Burke and Wills: The triumph and tragedy of Australia's most famous explorers | 
I finished this chunkster this week and it's recorded the time I spent reading/listening. Wowsers! 3 days!
That's like almost 80 hours of listening (and rewinding) lol.
That'll gotta be my record.
Well I really loved this one, paired with the hardcover from the library, I found it so fascinating.
Now I'm onto The Dig Tree, same true story, written 15 years earlier by Sarah Murgatroyd.
Woo hoo! They made it! Well almost....the last leg, traveled on foot, Burke and Wills struggled through & were bogged down in the mangroves, only a days trek from the actual sea (the water here was salty at least) & not even a marker was left to indicate the furthest point of their expedition.
A long, difficult trek of 2000 miles across the Australian continent taking 6 months from Melbourne, Victoria to The Gulf of Carpentaria, Northern Territory
"Beckler is stunned at the humility, the honesty... the humanity. It is the act of a gracious man with a conscience that Beckler had previously not considered the Aborigines capable of. Just like real people!"
This is such an amazing book.
The story, of course true, documented through journals, letters, news articles, personal recounts, documents & such is full, riveting & easy as well as entertaining to read.
Peter Fitzsimons has done a remarkable job in painting a textured picture of this expedition and breathing life into familiar names us Aussies know so well.
So much going on & much hardship on their journey. Its 4am & I can't put this book down!
After waiting a week for this book to come in at the library, making a trip (actually 3 trips, it was misplaced & they couldn't find it) to pick it up, then carrying it around all day hoping I would find a moment to read it, which there wasn't, I've sat down ready, responded to a couple of late enquiries on my phone & I look down and see this!
Will I be cruel and move her off, or just wait until tomorrow?
Loving this book so far on audio though!
So obsessed with every word of this story I seem to have spent 15 hrs just listening to the first 2 hrs 40 mins, writing most of it down from the audiobook, as there are a lot of people in the planning stages of this famous expedition so far.
I have now reserved the paperback (which shows maps, etc..) as I'm finding myself googling maps whilst they are talking of expeditions made prior to this one led by Robert O'Hara Burke.
Utterly fascinating!
