What Is It About Australia??

When we booked the cruise, we didn't think about it.  After all, we'd been to Sydney twice before.  We'd been to the zoo. We'd done the harbour cruise. We'd refused to do the bridge climb. We'd taken the requisite pictures of the Sydney Opera House.  We'd even bought the required didgeredo for our kids back home. We'd seen the backward climates(it's summer here now) and the upside down constellations. By the way, I figured out why they use centigrade rather than fahrenheit when talking temperatures.  It was 45 degrees C the other day here.  I didn't know how to translate that, so I just ignored it.  However, when they told me it had been 120 degrees fahrenheit when translated, I fully understood.  It keeps most of us Americans in the dark and that keeps tourists coming.  If I had known how hot, I might have reconsidered!!

We figured we'd done it all here.  Nothing could surprise us anymore.  Nothing could be different.  Right??   What was different was a book.  Called "In a Sunburned Country".

It is written by Bill Bryson and it is a rambling account of his trip to Australia.  So far so good.  THEN he gets to the good parts.  The country was founded as a penal colony. Okay.  That is fine and that was also a long time ago.  But, he proceeds to tell me, it has more things that will kill you than anywhere else.  Getting not so good.  Of the world's ten most poisonous snakes, all are Australian, he continues.  And five of the Australian creatures, such as the box jellyfish and the funnel web spider, are the most lethal of their type in the world.  And there are even caterpillars, fluffy ones no less, who can give you a toxic nip.  Or, what about the seashells that have creatures inside that will give you a venomous bite.  To continue don't forget the crocodiles and, of course, the sharks.  Most beaches have shark nets to try to keep swimmers from being chomped on by the ever-present sharks!  But those pesky sharks have their ways of getting through the nets and taking bites of unsuspecting swimmers. "Not too often," they will tell you.  Maybe only once a year or so.

So, I am beginning to see that in our first two visits to Australia, we were just plain lucky to not be stung, bitten, or pronged to death!  When reading about the history of Australia, you can't help but see that a lot of unsuspecting explorers were attacked by aborigines and even eaten by them!  Remember Captain Cook? He was a hero for first exploring Australia and the South Pacific, only to be killed and eaten by the natives.  Did they use barbecue sauce?  Catsup?  Mustard?  Salt and pepper.  Shiver...

 Sydney Opera from the room
 before we "crashed"

Here we are, ensconced in a luxury hotel in "The Rocks" part of Sydney, no spiders, crocs, jellyfish or snakes around that we know about.  The sun is shining.  The people are so friendly.  Hard to believe we are braving the potential threats to our well-being.  Now the threats are only from colds and flu, that we can tell.  And we have become experts at rubbing down our room from doorknobs to desks with disinfectant, to prevent those things as well.  And, as a final line of defense, we have brought lots of Cold-Eze to suck on!!  Seems we are well-prepared for at least those modern hazards.

To assuage our anxieties, we search out one of the most famous Sydney restaurants for dinner.  Overlooking --- the harbor.  With a huge cruise ship as our view. Even that was interesting,  And we choose the 8 course tasting menu.  But more about that, next...

View from room; afternoon

Sydney Harbor Bridge
at sunset.