So here goes, sorry it has been so long but reading on the computer is not the most comfortable way for me, so there were long periods in between and of course I was reading my several books on the Kindle at the same time.
I loved it. Not that your experience of Australia chimed in any way with mine, you were a tourist flitting back and forth by plane and doing all the touristy things as you went. For me it was quite different, I was travelling and working, sometimes by hitching lifts on the road, sometimes even, unofficially, by train. Like the old time hobos in America as related by Sammy Davis (Autobiography of a Super Tramp) many years ago, ‘riding the rods’, (balancing under the wagons on the axle rods) although I didn’t do anything so dangerous, usually under a caravan (or in it if someone had forgotten to lock it) on a flat bed car. But always with Mathilda (swag or bedroll) on my back .
I wouldn’t have swapped with you, my adventures were what I was seeking but I did derive great pleasure from yours secondhand.
I was surprised that, in comparing Brisbane with Sydney you said the former was hilly and the latter flat. Really? I have to admit that my experience of Brisbane was limited, I passed through almost without stopping, but my experience of Sydney was anything but flat. As a taxi driver there during the Vietnam war many of my passengers were American soldiers on r and r and, many of them, were from San Francisco, and all of them said how the hilly streets reminded them of home. 
I thought at first that you strayed in to the Territory (NT) almost by accident, some of the places you visited seemed to be included in your Queensland story, but nevertheless you did of course see things there that I didn’t. Can you believe that although I worked from and was based in Katherine, that I never saw the famous Katherine Gorge? 
Never had the time of course and not sure if I was even aware of it at the time, but it has to be said that I am the world’s worst tourist. The term always almost embarrassed me for some reason and this is a matter of great regret. After travelling overland to India and then on to Darwin via Hong Kong I left almost all my luggage in storage in Delhi to continue with ‘Mathilda’ and only what could be wrapped in her loving folds. And those folds did not include my camera. so no photos of Oz. 
America. What I would have loved to have done was coast to coast by train, just as you did, slowly. I love long distance trains and another great regret of mine was that I shelved plans to go to Vladivostok and take the Trans Siberian back to Europe. Changed plans in the desire to get home and spread the word about Oz, and never made it back again. 
Biggest criticism? You thought you had got away unscathed, didn’t you? Punctuation. Specifically, quotes. So many times I had to re-read sentences and paragraphs because there were no quotation marks. Was that you or your publisher? Sort it for the next book, please. 
Not all bad on the computer, there is no way I could have enjoyed all the lovely photos at the end of the book, many of places I had seen, if I had been reading it on Kindle. Now I know how to do it, maybe I will try it again, but it is tiresome so the jury is still out on that.
Biggest joy? And sorry but this betrays my worst trait, just when I thought you were letting Mike off Scot free and leaving everything neatly in order, you did exactly what I was willing you to do. Only a close second, because she was a con artist as opposed to a deranged philanderer, the way you left Sophie’s Belgian hovel. Deeelicious. 
I could have started a thread in the Culture topic for this revue, but I thought it better to put it in context with all the above.
All in all, well worth the fiver or whatever it was, that I paid for it. Thank you.
