Wandering in Australia – the journey continues

Photography e-Book Review: Brian Rope

Wandering in Australia – the journey continues | Pele Leung

Publisher: Pele Leung Photography

Chinese Edition first published 2025

English Edition translated by DeepSeek AI in 2025

Pele Leung has travelled extensively in Australia chasing images and interesting travel stories. He considers writing to be one of the best ways to complement his photography. 

This e-Book is volume 2 of a two-volume product. The first volume Wandering in Australia – the journey begins has previously been reviewed. Both volumes are available in Chinese and English language versions. He writes “Over 20,000 kilometres of tarmac, dirt tracks and roadless wilderness were conquered in pursuit of the perfect frame, with no hour too early nor terrain too harsh when the light demanded it.”

This time we learn about uninvited guests, a blessing in disguise, new friends, fortune’s favour, and a chance encounter. We see and read about paddle steamers, snorkelling on the reef, autumn in Eden, and lava tubes. And much more.

There are beautiful images of small Lake Fyans, near Halls Gap in Victoria.

Lake Fyans, VIC

There’s a classic image of the artistically hand-painted VW beetle outside John Dynon’s art studio/gallery in the outback New South Wales town of Silverton.

Silverton, NSW

Writing about a Tasmanian Wilderness, Leung tells how the authorities have “carved a 60-kilometre scenic drive dotted with lookout points.” Trowutta Arch's sinkhole and Lake Chisholm's mirrored waters stood out for him.

Trowutta Arch, TAS

Lake Chisholm, TAS 

The artist tells us a story about a family holiday that included a high-speed boat tour along the southeastern Tasmanian coast. As they approached Cape Hauy, the boat “slowed beneath towering 100-metre cliffs that loomed with intimidating grandeur.” Another visit years later saw him hike to the Cape and take a rather different, but special, selfie.

Cape Hauy, TAS

At Mount Buffalo National Park in Victoria, he did the fifteen-minute climb from car park to The Horn - a granite sentinel crowning Mount Buffalo. Later that day, an unbroken cloud ceiling turned the water of Lake Catani into a dull mirror “serviceable for documentation, but devoid of magic.” 

Lake Catani, Mount Buffalo NP, VIC 

In the Northern Territory, Leung visited Uluru and captured another most interesting image of himself and the world-famous rock from the sunset viewing area, the rock glowing in the special light. 

Uluru, NT 

Nearby, at the equally wonderful Kata Tjuta, Leung embarked on the hiking trail known as “The Valley of the Winds” walk, having been warned that entering the valley proper requires scrambling up a steep slope on all fours. He captured some beautiful images of “a secluded world where desert oaks clustered between towering red walls”, then some striking shadow shots in “an amphitheater of stone”.

Walpa Gorge, Kata Tjuta NP, NT 

A visit to Cairns in Queensland “revealed an unexpected delight - a volcanic lake whose surface shifted between glassy calm and rippled texture, like a living Monet painting where reality and reflection became indistinguishable.”

Lake Eacham, Crater Lakes NP, QLD

And, in the Blue Mountains National Park in New South Wales, Leung explored the photogenic vistas of the Grand Canyon Track; the dim forest light demanding tripod use. 

Grand Canyon Track, Blue Mountains NP, NSW

Both e-Book volumes can be purchased on Leung’s website, peleleung.com. He is on Facebook at peleleungphotography and has videos on his YouTube channel @peleleung2688, including one about Wandering in Australia.

I will conclude by sharing the closing words Leung has overlaid on a beautiful water’s edge image:

Sleep's gentle tide crept o'er me slow,

As zephyrs through the pines did flow.

My eyelids drooped with gathering mist,

Where mountain vapours curled and kissed.

Towering firs stood sentinel tall,

Whilst blooms did grace the forest hall.

Before me stretched a winding track -

A thread to heaven's pearly rack.

Peak on peak in endless train,

While larks in azure vaults remain.

The cataract's thunderous refrain

Echoed through each rock-bound lane.

This earthly paradise so fair,

Yet proved but vapour, light as air -

One faltering step, and down I spun,

From dream-clad heights to waking sun.

 

This review is also available on the author's blog here.

Wandering in Australia – the journey begins

Photography e-Book Review: Brian Rope

Wandering in Australia – the journey begins | Pele Leung

Publisher: Pele Leung Photography

Chinese Edition first published 2018

English Edition translated by DeepSeek AI in 2025

Pele Leung has travelled extensively in Australia chasing images and interesting travel stories. He considers writing to be one of the best ways to complement his photography.

I’m not able to assess how well DeepSeek AI has translated the Chinese words in the book. However, the English looks fine and is very readable. By way of illustration I share the opening words, which are overlaid on the sky area of a double-page landscape:

I greet the dawn with sunlit hands,

Through endless blue my voice expands.

The crescent moon, a silent string,

Stars pluck its notes to hear me sing.

Alone I walk where pathways end,

The wind just hums-‘Press on my friend.’

Yet every mile sings you belong-

The road just grins and leads me on.

This volume runs to 638 pages. I haven’t counted them, but the vast majority of pages show at least one image. However, this is not simply a book of wonderful photos. Words also tell numerous stories about different and interesting experiences whilst wandering and gathering images. We learn about the author’s philosophical reasons for wandering, his “driven passion” for photography, and the highs and lows of his travels on five journeys covering nearly 70,000 Km.

His first wanderings took him around Tasmania in 2003. For Leung, the most unforgettable part was trekking into the remote Walls of Jerusalem National Park. Poor preparation, plummeting temperatures and snow, and his first encounter with “the humbling power of nature” was the beginning of the adventures covered in this book and the second volume. A chance encounter with a family at Cradle Mountain led to a friendship continuing two decades later.

Four years later he took an eight month long 40,000 Km odyssey around Australia. Cradle Mountain was revisited. Then it was back to the mainland to head north along the coast to Sydney and Brisbane, and back to Melbourne via a different route. We read about such things as lessons learned, subterranean wonders, beaches and mountains, waterfalls - and sandflies! Trees, the Great Barrier Reef, gorges, indigenous rock art – everything adds to the visual feast.

Cape Conran, VIC

Pambula Beach, NSW

Millaa Millaa Falls, QLD

Next, he went through the centre of the continent to Darwin, then followed the western and southern coastlines all the way back to Melbourne. We learn about Leung’s “lesson in driving”, visit the Remarkable Rocks, explore rugged terrain in the scorching days and bone-chilling nights of the desert, and observe public morality.

Rollercoaster

Katherine Gorge, NT

Bell Gorge, WA

May 2014 saw the author head off to Central Australia again, but also to other places not previously visited in this book. The Grampians are very near to my first Australian home, and I spent many happy times exploring them, with family and also in a Scout group – including climbing to the Pinnacle Lookout. These and others of Leung’s images reminded me of places and events in my own Australian journey.

Pinnacle Lookout, Grampians NP, VIC

Stuart Highway, SA

Three months later it was Melbourne to the Gold Coast and back. In 2018, he started again, retracing previous routes with fresh eyes. Stories of warmth encountered on the road, fearless fools, cheap accommodation, sharing quiet anticipation with a stranger, and countryside discoveries.

Cape Woolamai, VIC

Lake Tyrell, VIC

This e-Book is volume 1 of a two-volume product. The second volume Wandering in Australia – the journey continues will be reviewed separately. It also is available in both Chinese and English language versions. I’ve written about and shown you just a tiny part of this volume. You need to get hold of a copy and read all its words and photos for yourself. Both e-Book volumes can be purchased (for a most modest cost), either separately or as a bundle, on Leung’s website, peleleung.com. He is on Facebook at peleleungphotography and has videos on his YouTube channel @peleleung2688, including one about Wandering in Australia.

This review is also available on the author's blog here.