"KANGAROO DREAMING: AN AUSTRALIAN WILDLIFE ODYSSEY," by Edward Kanze, Sierra Club Books, 2000; 385 pages; $25.
This new book offers a detailed look at the unusual animals Kanze and his wife, Debbie, found while driving 25,000 miles around Australia in an old station wagon.
"Kangaroo" is an armchair travel experience for the "Down Under World," and there's no disappointment there. It lives up to its billing. Its main drawback, however, is that doesn't contain photographs of any of the animals that the Kanzes encountered on their trek.
Unless there was a strict production cost limit on this book, I find the lack of pictures puzzling, because a biography lists Kanze as a writer, naturalist and photographer. Even a few photos of the author's encounters would have been a great addition to the book. A one-page map of Australia is the only illustration.
Most of the couple's time was spent outside Australia's large cities, like Sydney, looking for and finding all the wildlife they'd hoped to encounter. They spent time looking at crocodiles, kangaroos, koalas, wombats, platypuses, lizards, kookaburras and more than 400 species of birds.
One of the most amazing factors outlined in the book is geography. Australia is roughly the area of the continental United States, and the author refers to it as "that great America on the other side of the sphere." Since most residents live in large costal cities, the interior of the nation is sparsely populated. You couldn't even drive across the country's interior, like the Kanzes did, until the late 1980s when the roads were vastly improved.
The author mentions just one quick drive into Sydney and what a mess the traffic was. Otherwise, he seemed happy to be in the backcountry. At one point, he and his wife visit a 1.3 million-acre wilderness area with only three other humans present.
Kanze seems to have a fascination with snakes. "Reptiles loomed in every direction," is a common refrain in the book. I'm not a snake lover, and yet Australia appears to be the home to more snakes than maybe anywhere else in the world. That's enough to convince me to take Australia off my travel wish list.
He had some close encounters with quicksand, but otherwise drunken drivers were the worst hazards he faced. Kanze recounts swimming in remote waters despite nearby crocs.
Kanze goes out of his way to preserve wildlife and would at times drag road kill off the highway to prevent eagles from eating the carcasses, increasing the likelihood that they, too, would be hit by oncoming automobiles.
The book contains some dialogue between humans but mostly focuses on the animals — sometimes in great detail. (There's way too much information on the sex life of bats and insects.)
In light of the Olympics, the book is a timely read, but don't expect any insights into the people and cultures of Australia.
E-MAIL: lynn@desnews.com