Australia : Only the

Kangaroos, you say?

Samy Naïah and Joseph Monnet 1st ES

Queensland, we were here! It was amazing! The journey lasted one day but it was worth! We decided to travel in spring because this is the best season to do many activities, like go surfing, do a lot of extreme sports, go scuba diving or exploring the deep forests, especially in Queensland. Indeed, it makes 78.8 degree Fahrenheit (26 degree Celsius)! The Queensland looks like Florida, in United States, but we prefer the charm of Australia, that’s why we had decided to go there! We arrived in the hotel that we had chosen on Internet: the Hilton Surfer Paradise in Brisbane, between Orchid Avenue and Surfers Paradise Boulevard. It is located at 100 meters from the beach and renowned by a lot of surfers, all around the world. We also met the best surfer of the world, Kelly Slater! With 3 774 292 people, Queensland is highly developed and offers many activities very interesting! We heard by some Australian that Queensland is called “The Sunshine State”, so we decided to go surfing. During our road, we met Kelly Slater, and we had the chance to surf with him! The waves were high and we had our surfboards. A lot of people say that Australia has the most beautiful beach of the world, with 50 000 km of coast, and there isn’t a lot of people. But there is something that gave us a blue fright: when we were surfing we saw a shark at 10 meters. Fortunately, he has not decided to attack. After this great experience, we went to the Tropical rainforest with an Aboriginal guide. Australia’s Tropical Rainforests cover approximately 900 000 square hectares and are recognized as one of the most ecologically natural areas in the world. We saw a lot of different animals: many birds, amphibians and reptiles!

The Great Barrier Reef

The second day, we decided to realize go scuba diving in the Great Barrier Reef! This is the largest coral reef of the world and probably the most beautiful. The Great Barrier Reef Marine Park protected a large part of the reef because the reef has lost more than half its coral cover since 1985, due to human action. To go scuba diving in the Great Barrier Reef, we had to go in the Whitsunday Islands. The Whitsunday Islands is established of many islands of various sizes off the central coast of Queensland, at 900 km of Brisbane. We took a plane to this marine paradise!

When we arrived, we put our wetsuits, the mask and the scuba tank and we dived in the deep water. It was wonderful! There was a surprising number of fish and a magnificent landscape of coral, with many shades of color. This experience is probably the best we lived! According to the guide, we saw a very rare fish, the Largemouth fish! The Aboriginal legend says that this fish appears only once every alignment between the moon, the earth and the sun. This is a legend…We chose this destination because it was one of our dreams, a dream that became real...

New South Wales

After our two day in Queensland, we went to New South Wales in Sydney. In this states, there is 6 200 000 people and the capital, Sydney, is a well-known city in the world! The state is also very versatile in terms of activities. Our hotel was the Grace hotel, located in the middle of the city, in order to visit all the interesting things. We hate the visit in a bus with a lot of tourist who don’t move of their seat, so we decided to rent two Longboard . It is a kind of skateboard, but it allows to move easily in town. Thanks to this, we saw the Opera House, the Harbour Bridge and visit the oldest district of Sydney “The Rocks”. On the 31 December, the fireworks of New Year are fired from the Harbour Bridge, offering a magnificent colorful show! We tried also the bungee jumping in the Harbour Bridge. Before returning to the hotel, we decided to drink a “flat white”, a coffee of New South Wales. On the road, we met two tourists and they asked us if we want to go with them at the Blue Mountain the next day. We accepted and we returned to the hotel.

The Blue Mountain

With our new friends, we went to the Blue Mountain with a guide. The Blue Mountain is located at 104 kilometers west of Sydney and this is one of the most famous mountainous regions in Australia. The predominant natural vegetation of the higher ridges is eucalyptus forest, that’s why the Australian called this mountain “The Blue Mountain”, because of the blue haze created by the eucalyptus oil in the air above the gum forests. We were in spring, so there was not a lot of snow. After having been equipped we started the climb all together. After 1 hours of climbing, a problem appeared. One of the tourists, tired, slipped on a stone, fell and broke his arm. He had to go to hospital as soon as possible that’s why the other tourist abandoned the climb to take his friend back to the town. We continued the climb with the guide, through eucalyptus forests, to the top. Once at the top, we were proud of what we climbed. We had a beautiful landscape in front of our eyes: the clouds were lower than us and we see a large part of the mountain range! During the descent of the Blue Mountain, we saw a family of koala in eucalyptus trees!

Australian Map

Conclusion This was a perfect trip! This is the best experience that we had done in our life! The nature and the landscape of Australia must be preserved to keep the beauty of the country. Australia is a country where there are many beautiful landscapes and where activities, sports or cultural, do not miss! That’s why other people should come to Australia to discover the charm of the territory.