Slips, trips and stumbles

About the Book

In this deliberately incomplete and selective memoir, the author relates experiences from his extraordinary life of travel around the world. Some stories are interesting, some exciting, some of life-affirming importance, some humorous, some heart-warming, some hair-raising, some crazy, some quite silly and probably ill-advised, but all of them are exotic and fun. And they are all completely true. Some of the stories in this book are of extraordinary experiences of nature, humanity or even geo-politics that the author has been amazingly privileged to experience.

Read about his experiences of surviving a plane crash; having a first contact visit with primitive people; swimming in filthy waters where he should not have; doing some nocturnal wanderings in an unfamiliar city; making a fool of himself in Ireland; getting frustrated by officialdom in Russia; enjoying the delights of Scandinavia; exploring fascinating European history; swimming in a number of European countries but, most of all, enjoying the thrill of it all. There are stories here from about 50 countries; and there are still many more (stories and countries) to come.

About the Author

Mark Otter has been described as a serial careerist. He has been a naval officer, a diplomat, an academic, a senior officer in international development and environment organisations and, on retiring from his career work, he had a complete about-face and became a swimming coach and swimming tour guide.

He has lived and worked in five countries in the Asia-Pacific region and Europe and has visited countless others for both career and private purposes. Among other qualifications, he holds a PhD in Political Science and International Studies from the University of Queensland.

Mark wrote this book when he realised that not even his own family members knew what adventures he had got up to in his various careers.

Originally from Sydney, Mark now lives in Brisbane.