Walking Through the Landscape
One of the joys of writing is the research that goes into a book.
Some people have asked why I felt the need to go to the places where the book is set. Can’t you get the information from TV programs, books and so on. The cinematography on modern documentaries is stunning. What else do you need?
The short answer is that a writer really needs to immerse themselves in the location. Use all the senses: not just see it, but smell it, listen to the sounds, feel the heat, the dust, the insect bites. Watch the people, listen to how they talk to each other, not to the camera. And so it goes… in short, walking in the shoes of the characters as they traverse the landscape.
Here are some photos of places used as settings in the book:
The swimming hole near George’s house
Death among the lillies.
The lower billabong at George’s place. Notice the beautiful water lillies—flowers white and purple, emerald leaves, and that brown thing on the right of the photo, lurking amongst the water weeds… Be careful where you swim!
The fan palm gallery.
This is the fan palm gallery in the lowland section of the Daintree where Jack and his team go searching for Ben.
The PDR
If I drove another couple of hundred kilometres further on and took another photo…
…it would look exactly the same as this one. It’s a very long way to anywhere.
But when you get to the other end, you find this:
Cape Tribulation Track Daintree Rainforest
