Drawn directly from the author' s extraordinary experiences over the course of a nine-month, 10,000-mile, solitary bicycle trip through Australia, this thoroughly engaging travel memoir offers an uncommonly intimate glimpse into the heart of the land down under. Immersing readers in all the excitement and anticipation of a nation facing the challenges of a new century, "Cold Beer and Crocodiles: A Bicycle Journey into Australia is a deeply affectionate portrayal of this most alluring continent.

In 1996, award-winning American author and expatriate journalist Roff Smith set off, a lone man on his trusty bicycle, seeking to lose himself among the cattle stations, mining towns, Aboriginal communities, rain forests, and desert campsites. " Somewhere in those thousands of miles, " Smith writes, " I had gained a new home. It was the people I met more than anything else that opened my eyes to what it meant to be an Australian and instilled in me a deep and newfound pride in my adopted country."

Smith' s genuine passion for his subject is infectious, and his graceful, insightful writing places "Cold Beer and Crocodiles on the shelf beside Bruce Chatwin' s classic "The Songlines.