How This Came to Be

The tide was rising fast, lapping against the rim of my tyres. The beach sand was collapsing under the weight of my Landcruiser. I was alone for nearly a hundred kilometres in every direction. "Oh gee, James." I said to myself, "how do you get into these situations!" It was the end of April 2021. I was halfway through a 110,000km trip around Australia mapping indigenous song lines. I was driving south from the Eyre Bird Observatory down the beaches of the beautiful and remote Nullarbor Coastline. grew up in Melbourne, with parents who liked to explore. Holidays were hours of car cricket as we drove west to the Flinders, north to Mungo, further north to the Dig Tree and more. Weekends were filled with sport, fishing trips, bird watching or tracking down historic buildings and gardens. I was fascinated by the natural sciences and history but mostly by explorers. Mawson, Ranulph Fiennes and Jacques Cousteau were my poster heroes. graduated with degrees in Earth Sciences (Geology), Economics and Polar

Studies and then worked as an explorer looking for resources across the deserts of Central Australia, the Pilbara and Bass Strait as well as other countries.

Over the years my interests and skills grew. Mountaineering, scuba diving, sailing, paragliding, hiking, biking, 4WD, rock climbing, canoeing, birdwatching, dendrology, climatology, oceanography and more. I climbed the seven summits, skied to the poles, sailed oceans and crossed many deserts. I travelled extensively with my five children although I admit that I am probably more excited than them at seeing the Devonian Buchan limestone caves or the Ochre mines in the MacDonnell Ranges. I am a single Dad and take them where ever and whenever I can.

My car and bookshelves are full of Hema maps, guides and other books. My walls are covered in maps and new routes and places to discover. realised that most books are specialised whereas I want to see and do it all. So, I created my own lists of things to see and do in the countries and places I went. I gathered these from many sources and discussions with other explorers. As I travelled around Australia realised two things;

1 Many of the places I would only visit once in my lifetime so I didn’t want to miss out on “the best beach/view/drive/ hike" because I didn’t know that it was there.

2 With a simple, easy-to-follow map with dots, I could get more people out to see these incredible places and hopefully raise awareness of the importance of protecting them for future generations. I hope that you enjoy this first edition. There are thousands of activities to see and do and there are equally thousands more that I have left out. I hope by using this book you’ll be able to spend more time doing and seeing and less time researching. A big thank you to the Hema team for making the book professional with layout, editing and brilliant maps.

Have a wonderful time exploring our