Chapters 14-15 Summary and Analysis

For his next and most daring trip to Australia, Bryson is joined by his friend Allan Sherwin. They fly into North Queensland for a look at the Barrier Reef before heading west into the forbidding desert of Australia's interior. Things go wrong from the beginning, as flooding prevents them from driving north into the jungles and initially they are stuck in Cairns. They spend the first day hiding from the monsoon in the hotel bar, Bryson assaulting his friend with a list of the painful and deadly animals that inhabit this region and with several gruesome stories about saltwater crocodile attacks. They cannot swim in the pleasant looking cove that the hotel sits in because it is box jellyfish breeding season and a dip could bring severe pain and even death. Sherwin asks Bryson incredulously what kind of country...