Review Of Down Under

For me, a big part of my visit to Australia was about wildlife unlike New Zealand where it became an added bonus. There were so many animals that I was desperate to see so I was so pleased I got to see as many of them in the wild as I could before seeing the rest at Australia Zoo and luckily I avoided seeing any venomous snakes or spiders in the wild or under the loo seat.

Swimming on the Great Barrier Reef will probably be the greatest memory I'll take with me. It's one thing I would tell anybody to do if they're in Australia and it would even be worth travelling there to do only that. Start saving your pocket money!

I was a bit disappointed not to see more live sport though. I'm glad I got to watch football in Sydney, even if it was pretty bad, but I would've loved to have seen some cricket, rugby or Aussie rules football (Definitely worth checking out on YouTube) while here however I was never in the right place at the right time.

An odd thing I did notice, and was not a fan of, was the pedestrian crossings. It took absolutely AGES for them to turn green even when all the roads were on red. Not fun for an eager tourist in a rush to see exciting things! I was literally stood still, waiting, along with loads of cars that weren't moving while nothing happened. I wouldn't have been surprised if a tumbleweed had rolled through! When it comes to pedestrian crossings; 1-0 UK (An important victory I'm sure).

Overall though I loved my time in Australia. It's now time to leave the comfort of English-speaking countries and start the Asian leg of the trip. The third and final part, starting with a few nights in Singapore.

In The Photo: A signpost in Sydney. I was only just over 17,000km from home then!

One Direction Watch {Australia}

We rented a car for a few days and listened to the radio as we drove around Queensland, we heard plenty of Olly Murs and a bit of Adele but, oddly, no 1D. I did see their Comic Relief video on MTV a couple of times though and, of course, there have been a few magazines with their faces on the covers.

I also spotted the oddest piece of band merchandise I've ever seen. For just over £10 you could own...a singing toothbrush that plays two different 1D songs as you clean your teeth! That can be 'What Makes You Beautiful' in the morning (Clean teeth, apparantly) and 'One Thing' before bed.

Poorly Creatures

You would look twice if you saw a koala at a vets in Britain! This is Peri who fell out of her tree and broke some bones. Thankfully the vets at Australia Zoo Animal Hospital are nursing her back to health.

What A Bird

This is a photo of my favourite species of bird on the planet; the cassowary. They can't fly, only live wild in northern Australia and parts of Papua New Guinea and I think they are brilliant!

Not only can they be taller than me when they stretch to full height but they also have a very strong 'helmet' on their head which they will use to fight. On top of that, check out the huge claws at the end of it's legs! This photo was taken at Australia Zoo but I was gutted not to see one in the wild despite always keeping an eye out.

Did You Know?: If you ever met a cassowary in the wild, one on one, you should never turn your back on it. They are famously dangerous birds that will ferociously protect their territory and they're are not afraid to attack people. The best thing to do is back away slowly until there's something between the two of you and it moves away.

Australia Zoo. Crikey!

Anyone who knows me, or just reads this blog, will know that I love zoos and animals. On Tuesday I visited Australia Zoo which was made famous by the Crododile Hunter, Steve Irwin, who was sadly killed by a stingray in 2006. What a great zoo! There are over 500 animals and all the enclosures I saw were a good size and well 'decorated' for the creatures.

There were still a few animals I was desperate to see before I left Australia so I made sure I was able to cross cassowaries (Scarily powerful clawed feet), wombats (Much bigger than I thought), echidnas (Just visible in a hollowed log), a Tasmanian devil (Having a dip to cool down), dingoes (Which look just like regular dogs), kookaburas (I got to hear their famous 'laugh') and koalas (Very fluffy if a little smelly) off my list. I even got to see more crocodiles, stroke a small alligator and hand feed some kangaroos!

Did You Know?: Kangaroos don't just hop about on their two legs. When going at a more relaxed pace they will sometimes use their front paws and even their tails too to move themselves along!

What Makes Us British?

You might have noticed in your local supermarket that, nestled down in the 'World Food' aisle, is a section that does lots of food for Eastern European people that live and work in the UK (I personally recommend some of the chocolate bars, very tasty.) and in Australia and New Zealand there's the very same thing but for all the British people that have moved over here.

It's funny to look at the things that seem to be 'typically British'. Things like mushy peas, PG Tips, Marmite and pickled onions amongst others. I didn't know we were so known for our love of Dr Pepper either?

What can you spot that you'd miss if you lived abroad?

No Cents. No Sense

Australian money makes no sense! They have; $2, $1, 50c, 20c, 10c and 5c coins just like the UK has those coins in pounds and pence but they have no 1 or 2 cent coins. It was the same in New Zealand.

This might not seem too odd as you'd just expect prices to be round numbers, but no! Things in shops still have prices like $4.99 etc and when you get to the till they just round it up and if your shopping came to something like $12.43 they'll round it down! Why not just have 1 or 2 cent coins or price things in round numbers?!? Bizarre.

Also, the 50c coins here are HUGE!

Halfway Day!

Today is the day where we officially reach the halfway point of the trip! It's scary how quickly the first two and a half months have flown by but it's also exciting to look ahead to the Asia leg that starts next week, after Brisbane, and getting to see family and friends again in June.

A lovely pancake breakfast seemed the perfect way to celebrate (Especially as the weather is rubbish and it's torrential rain!).

Look At What Ice Saw.

Behold, Coke and Slush Puppy combined; the Frozen Coca-Cola! I'd seen this creation in a few places around Australia and finally decided that it was worth a taste.

The best/weirdest thing is that it tastes fizzy! Thinking about the horrendous chemicals needed to make ice 'fizz' though is not good (My stomach's probably melting away as I type). Aside from that, it's nothing special and tastes a lot like coke when all the ice has melted and it's gone a bit watery. A one time purchase I think.

When Trees Attack!

This is a photo of a tree-killing green fig tree! This fig tree started life centuries ago as a small seed dropped in amongst the branches of another tree by a bird or small animal and it would have started growing there. Once it got too big though it started to drop roots down over the sides to hunt for water below and, 500 years later, this is the result; a huge, 48m tall fig tree that has strangled the original tree to death and now stands up by itself. Who'd have thought trees could be so viscious?

Proof You Can Get Too Close To Nature

The boat I travelled on when croc-spotting is solar powered so it's good for the environment but also very quiet which means it can get a lot closer to the wildlife than boats with noisier petrols engines. However, a few weeks ago it got a bit too close...

Scarface was having a fight with another crocodile and when these animals fight they will tend to bite something close to kind of say "Hey, look how strong I am!". Scarface went for a big branch and shook it hard, sending leaves and bugs everywhere while his opponent went for something a little bigger, the boat!

Luckily, no one was hurt but I've attached a photo of me comparing an average-sized saltwater crocodile tooth with my average-sized human teeth and a photo of the dent and bite mark left by the croc as he chomped on the boat's hard metal railing! A reminder to the tour guide to not get quite so close in the future.

Dangerous Waters

Meet Scarface, he's a 50-70 year old saltwater crocodile and the alpha male on his stretch of the Daintree River (Home to crocs, bull sharks, box jellyfish and sea snakes, not a river to swim in!). Being alpha male means that he is the top croc around and if you want to get an idea of his size ask at school if you can put four metre sticks end to end and you'll have it, he is huge!

I've now seen the smaller caymen in Brazil and these Australian saltwater crocodiles in the wild and, although I was a fan before, my love for crocodiles has grown. I just love how dinosaur-like they are, they're brilliant!

Did You Know?: The sticky up bits on crocodile's tails are called scoots. One of their main uses is to add power as the crocodile attacks it's prey. Think of them as lots of tiny oars pushing water back as it thrashes it's tail through the water.

Aussie Pizza

Fancy an Aussie-style pizza? Just add an egg on top! I'd heard about this before I had ever been to Australia and I've got to say that it was pretty nice. Next time you're making a pizza at home why not be inspired by Australia and ask Mum or Dad if there are any eggs in the fridge?

Cairns

Cairns, Queensland, Australia is a city just like Plymouth, Devon, England in that it's a city by the sea that doesn't have a natural sandy beach for people to use.

To overcome this problem in Cairns they decided to build this huge pool next to the sea called 'The Lagoon'. It's absolutely free for everyone to use; young, old and all those in between and sometimes there's even live music from a stage by the pool. It's very inviting on a hot day!

Different Kinds Of Sports Stars

Back home the biggest sports stars seen on adverts tend to be male footballers, cricketers or F1 racers but on this side of the globe there are more female stars advertising things than there are in the U.K. which is great to see.

In the photo you can see Laura Geitz, an Australian netball player, on a huge poster just like Ronaldo, Lewis Hamilton or Andy Murray can be found in shops around Britain.

Netball is huge in this part of the world with games on TV, pages in the papers and top players getting recognised in the street so if you enjoy playing netball at school, work hard and maybe a career as a famous netballer in Australia or New Zealand beckons!

Natural Wonder

Here's a photo of me as I head out to snorkel around one of the Great Barrier Reef's coral reefs. I've got the black suit on as it's 'stinger season' and it helped protect me against any jellyfish that may have brushed past me with their stinging tentacles.

The Great Barrier Reef is one of the most famous natural landmarks on the entire planet, and it is so beautiful with clear turquoise waters, tropical islands and coral reefs. Once I had swum from the shallow sandy beach and through a large lawn of seagrass I reached the coral of all colours; pink, green, blue and yellow.

Just below me, in amongst the coral, there were many, many creatures swimming around. I saw so many colourful tropical fish that I couldn't name as well as some very colourful unicorn fish, black and white angel fish and a group of small squid swimming together. I even saw a couple of blue spotted rays that looked like they were flying instead of swimming. My best spot, though, has to be an octopus lurking on a rock, it moved across the stone after watching me for a while changing colour as it went to remain camouflaged before going a dark, dark red. I left it at this point deciding not to cause it any alarm, after all I was the intruder in his home not the other way around. Finally, on the way back to the boat home Nads had time for one more spot, a large sea turtle swimming amongst the seagrass! What a day!

Did You Know?: The Great Barrier Reef isn't one long coral reef but lots of smaller ones close to one another over an area of 350,000 sq km.

Not Your Usual Burger

It might look like your ordinary, run-of-the-mill burger but this one's slightly different...it's a kangaroo burger!

Nads found them in a supermarket and because kangaroo meat is actually really good for you (It's nearly fat free and has lots of protein and iron in it) we thought we would try them. It turns out that they're pretty tasty, like a really flavoursome beef burger. It was definitely nicer than the guinea pig in Peru!

Australian Internet

Just a quick one to say that I'm up in Cairns at the moment and wifi isn't as easy to find so it may be a few days or so between blog entries.

I'm currently making the most of the free wifi at the place where we've gone for our fish and chip dinner. That means updating on here, frantic checking of Facebook and emails and downloading of football and Radio 1 podcasts (To keep up with what's happening at home) all before we've eaten everything and have to leave!

Spot The Fish

In this photo you can find the most venomous fish on the entire planet, the stonefish! Can you see it?

Stonefish can kill a person and are the second highest cause of anti-venom injections in Australia, behind snakes. That means they hurt more people than spiders! One diver who had been stung said the pain was so bad that before getting the anti-venom he would rather have had his leg chopped off!

Spotted it yet? If not, here's a clue: it's quite large, in the middle of the photo and you can see where it get's it's name from.

A Peculiar Creature

The creature in this photo is so unusual that when explorers first took a body of one back to Europe people thought it was a fake made from different parts of different animals! It is called a platypus and it can only be found in Australia. The one in this photo is called Jackie.

Jackie may look like she has odd eyes but they are, in fact, closed. Platypus close their eyes, nostrils and ears when swimming and use electrical impulses to find their way about underwater. The bizarreness doesn't stop there though; the males are the only venomous mammals on the planet and the females are one of only two mammals that lay eggs (The other is the echidna)!

I was really excited at the prospect of seeing a platypus here in Australia so I'm super chuffed that one was swimming about at Sydney Aquarium today!

Did You Know?: A baby platypus is called a puggle.