The Road to Mount Buggery

This was my slow read over the last few weeks - for a half hour here and there. It works well, as it is easy to pick up and put down, is light and not over-burdened with a requirement for continuity.
It tells of a year spent travelling around Australia, visiting places not on their merit, but based on the place names. If they are curious, crude or otherwise interesting, they got a pin, and the ambitious travellers made an attempt to visit them.

Mark and Amy both worked in journalism, had recently got together, and decided to leave their jobs, buy a 4WD and head off to visit the pins they spent 18 months planning and researching.
Mount Buggery is, of course, the swan-song. There are many, many places and stories before they reach this one. To pull a few off the map - Mt Misery, Mt Despair, Mt Terrible, Hell's Gate, Isle of the Dead, Mt Regret, Hangover Bay, Desperate Bay, Disaster Bay, Mt Treachery and Massacre Inlet. There are more, they were the ones that leaped out at me.

Basically they planned a route to visit each of their pins, and ended up travelling 53,000 kilometres in their 51 weeks. Other stats included Mark ticking off 334 birds (he became a birdwatcher), they ate 152 dinners of packet pasta,changed nine tyres, and went through half a bottle of shampoo.

For each location they visit (and some that events and weather conspire to prevent them reaching) they share the history which led, or may have led to the name. Often these are speculative, or there are contradictory explanations offered to them, so do what they can to resolve them. They also share a lot of themselves and their burgeoning relationship with the reader. They are never particularly serious, and generally quite amusing.

While 4 stars for this book may not compare to other 4 starred books, this book sets out to do what it intended, and was perfectly suited to the way I read it, so it was a great match for my requirements.

4 stars.