ESCAPE TO NATURE
Australian Geographic, Hardie Grant, $50
A sturdy laminated cover ensures that decades on, this heirloom item will still be intact. It’s a guide to 75 unique national parks across the country. Panels and maps give you highlights, while mini features spell out the detail, whether you’re looking for a quick day trip to ease tension or a pre-booked tour (the five-day Desert Sky tour in Mungo National Park; a whale-watching adventure out of Busselton; or, harnessed and dangling, picnicking 300 metres above Mount Buffalo’s valley).
Visual surprises abound. The moon over Mungo turns the arid landscape a ferocious rosehip red. There are also warnings. The heart-shaped leaf of a stinging gympie-gympie tree “can result in months of excruciating pain and may induce allergic reactions that require hospitalisation… the best-known treatment is applying diluted hydrochloric acid”.
