Sail away from beautiful Cairns and Australia, the Land Down Under
We
conclude a marvelous underwater adventure at the Great Barrier Reef with a return cruise
back to the pier where we re board our ship and set course for 5 days
at sea for Guam.
***
We'd like to share our first hand impressions of Australians before we leave Australia.
ALL
Australians have a sense of humor. It must be programmed into their
genes because they love practical jokes and have a comic point of view
about everything.
An example? A quote at the entrance of their
zoo, “This is God’s country. Don’t drive through it like hell.” (I
believe we shared this with you in the last blog.)
Another
example. They have stationery called roo-poo paper. They make a joke
about making this kind of paper into stamps because the paper is made
from Kangaroo dung.
They love to drink, party, and celebrate
life. They’d rather face the consequences later, whenever later is. If
it gets rough at the end, they’ll make a joke about that, too.
If
you ever believed that Australia was all outback, think again. They
have a metropolis in Sidney that rivals New York (but not quite).
The
only thing Australians are serious about are two things: progress and
the environment. And I critically note, they don’t allow either one of
them to get in the way of the other. Never!
They are the most
progressive “green” government in the world. The whole place is
meticulous--they clean up after themselves, even after they had partied
hard.
Case in point. The largest gay pride parade in the world
(larger than New York or San Francisco) took place the day before our
arrival and by 9 am the next day, the streets were already cleaned up.
Australia is an open culture of great tolerance, except for Aborigines.
The
Aborigines indigenous population suffered the same fate as many
indigenous cultures around the world. They started with 400,000 in the
1700’s and have maintained the same count. How is that possible?
Populations explode, rather than stay the same. You can only guess what
happened when their presence became a hindrance and lands became
confiscated for European growth.
I didn’t see any aborigines in the big city except for (2) musicians playing the didgeridoo in very simple, half-dressed garb.
The
didgeridoo has a deep, guttural sound that obliterates the mind from
“thinking”. Instead, It plays on your primitive senses, long buried
under the rock of habit and conditioning.
Your eyes will inevitably
glaze as the present blurs into something pulsing the subconscious and
threading into those places lost to us. A deep sigh reflects the
connection taking place as they call to us -- the ancients ones. What
we call primitive will ever remind us that we are human, rather than a
toy.
Brigit mentioned that experiencing a didgeridoo massage is
like having a massage of vibrational sound, re balancing your body on a
cellular level.
The Australians don’t use pesticides, at all. Its verboten. To deal with insects, they grow
a
plant that takes care of the pests called, “pyrethrum”--a natural
insect repellent--a daisy-like flower. You can eat Australian produce
without fear of toxicity. They export this miracle plant all over the
world and provide 33% of world non toxic insecticides in place of toxic
alternatives. America -- take note.
Australia is a country that
grows the oriental poppy in vast quantities--in other words, opium is
legally grown. Australia is the leading exporters of morphine. And just
in case you might think of trading your mortgage for a plane ticket to
Australia, they’ve got you beat. They treat the plant where it’s no good
for human consumption--it would make you sick. So, as it turns out,
Australia doesn’t have a drug problem. [Or so they said. We discovered a
local newspaper that made reference to drug busts. So much for first
impressions of hope.] But alcoholism may be another matter. I’ve saved
the latter for statisticians, not for this blog.
You can’t have
the kind of global success that Australia enjoys without organization
and an economy where the people directly participate in it to vouch for
off-the-charts real estate prices around the city. They were never
touched by the global financial crisis. No matter where you go, it’s out
of sight--apartments in the millions. Russell Crowe paid $20 million
for a top floor apartment in a small building overlooking the bay.
Australia
was the first country to get bungee jumping into the mainstream. We
visited the Tower, the tallest building in the Southern Hemisphere and
they had bungee jumping from there! It is a dizzying height. The
difference at this location was that you get strapped in and jump off
the edge and go down at a top speed of 45 miles an hour. A reinforced
wire and harness is the only thing between you and the next lifetime.
The
opera, famous for its architectural design, has become the iconic
symbol of Australia’s progressive culture in the City of Sydney. It’s
budget was originally $8 million, but was finished over a 12-year period
at a cost $104 million. People originally complained and even dismissed
the design and so discouraged the architect that he never came back to
Australia to see it completed when it was accepted.
[I arrived at
the Opera House -- having travelled from the other side of the world,
and a peek at it was forbidden without paying the toll of $38 for the
hour. I had forgotten the cash. At least, a video in the lobby played a
performance and I recorded it, grateful that I could at least experience
it second hand.]
I am reminded that humanity doesn’t
ordinarily have the inner insight of the visionary. The same thing
happened with the Eiffel Tower in France. The populace complained and
complained about the prospective eyesore. And after it was done and over
time, it’s the visionary who knew the passion of grace that transformed
an otherwise dull landscape of metropolis into an experience of art.
Lots of love to you all! We sign off with a quote for the day:
“Travel is more than the seeing of sights; it is a change that goes on,
deep and permanent, in the ideas of living.” – Miriam Beard
Talk to you soon. Love, Brigit and Sophia
*****
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