Roff Smith

Australian writer and adventurer Roff Smith began his career in journalism more than 20 years ago, covering the mining rounds with the Sydney Morning Herald. It was a beat that took him from the rough-and-tumble iron-ore ports in Western Australia, to uranium mines in the South Australian desert, to oil rigs in the Timor Sea, a gold rush in the Papua New Guinea highlands and a civil war on Bougainville, in the North Solomon Islands. After a stint as a feature writer for the Melbourne Age, he joined Time Magazine where he became an award-winning senior writer covering the South Pacific. A keen expedition cyclist, he left Time in 1996, and embarked on a solo 10,000 mile bicycle journey through outback Australia, the story of which appeared as a three-part series in National Geographic Magazine, and later in book form - Cold Beer & Crocodiles - published by National Geographic Adventure Press. For the past ten years he has been a freelance writer, writing for numerous international publications and travel magazines, and a regular contributor to National Geographic, with assignments taking him to places as diverse as the South Pole, French Polynesia and the Sand Hills of Nebraska. His August 2004 story for the magazine on Banjo Paterson, Australia's national poet, won the North American Travel Journalist Association award for best feature in 2004. He has written National Geographic Traveler's guidebook to Australia, as well as a 'coffee table' book on Australia (Australia: Journey Through Time), and an account of his extensive travels in Antarctica - Life on The Ice. He has cycled extensively in Europe and Britain, made solo treks across America, from London to Istanbul, through East Africa and Zanzibar and once in a light hearted moment, 'around the world' in fifteen seconds at the South Pole. He now lives in Sussex, England with his wife and children, where he is presently working on his first novel and a book on Panama hats.