OT - wifes birthday coming up - need help finding books and a good camp chair.

Oztent make a superb fold up chair.

what about an Australian bird book? e.g. Slater - Field guide to Australian Birds. It is hard not to get interested in all the different birds you see around camps, while travelling etc - and it makes a good interest being able to identify them. But then ,she will probably want some binoculars for xmas.............

What about a nice winch? You can get a book or chair any old time but this is a special day! :-))

This is the best chair i have owned . Comfy and reliable with a 5 year warranty . link

John,

Your question re books is a tricky one. There are heaps of books out there, but there is no single one that will cover it all, especially when it comes to plants/wildflowers - there are just too many to fit into one book. Wildflowers tend to be best dealt with on a regional basis, so perhaps start with a book of wildflowers of the place where you plan to visit next.

The other thing to watch out for it the level at which a book is pitched. Many books assume some knowledge of the technical language used by those who study plants in scientific detail. If you do not have this knowledge (and you certainly do not need it to enjoy wildflowers or anything else that you find in the bush) such a book could end up being pretty frustrating to use. If you are a beginner in this area find a book with good illustrations - either photos or colour drawings are fine - and use that as a starting point.

For birds "Field Guide to the Birds of Australia" by Simpson and Day is good. There are similar guides to reptiles, mammals etc.

If you are in a city check out the bookshops at any botanic gardens, or do a google on Botanic Gardens Bookshop.

Hope this helps,

Val.

Hi John

We leave the big books at home - we would need a truck to carry all the good reference books. I just carry a selection of the hand sized mini books in areas of interest (birds, snakes, mammals). Not everything is illustrated, but it gives you a good overview and identification can usually be made. We did buy a good reptile book this time as i didn't have anything similar at home. See recent reptile threads for details of this, as well as Willie's reference library.

The picture doesn't come up well - but you will see these little books at most outlets.

Image Could Not Be Found

Motherhen

An excellent guide book for plants etc see

A Guide to Plants of Inland Australia by Philip Moore.

ISBN-13: 9781876334864
ISBN-10: 187633486X
Format: Paperback
Pages: 503
Size: 145x215mm
Published: 2005
Reading Level: All Ages
Publisher: New Holland

The cost around $40.
Its a excellent guide with hundreds of photos. Best we have come across.

jdbb

I got the other half a Coleman fold up chair as you require. but it is a rocking chair , and she loved it ! that was about 4 years ago and I imagine they are still around !

Cheers
Giffo

John,

A good book for plants is Rhondda Alexander's book "A field guide to Plants of the Channel Country" It has a wide variety of plants available in this area, as well as many other parts of the country.

It is available from Desert Channels Queensland - Longreach (Ph; 07 46580 600) for about $20.00. Worth more like $50 or $60.

It is A5 size, so easy to carry in a vehicle, with about 320 pages.

Hooroo,
Bob.

Thanks to you all for the replies and your suggestions.