From the city to nature

Hi !

     I have had a fabulous experience : visiting Australia for three weeks.

     I arrived at the Airport of Brisbane to go to the Gold Coast which is situated at 94 km. This city, situated along the Pacific Coast, is famous for its tourist suburbs, Surfers Paradise, with its beaches and its shops.

I went to an attraction park, Sea World, which is also a marine mammals park, an oceanarium. It was amazing, I saw a show of dolphins, touched skates and did the attractions “Viking's Revenge Flume” and “Bermuda Triangle”. After this I visited the “Wildlife Currumbin Sanctuary”, it was fascinating! I stroked kangaroos and observed koalas.

     The second week I flew to Sydney, nicknamed “The City” because it's the most populous city in Australia with over 4 million inhabitants, and an international tourist destination. I was staying in Darling Harbour near the city centre. I admired a view of Sidney from the “Sydney Tower” or “Centerpoint” which is an observation and communication tower, it's the second tallest in Australia! It has seven levels and the top floor is 260 m.

I took the boat to see “Harbour Bridge” and “Sydney Opera House”. It was exciting as these are famous monuments ! The first, nicknamed “The Coathanger” due to its arch-based design, is the sixth longest spanning-arch bridge in the world, and it had been the world's widest long-span bridge with 48,8 m until construction of the new “Port Mann Bridge” in Vancouver. The second, one of the 20^th century's most distinctive buildings, was designed by a Danish architect Jørn Utzon between 1963 and 1973. It has an original architecture with its shell form and its white ceramic tiles. That's why it is a UNESCO World Heritage Site since 2007.

After all this I went for a walk in a public aquarium, “Sea Life Sydney Aquarium”, which had huge Lego sculptures !

      During my last week, I flew to Adelaide, rented a jeep, destination: "Uluru". On the way I could admire kangaroos, and I even saw the aborigines from afar, it reminded me that I had met one in Sydney playing music. He told me that for them nature is sacred and that the Europeans on coming here had destroyed it to build their large buildings. He had told me he sang to pay tribute to this fragile and precious nature.

Then I could finally taste the pleasure of admiring this splendid rock so important to the Aborigines. Indeed, this inselberg is really impressive, magnificent. It is sacred for the Aborigines and more particularly for the Anangu, the Aborigines of this area."Uluru" is a name given by them, whereas the foreigners had called it "Ayers Rock". It is situated in the Southern part of the Northern Territory in central Australia, rises to 348 m above the plain and is listed as a UNESCO World Heritage Site.

     I finish thus my story with a gorgeous image of Australia. My next trip ? I can well imagine it China, walking on the Great Wall of China ! See you !

CAMPFORT Marine