You wouldn't think a place as big, as patently there as Australia, could escape the world's attention until just about the modern age, but there you have it. The world's largest island, the only island that is a continent, the only continent that is also a country, has piqued imaginations since Aristotle, Pythagorus, and others first postulated a southern land mass to balance the north. But it wasn't until the late 1700s that Captain Cook finally found such a land, weirder than imagination! Here it was summer in winter and swans were black. There was even a mammal that layed eggs. Gadzooks! England was so impressed she turned the place into a penal colony.

I am in the far north of the land down under, referred to as the Never Never. It's an alien world of killer heat and monsoonal rains. And that's just the weather. I am more interested in things that might bite me, and in the Never Never that seems to be most anything. For example the great white shark or giant saltwater croc. And then there are those venomous snakes, 6 of the 10 most poisonous in the world. And it gets worse! Drifting in the Queensland tides is the box jellyfish, that infamous bubble of doom with the most lethal venom known to man. Obviously I need a guide, so I give Sab Lord a call. Yes, it's his real name.

 

In the above photo Sab is on the left. In addition there are his assistant, two aboriginal guides, and a French filmmaker documenting our adventure for television. (next photo)