Danger along the way
Along with the potential violence of the Aborigines, who can become violent if intoxicated, there are several other dangers waiting for visitors. I’ve learned that quite soon myself, when the sun burned be after having an afternoon swim, I’ve peeled twice and got blisters twice. Otherwise Australia is known as having the largest number of dangerous animals in the world. I’ve met some of them during organized tours, or individual walks. I’ve encountered several snakes, lizards, bugs and crocodiles, who surprised me the most as they can stand on their hind legs when trying to get food. Many beaches are empty due to dangerous sharks, sea crocs and sea snakes. For swimming there are secured beaches with nets running from the sea bottom to the surface. And also dangerous, although many get surprised by this, for people are kangaroos, especially those being bread on farms for meat.
There are also several among the rarest animal and plant species on the planet, living in Australia. Among the ones which we can’t find anywhere else on the globe are animals with pouches, such as kangaroos, wombats and koalas. Unlike most mammals that develop inside the mother, these animals get born in an early stage, but the offspring continues development in the pouch of the mother, sucking to a milk glance until it gets fully developed.
The symbol of Australia
The opera house in Sydney, adequately named Sydney Opera House is a symbol of the red continent. The grand building stands in the bay of the biggest, but not the capital, city of Australia. It was completed in 1973 with great losses, which led to the chief architect, a Danish architect Jörn Utzon, getting fired, before its completion. Today the sails of the opera house are the pride of the city and the entire continent. It attracts visitors from all over the globe. Another famous landmark is also the Harbour Bridge. If you want to climb it, you need to schedule two months ahead, for there’s a huge demand for this tourist attraction.
We could name Sydney the city of bays, but not only due to many bays surrounding it, but also due to many cultures of the world that have immigrated to this city. The soul of the city is a mixture of nations from Europe, Americas, Africa and recently more and more Asians.
Canberra
Canberra is the capital of Australia. It was built for this purpose after the two most important centres of the country fought over the prestige: Melbourne and Sydney. They’ve decided to build a new city two hours from Sydney in direction of Melbourne. Canberra hosts the most of embassies and the new parliament. Often people confuse Sydney as the capital, because of its metropolitan status and cultural impact.
For me, Canberra was mostly a sleep over, where I visited the parliament, because the city does not offer and attractions. The parliament is the most fascinating building of the city and has a famous roof, covered by the nicely cut English grass.
Important economy
The most important economic sector of Australia is agriculture. They produce most of the basic food for their home needs and also export a lot of wool, wheat, beef and sugar. Despite unusual temperatures, droughts and floods they use up to 65% of their area for agriculture. For growing crops there is only 5% of territory, the rest if for sheep and cattle. Australia is the biggest producer and exporter of wool and beef in the world. The most famous sheep is the merino, which gives wool of special quality.
Apart from economy, mining is also an important economic sector. Australia has man resources, such as iron, copper, lead, zinc, gold, silver, opal, diamonds, sapphires… and also many energy sources such as coal, gas, oil and uranium.
The favourite sport
As in many places around the globe their favourite sport in football. But their football is different from ours. It’s also popular in some other places of Oceania, but fairly unknown in other places of the world. It was developed in the 19th century inspired by the Aborigines, who played a game called Marn Grook. It was first meant for cricket players, to keep in shape during winter months.
Australian football is a team sport with eighteen players, played on the cricket like field with an egg shaped ball, but unlike the one for rugby. It’s similar to rugby, but with some trades of our football. In the land down under, it’s the most beloved sport along with cricket and football.
The wonders of the red continent
The red content is thus named due to the red colour of the inland areas of the continent. The sand and the rocks are red, and also the famous rocks such as Uluru and Kata Tjuta, for which they still don’t know the true origin. The red colour is contrasted by salt lakes, of which, due to the heat, only salt is left.
I found it very unusual, when riding on busses in the heart of the country, that we hit a few kangaroos, but the bus was made in such a way that no traces were to be seen. Apart from kangaroos there are also camels living in the wild, but they are more careful of the oncoming traffic. Also unusual was to see road trains – a truck with five additional trailers.
Smaller Australia rivers to the north, with their waterfalls, often invite tourists to go swimming, until a snake shows up or a lizard, what happened to me as well.
The country is also known for their great wines, which have a different taste from our own, as the climate is more favourable and they have much more sugar.
On the smallest continent in the sixth biggest country of the world, and the only country which covers the entire mainland of a continent, with many wonders, snow, ice, heat, drought, tropical places, biggest number of sheep, huge trucks, beautiful coral reefs, unusual animals, Olympic games, Sydney opera and much more, I’ve had a great and unique adventures unlike any other...
