describes a year long trip they took to travel the rest of the way around Australia. I feel this book is definitely a stand-alone, but the second book would be intriguing.
This book is suitable for all readers and doesn’t have profanity or erotic scenes. There were a few formatting errors and punctuation errors, but they weren’t distracting. The only distracting phenomenon was the separation of “F” and “L” in every word that began with this combination, such as flight and floors. Since this happened throughout the book, I stopped counting them. I believe any person that likes to travel and enjoys humor found in traveling with a partially deaf husband and two dogs will enjoy this book. It would also be entertaining to a person contemplating traveling Australia for nine months in a motorhome! I appreciated the content and antics found in this book and thoroughly enjoyed reading it. However, the errors were so numerous that I could only give it a three out of four stars rating instead of the four stars I thought it deserved.
******
Should I" Go Walkabout" in Australia
View: on Bookshelves | on Amazon
Australia has always interested me. When I started reading this book, the pandemic still had everything completely shut down. Since travel wasn’t possible, I chose to escape into a book about traveling Australia. Should I “Go Walkabout” in Australia, a Motorhome Adventure is published as being authored by John Timms. This book is actually the journaling of Elizabeth (Lisa) Timms, John’s wife, and was originally titled “Should I Tour Australia?”. Lisa died shortly after their second trip through Australia and this book is published after her death.
This book is a compilation of the journals and emails from their first nine-month trip. The plan was to start at the Gold Coast, where they are from, and go all the way around Australia along the coast. In the nine months they traveled, they barely made it along the eastern coast. The journal detailed the routes they followed as well as the problems they had with vehicles and appliances in their motorhome, which was brand new and shipped in from the United States. With much detail, Lisa described the attractions and van parks they visited. Since they were traveling with their two dogs, Jack and Callie, many attractions were off limits as dogs weren’t allowed. They still explored many places along the way. They visited beautiful beaches with pristine water, drove through the tree surrounded routes, beheld the mountains from their Ute, and even fed the stingrays in Lake Conjola. Lisa and John had an unusually large motorhome and usually got amazing sites. Many were close to water or parks where they could run and play with their dogs. The trip wasn’t always fun, though. Lisa spent most of the first half wanting to go home. She didn’t enjoy the nomadic lifestyle and missed her family. However, once they slowed down and started taking in more of the sites, she found she enjoyed the travel more. John would check out the many golf courses they came across, and Lisa enjoyed the shops, especially the book stores. Lisa even wrote about avoiding shops that had imported goods because she wanted nothing but Australian made mementos.
This book was very informative for me. My knowledge of Australia is limited to what is shown on the television and in magazines. This book is not only a journal of their trip, but a travel guide on the best van parks that were pet friendly and scenic roads to provide the best views. Lisa was candid and didn’t hold anything back. She wasn’t afraid to recommend avoiding places, usually because they were filthy and had trash everywhere. I loved that they started with an intended route but chose to take recommendations of those they met along the way instead. This book was difficult to get into at first because Lisa’s tone was negative and she wasn’t thrilled to travel. But as her writing continued, she relaxed and seemed to enjoy herself. Her descriptions became more vivid and happy. The only thing I didn’t like was the inconsistently stated dates since it was essentially a journal. I would have liked to know how long they spent in a particular place. She mentioned a few times they planned to stay in a place for a couple of days or another location for a week, though. The thing that establishes her point of view as more relatable to me is that they aren’t native to Australia. Lisa is from Wales and tremendously enjoyed the green and cooler areas that reminded her of home. Her summation of their trip in the concluding chapters was a pleasant ending. It was good to see she wanted the reader to realize there was a method to what she wrote and could use this book as a travel resource. As stated in her introduction, this book was primarily written with her friends in mind. As an animal lover, it was especially fun to read about the reactions the dogs had when seeing their first horses, cows, and kangaroos.
The book consisted of 88 relatively brief chapters. Several pages possessed pictures from their travels, including the extraordinary picture of John feeding the stingray. It begins with Lisa’s introduction and ends with a list of the places they visited and the route they took. However, the Kindle format made it difficult to track the route. I kept an Australian map handy as I read to see where they were. The introduction mentions a second book that describes a year long trip they took to travel the rest of the way around Australia. I feel this book is definitely a stand-alone, but the second book would be intriguing.
This book is suitable for all readers and doesn’t have profanity or erotic scenes. There were a few formatting errors and punctuation errors, but they weren’t distracting. The only distracting phenomenon was the separation of “F” and “L” in every word that began with this combination, such as flight and floors. Since this happened throughout the book, I stopped counting them. I believe any person that likes to travel and enjoys humor found in traveling with a partially deaf husband and two dogs will enjoy this book. It would also be entertaining to a person contemplating traveling Australia for nine months in a motorhome! I appreciated the content and antics found in this book and thoroughly enjoyed reading it. However, the errors were so numerous that I could only give it a three out of four stars rating instead of the four stars I thought it deserved.
******
Should I" Go Walkabout" in Australia
View: on Bookshelves | on Amazon
Thanks for a nice review!