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This time around Bryson kind of meets Australians, heads into a few pubs, wanders about the cities, complains, makes jokes and has some serious fears of Australia’s nature.

He is right, Australia has the most poisonous critters on earth, and he names them, while I sat and wondered how the Australians managed to make it all these years without being poisoned, without dying. Many probably did. Well, according to some articles online they don’t die from venom much anymore because they have anti-venom. I wondered if they carried suitcases of it when they went into the Outback, different kinds of venom for each poisonous creature. After reading, I see that people die more from car accidents there, but I imagine that if they ran into a kangaroo they could get kicked to death.

And so I asked my sister if she knew any Australians, and she did. She emailed him, giving him my questions, so I received some fun answers, and then I decided that if you are in the Outback with no cell phone coverage, and you get bitten by a poisonous critter, then you just die, unless someone comes by to help you. Here is what my sister’s friend said, and I must say it was the most interesting part of this book even though it wasn't in the book:

“we have 6 of the top 10 most venomous snakes on earth, including the top 2. if u were in the middle of absolute nowhere and got bitten..ur probably gonna have a bad time, but u would also just be airlifted lol and snakes dont like attack u lol they bite u if u mess with them lol. i have the poisonous ones in my back yard. You would actively have to be looking for something to bite u, like run into the bushes and step on something. I don’t see snakes when camping, and I have only seen two spiders that can kill you. I have had snakes in my house; two of my cats were killed by snakes. Had one cat that kill three. Spiders are also crappy little things that die if u step on them…I have big spiders in my house, but they are chill…daddy long legs are a living cobweb. if u swim in the 2 states that have crocs..u will be eaten haha. snakebites usually make the news here, it doesnt really happen much. �

I have always wondered why man couldn’t get rid of the poisonous creatures, but I suppose they breed too fast and are hard to find, which means that it is rare for someone to run into one, get bitten, and die, just as my sister’s friend had said. But Bryson is drawn to them, at least in word, so we can rest assured that he will be alive to write another book. And what about those rabbits that they have that just keep multiplying. Maybe we can send them some coyotes.

As I continued to read on in this book, I came to a comment that he made that struck me as odd because it really applied to the first half of this book, and so I will capitalize which part does:

“As I sat at the bar now I pulled out my one-volume history of Australia by Manny Clark and dutifully plowed into it. I had only about thirty pages left and I WOULD BE LESS THAN CANDID IF I DIDN’T TELL YOU THAT I COULDN’T WAIT TO HAVE MR. CLARK AND HIS EXTRAVAGANT DRONING OUT OF MY LIFE FOREVER.�

And so that was how I feel about Bryson’s almost arm chair travel book, which is where I think most of his writing of Australian history comes from, reading in the bars, instead of spending time exploring, like digging around in the bushes looking for those poisonous critters just to see them. Well, that would be a bad idea; it sounds like something I would do.

I had put the book down about 4 times in my own travels through it, but then it picked up some. He talked some about the history of the Aboriginals, and how they were treated, then he went to see where the great outlaw Ned Kelly hid out, and next he went on Great Barrier Reef tour, where he began having more fears, this time of “sharks, boxfish, scorpion fish, stinging corals, and sea snakes, and groupers.� I would also have those fears. And then as he got out of the pontoon boat and into the water, he feared drowning. At least he got out of the boat and into the water. He wrote: “I discovered that I was perhaps sixty feet above the bottom. I had never been in water this deep before and it was unexpectedly unnerving…then my mask and snorkel filled with water and I started choking.� He got back in the boat, and I am not putting him down for this, because I never learned to swim well either and find deep water to panic me. I remember snorkeling in a lagoon in the Yucatan, and while I was having fun seeing the colorful tropical fish, I looked up and found that I was heading out to sea. I didn’t panic, thank God, instead I swam sideways to get back, and if it had not been for the duck feet that I was wearing, I would have drowned.