Bill Bryson · 2000 · overland

Bill Bryson's 2000 love letter to Australia, the most habitable of the world's least hospitable continents. By train across the Nullarbor and by car around the edges, Bryson circles the vast, sunburnt country, from Sydney to Perth to the dead red heart at Uluru, up to the tropical north and back down the reef coast, marvelling all the while at a land where seemingly everything is trying to kill you.

1. 1
   Sydney

   Bryson begins in Sydney, on the green and crowded eastern edge.

2. 2
   Melbourne

   South to Melbourne.

3. 3
   Adelaide

   West to Adelaide, gateway to the empty interior.

4. 4
   Perth

   By the Indian Pacific train across the endless Nullarbor to Perth.

5. 5
   Uluru

   Into the dead red heart of the continent, to Uluru.

6. 6
   Darwin

   North to the steaming tropics of Darwin and the Top End.

7. 7
   Cairns

   Down to Cairns and the Great Barrier Reef.

8. 8
   Sydney

   And back at last to Sydney, the great loop closed.