The Road to Innamincka

When a 10-year-old R.A. Dalkey decided he was going to become an Outback truck driver, the poor Australia-besotted boy had no idea what he was getting into.

He'd been born on the wrong continent for a start. And even if he could make it out of Africa one day, where was an Australian work visa to come from? Or, for that matter, a licence to drive 53-metre trucks on red desert roads?

A sensible adult would have filed that dream away as a juvenile fantasy and gotten on with life. Especially after taking five attempts to get the most basic of car licences.

But R.A. Dalkey never claimed to be a sensible adult, did he?

Join the author as he pursues the ultimate whimsical travel quest. From that careless moment of childhood inspiration, this true account will take you to small town South Africa, the ugly side of Cape Town, the claustrophobic sprawl of Greater London and New Zealand's sleepy Waikato. And then on to the Holy Grail: Australia.

Dalkey digs deep into this puzzling, generous nation as he travels to every one of the mainland states. He explores Australia's quirky history and its modern cities, from seductive Sydney to bad-ass Brisbane. He rides trains across the Nullarbor Plain and watches cricket everywhere. But all this is merely the backdrop to his dogged pursuit of that decades-old mission: driving heavy loads to tiny rural specks deep in the Outback...