4WD+Camping Escapes / Mike & Jane Pelusey

4WD+Camping Escapes
(Hema / Perth & the South West)
by Mike & Jane Pelusey

travel

copyright ?
used in February 2015

rated 4/10: so bad it's embarrassing

There's a lot of information and plenty of maps. I bought this book for the "Top 15 4WD trips", as advertised on the cover. A big mistake.

Okay, each trip has a yellow highlighter line on a map to show you where to go. The rest is rubbish.

There are 18 pages of Hema maps, with the trips highlighted. Several of the trips run across pages. At that map scale, it's impossible to follow the trips. At *what* map scale ? If there's a scale on the maps -- I can't find it.

Each trip has its own couple of pages, with an extract of the map. These small maps do show a scale -- which varies from map to map. It depends on the space available on the page rather than on usefulness. There are features in the text which are not on the maps, and vice versa. There are also features in the text which don't even seem to exist in reality.

There are captioned photos.  "Many of these tracks go along fence lines." -- A photo of a car driving through a puddle next to a gravel track. "The curiously named Church of Saint John in the Wilderness." -- No hint as to where it is. The church gets a mention in the general trip description -- but not in the driving instructions...

It's the driving instructions which are the worst aspect of this book. For example:

"turn right ... into Chittering Road. After 5km along Wilson Rd, turn right. At 1.2km, turn left into Moondyne Rd, a no through rd." What they really mean is: "After 5km along Chittering Rd turn right into Wilson Rd."

Well within the claimed 5k along Wilson Rd, we reached a sign which clearly stated, "Private Property. Keep Out." At this stage, the bad directions had us so confused that we simply turned around and gave up.

Back home, we studied other -- more detailed -- maps of the area. It seems that we drove right by -- twice -- the likely "turn left" off Wilson Road. No, it's not at 5km. And no, it's not called Moondyne Road... it's Coffees Road... According to another map provided by Hema.

What a pity that the Peluseys did not check road names against Hema maps.

What a pity that no-one audited the Peluseys driving directions.

We've tried to follow just two of the trips in this book. Both trips have unsuitable -- inadequate -- maps. Both have driving directions which are confusing and inadequate. One set of directions has obvious mistakes. (The other may have mistakes but we were too confused to prove it.)

Do not buy this book. Buy a good map. Glance at someone else's copy of the book -- to get a general idea of where to go. Then go out and invent your own trip.

Oh, and if you're worried that you will miss some local point of interest... Drop by the nearest local tourist information office and pick up a couple of their free brochures.