John Dunlop, self-styled as The Wandering Pilgrim, has spent a lifetime documenting his travels, inspired from boyhood by Grimm's Fairy Tales-especially East of the Sun and West of the Moon.
Volume III presents diaries and accounts written at the time of the events, illustrated with contemporary photographs. It falls into two parts: fourteen boyhood travel stories from exploring and hitchhiking across Australia, followed by twenty-six accounts from his early career as a mining engineer after graduating from Melbourne University around 1971-working at mines, then freelancing as a minerals consultant in remote locations worldwide.
Like Volumes I (dedicated to alpine climbing and Himalayan mountaineering) and II (Tasmanian wilderness walks), this book preserves the original voice-from youthful exuberance to maturing style-offering personal adventure and valuable historical insights.
Born in Melbourne in 1950, son of the renowned "Weary" Dunlop, John twice hitchhiked around Australia before finishing school, worked as an underground miner and on offshore oil rigs, and visited war-torn Vietnam with his father in 1965.
A distinguished engineering career followed, spanning mine operations, senior management, and thirty years of global consulting in remote regions. Throughout, he carved out time for wilderness escapes-to "feed the rat"-building a remarkable sixty-year chronicle of travel.
Today he lives at his remote rainforest retreat in Far North Queensland. The Wandering Pilgrim series forms a vivid, progressive autobiography captured across seven decades.
Dunlop, John: - "John Dunlop was born in Melbourne Australia in 1950, the Chinese year of the metal tiger. Educated at Scotch College, he matriculated with honours in mathematics, chemistry and Russian language. Before leaving school he twice hitchhiked around Australia and worked underground as a miner, and on offshore oil rigs. He had also accompanied his father, "Weary" Dunlop, to war-torn Vietnam in 1965. By the time he left school he had already seen much of the world and become an accomplished outdoorsman.After graduating from Melbourne University in mining engineering, he spent much of the next twenty years involved in mine operations, which led to roles in senior management and as a director. Then followed thirty years as a roving minerals consultant with travel to many countries and often very remote locations.Always he made sure he took time out to "feed the rat" - to escape to remote outdoor places and keep a written record of his travels which has grown into a unique collection spanning more than sixty years. These records, when grouped together, fall into the categories of boyhood travels, mountain travels (his first book), Tasmanian walks (this book), polar travel and work-related trips to unique places.When eventually published in their entirety, they will become an autobiography written progressively over a very broad timespan. The photographic images captured on most of his journeys provide a historic and rare chronological record.John is now in his seventies and has three adult children - John, a customs officer in Melbourne; Andrew, a former Victorian policeman now living in Sweden; and Isabelle, who teaches and plays violin, based in Brussels. His only sibling, brother Alexander, qualified as a doctor and passed away in his late sixties."
