There will be things that we once enjoyed and took for granted that will now be impractical if not impossible. We may now only be able to look back on those things with longing and nostalgia.

One of those things will be unimpeded travel. Something many Australians hold dear to their hearts.

As young adults travel was always regarded as a rite of passage. Exposure to other places and other cultures and their formative effects has a lot to do with the Australian ethos.

That travel is a liberalising experience becomes abundantly apparent when we compare ourselves to the many Americans who are isolated and ignorant of the world beyond their shores, an illiteracy about life and other people that causes the world many problems.

As older adults drifting into retirement travel can be a culminating indulgence. Instead of backpacking across Asia and Europe we can opt for the luxury of cruise ships and guided tours.

For those who can afford it and are so inclined, a good life, even a hard life, can be topped off by a world cruise as an affirmation of Australian spirit and difference.

This is what Paul Oates’ latest book is all about. It is ready made nostalgia.

In that sense, its publishing demanded lavish presentation and Around the World BC, a clever title, meets that requirement.

There’s wall to wall colour on nearly every page interspersed with scintillating commentary and fascinating history, all delivered with an erudite and dry Aussie humour.

Getting it down to 427 pages and only the best photographs was no mean feat.

The text has been tightened to absolute pertinence and I feel sure that dozens of discarded colour photographs still litter the study floor.

Thus have the decade long wanderings of Paul and his wife Sue through Asia, Europe and the USA been distilled into one volume.

It is a book for readers to mull over and maybe compare with their own adventures. And perhaps to wonder what might have been had Covid not arrived to thwart our plans.

The Oates’ travels and experiences are interesting, educational and often humorous.

They impart a realistic view of the places they visited before Covid cut its swathe and turned the world upside down.

Paul has variously been a patrol officer in Papua New Guinea, a senior public servant in Australia, an administrator in the Cocos (Keeling) Islands and a cattle farmer in Queensland. He is now retired.

This is his fourth book about his work and life and all have proved popular with readers.

His others are ‘Small Steps Along the Way’ (PNG), ‘Life on a Coral Atoll: Australia’s Cocos (Keeling) Islands’ and ‘Phascogales and Other Tales: A Queensland Tree Change’.

If you are thinking of throwing caution to the wind and travelling overseas sometime soon, this latest book is a must-have.