The Amateur Tramp

Book excerpt: Aidan De Brune was the first person to walk around the perimeter of Australia. He set off in 1921, unaccompanied and unassisted and walked 10,000 miles (16,000 kilometres) from Sydney to Sydney, anticlockwise. Everywhere he walked, he asked people to sign his travel diary, as evidence of his presence in the places he visited. He was also a journalist and he regularly wrote articles during his walk, which appeared in the Sydney Daily Mail and other newspapers.He was a prolific writer of serialised mystery stories, which were syndicated in newspapers throughout Australia and New Zealand. He was also an accomplished musician who gave music lessons and at one time played piano accompaniments to silent films in London.