Australia – “the land upside down”

Australia is paradoxical and unlike any of the things people are familiar with. The most important oddity is that this is the youngest country, located on the oldest continent in the world. This unique country, occupying the entire continent and not bordering anyone.

Despite the fact that Australia is approximately the same size as Europe, its population concentration is the smallest in the world. There are only two and a half people per square kilometer. The coasts of Australia are surrounded by jungle, and seals and penguins, coming to visit from Antarctica, caress off the cape.

Only for the location of Australia, the northern inhabitants called it “the land down under”. Many things look different here. The moon, for example, hangs upside down, which immediately catches the eye; winter runs from June to August, and summer from December to February. If you go to the north of the Green Continent, it will become warmer, and vice versa.

The climate here is arid, but this did not prevent development agriculture. The sown areas are simply huge, which compensates for the scarcity of harvests. And the harsh climate did not prevent Australia from leaving intact a diverse flora and fauna with rare plants and animals. Residents of Australia in most cases live in megacities, but are constantly in contact with nature. Major cities connect with the bushland and its inhabitants. The local population takes care environment. On the streets major cities You might see a parrot, a bat or large insects. At the entrance to the Royal botanical garden there is an inscription, so unusual for a Russian tourist, calling for walking on the grass, sniffing flowers, hugging trees and talking with birds. There are twice as many kangaroos here as there are people, and their union is full of love and harmony.

Australia is also considered the smallest continent; you can travel around it by car in just seven days. But at the same time there are diverse climatic zones and landscapes. In the center and west are the deserts: Gibson, Victoria, Simpson and Great Sandy. Huge deserted spaces where you can only meet camels. The desert intersects with the steppe, in the middle of which the Uluru mountain range, considered sacred, has grown. In eastern Australia, coastal lands with large cities are separated from deserts by the Great Dividing Range. Jungle and eucalyptus groves stretch along it. The Bolshoi River stretches along the coast barrier reef- a protected area that is an object of global importance. Its length is more than two kilometers, so it can be seen even from space. In the south of the mainland there are salt marshes and crystal clear reservoirs, rocky shores.

The Northern Territory is considered the most amazingly beautiful place in Australia with its untouched landscapes, many waterfalls and mangrove forests, marshy areas and seven-meter crocodiles.

Australians are also mysterious, kind and broad-minded, just like their country, “the land upside down”...

Far, far away Australia! We finally got there!
And why upside down, because for them the summer months are winter, and the winter months are summer!

About 2 years ago, I came across a very interesting cruise option that departs from Sydney. Then the idea arose to visit kangaroos in Australia and Oceania: New Caledonia and Vanuatu.
First, we booked a cruise, since we needed to adjust to its dates, then we bought tickets and started planning the trip itinerary, what we wanted to see in Australia. Travel dates from February 14 to March 8 (cruise from February 22 to March 6).
For Australia we had a week before the cruise and 3 days after the cruise, for a total of 10 days.
We decided to fly with Emirates because it was the cheapest option and we really like the airline. Flight 20 hours, plus connection in Dubai at 4.30. The flight back from Sydney to Dubai took 15 hours! This was our longest non-stop flight
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To visit Australia you need a visa. Nowadays they don’t paste it into your passport, they send it by mail, you print it out and show it if necessary. No one has ever asked us; they can see everything in the database.
The documents were submitted on October 24, 2014, and visas were received on November 6, 2014. Almost 2 weeks. They asked for a cartoon because... We are going on a cruise leaving the country, and they gave it to us, with the last entry date being April 6th. We can stay in the country for 3 months. It turns out that they submitted it almost 4 months in advance.
What was handed over:
1. Application forms in English, with a photo attached.
2. Copies of foreigners (personal data)
3. Copies of valid and expired visas, and visas from an old foreigner.
4. Certificate from my husband’s work and my son’s certificate from university.
5. Account statements.
6. Copy of property documents.
7.Copy of insurance for the entire period (returned, not required)
8.Copies of air tickets and purchased cruise.
9. Itinerary for the entire trip, and what we want to see in Australia.
10. Copies of birth and marriage certificates (not translated into English)

We didn’t register at the embassy because... paid by card. In each form, they indicated a personal email and credit card numbers, and asked if it was possible to withdraw from one of them, since we were traveling together. The money was withdrawn, as they said, after lunch, on the same day. Submitting the documents took 15 minutes.
After receiving the visa, I booked hotels on www.booking.com and a car for trips around Australia on www.traveljigsaw.ru.

Australia, state in Southern Hemisphere. It is the sixth largest state in the world by area, and the only state that occupies an entire continent.
The full name of Australia is the Commonwealth of Australia. In addition to the mainland itself, it includes the island of Tasmania and other islands. The capital of Australia is Canberra.
The British Queen is still officially considered the head of state. Her birthday is considered a national holiday in Australia.

The largest city is Sydney, which is where we flew. Sydney Kingsford Smith International Airport is one of the oldest continuously operating airports in the world and the busiest in Australia. The airport was founded in 1920, initially as Sydney Airport, but was renamed in 1953 in honor of one of the pioneers of Australian aviation.
Planning the trip route, and choosing from the fact that we have 10 days available, and also taking into account that the day of arrival was due to fatigue from a long flight, and the last day was not full, because... The flight was at 21.30, we decided what we could see during this period, except for Sydney and its environs. The choice was between GBR and Uluru. In the end, we chose Central Australia, since the flight there was 2.5 times cheaper than to Cairns, and somehow we wanted to see the outback more.
Our plan was this:

15-18.02 Sydney
18-20.02 Uluru
20-22.02 Sydney
22.02-06.03 Cruise
06-08.03 Sydney

Hotels in Sydney are expensive, and if you are driving, you don't necessarily need to stay there. I booked a hotel in Parramatta, and it was 3 times cheaper than a hotel of the same chain in central Sydney. More precisely, this is not a hotel, but Meriton Serviced Apartments.
The city of Parramatta is located 28 km west of Sydney on the banks of the Parramatta River. It, like Sydney, was founded in 1788 by the British and is the oldest inland European settlement in Australia.
By car, from Sydney to Parramatta, we traveled from 40 minutes to 1 hour, depending on traffic, on the approach to Sydney.
We lived in these apartments 3 times. The first time, when we arrived, the second, after Uluru, the third, after the cruise. The rooms had 2 bedrooms, and two duplexes. 2 bathrooms, fully equipped kitchen, washing and drying machines, safe, balcony, in general, everything you need. There is underground parking and a swimming pool next to it. Another thing that was very convenient for us, near the reception, there is a luggage storage room, and it’s free. We left extra suitcases behind twice, when we flew to Uluru and when we were on a cruise.
There is a ferry terminal next to the apartments, from which you can sail to Sydney in 1.5 hours.
Here are some photos of the apartments and surrounding area.

Sydney can be seen from the balcony.

Traveling around Australia! (Continued)

In the heart of the continent, in national park ErseMount Olga, among the desert plateau rises the red sandstone monolith Uluru an Aboriginal shrine and the most unusual attraction of Australia. Its height is 348 meters, its perimeter is 9 kilometers. Nearby you can see the no less famous Olga massif, consisting of 36 stone domes, corroded by gorges and valleys

Australia is a paradoxical place, full of strange, unlike anything else. Let's start with the fact that one of the youngest countries is located on one of the oldest existing continents in the world. Moreover, this is the only state that occupies an entire continent and does not border “on land” with any other. Comparable in area to Europe, Australia is the least populated part of the world, with 2.5 people per square kilometer. Vast uninhabited territories are home to the most ancient mammals, marsupials, which have hardly changed over millions of years. Wild jungle surrounds the coastal areas, and penguins and seals swim here from Antarctica at the headlands at the southern tip of the continent.…

Generally speaking, the paradoxical nature of Australia is “given” by its very location: residents of the North inevitably seem to think that in the Southern Hemisphere “everything is the other way around.” Hence the nickname of the Green Continent the land down under, “the land upside down.” No, of course, people don’t walk around Australia upside down, but many things that are familiar to us look different here. The disk of the Moon, for example, is actually visible “upside down.” June, July and August are officially called winter, and December, January and February are officially called summer. It is not surprising that in such a strange place, as you move to the north it becomes warmer, and to the south it becomes colder. Obeying the Coriolis force (the deflecting force of the earth's rotation), the river waters wash away the left banks more strongly, and the eddies and sea currents spin clockwise.

Australia's dry climate does not hinder agricultural development. Modest harvests are more than compensated by the huge sowing areas and their good irrigation through a network of canals

According to geologists, the origin of the “Australian phenomenon” began in the Mesozoic, with the supercontinent Gondwana, of which it was a part along with Africa, South America, India and Antarctica. Gondwana broke up, and Australia, left alone, began to slowly drift north. And the further it moved away from the South Pole, the drier its climate became. Over millions of years of “drought,” most of the rivers disappeared from the mainland, and the winds blew away entire mountain ranges. Today it is the flattest and “low-water” continent on Earth, more than half of which has been swallowed up by a poisonous red desert, or, as the locals call it, the outback (“uninhabited”). Inland there are almost no sources of water; the few “cries” dry river beds are filled with moisture only after rare downpours.

But, despite the generally difficult climate and poor soils, Australia has retained an amazing diversity of flora and fauna, and the vast majority of species are found only there.

This highly urbanized country, where more than 80% of the population lives in large cities, at the same time maintains a unique balance between man and nature. Megacities have merged with the surrounding bush (shrub zone) and its inhabitants, and local residents are very careful about surrounding nature, literally considering her family. Multicolored parrots, bats and huge insects flit around in abundance in the heart of Sydney, and a sign at the entrance to the Royal Botanic Gardens reads: “Please walk on the grass! Smell the flowers! Hug trees and talk to birds!” Animals reciprocate with people: twenty million people and forty million kangaroos coexist in complete harmony…

Australia is the smallest continent. It can be crossed by air in four hours and by car in a week. But despite its modest size, its climatic and landscape diversity is as great as anywhere else in the world. In the west and in the center there are huge deserts: the Great Sandy, Gibson, Victoria, Simpson. Hundreds of kilometers of deserted spaces, marked only by the paths of wild camels. Blood-red dunes echo the sun-scorched steppe, and in the middle, like a stone carelessly thrown from the sky, rises the Uluru mountain range, sacred to the indigenous population. In the east, the Great Dividing Range separates the desert from the fertile coastal lands where Australia's main cities are located. Tropical jungle stretches along the ridge, interspersed with eucalyptus groves. On the seaward side, stretching 2,300 kilometers along the east coast, lies the Great Barrier Reef, a natural site of global importance and one of the most important biosphere reserves on the planet. It is so large that it is visible even from space. The south of the continent is occupied by endless salt deserts and lakes sparkling with crystals, generated by the ancient sea. And the unprotected southern coast is cut into pieces by the waves of the Indian Ocean in the form of bizarre cliffs and rocks.

The southern state of Victoria is one of the most populated, but its “outback”, wherever you look, is completely filled with endless lakes and swamps

But the most picturesque place in Australia, by universal recognition, is the Northern Territory with its pristine nature: waterfalls and impenetrable mangroves, swamps and 7-meter crocodiles. Here, in Kakadu National Park, the most interesting Aboriginal paintings in the country are shown.

The prosperity of Australia, one of the twenty richest countries in the world, depends largely on natural resources and minerals. Thanks to money and the abundance of land, Australians live much more freely than Europeans - in large houses of their own, which are not always locked at night. In their cities and buildings they embody everything best achievements modern civilization, while at the same time developing a unique, incomparable architectural style. But people with their cities, cars and houses are still a rare phenomenon in Australia. Two hundred years is by no means sufficient time to populate and develop even the smallest continent.

Anton Bogdanovich

In the opposite corner of the map, at the southern tip of our world, there is amazing country Australia. Many people jokingly call it “the country in reverse.” Judge for yourself: this is the largest island on the planet and the smallest continent at the same time, for everyone learning English (that is, for almost everyone in general) - this is the most familiar country in this region, and at the same time it is one of the most mysterious English-speaking countries. countries

Strictly speaking, even successful study English language in the British and American versions, popular for studying with us, does not guarantee you quick language adaptation on the green continent. On the other hand, the same problems will await you in English-speaking South Africa or Pakistan, and even in England itself outside London, somewhere in Newcastle or Plymouth. Australian English is indeed somewhat different from the English we are used to. This is due to the fact that, in view of the well-known peculiarities of the formation of the population of this British colony, the English of future Australians initially differed from the pompous eloquence of London literary and tea salons, and the English language in Buckingham Palace or Parliament. If anyone has forgotten, then Australia, thanks to its geographical location“in the middle of nowhere” was conceived as a kind of British Siberia, where notorious criminals, heroes of Dickens novels and gold-digging adventurers were sent for re-education. In short, the basis of the Australian version of the English language, or as it is usually called “strine” (strine) from the manner in which Australians pronounce the name of their homeland, was “Cockney” - the language of the lower social classes, London’s not the best areas, such as Soho, later Cockney received a decent I brought English from the Emerald Isle (Ireland), which ultimately led to the current difference between what is formally one language in London, New York, Johannesburg and Sydney. When it comes to Australian English, there is some good news. In Australia there is very little regional language variation and the "strines" of Melbourne, Sydney or Adelaide will vary very little. In any case, the difference in urban English from different parts of the continent is much less noticeable than the language of Melbourne and its rural suburbs.

Well, God be with him, with the “strine”. The only country The green continent is rich not only in its language and criminal history, but also... by the way, about the criminal genes of Australians. “Country on the contrary” - remember? Today Australia is one of the safest countries in the world. For example, according to statistics, in the period from 2004 to 2007 in Sydney there were... just over 4 murders per 100 thousand population, and Melbourne even surpassed this already amazing statistics - less than 3 murders per the same hundred thousand population over the same period !

Australia's main treasure is its nature. Due to the fact that the light took the longest to get here European culture, we can find here many rarities that are no longer available anywhere else. Kangaroos and the untouched forests and deserts of these places have truly become a symbol of the country.

Another enduring value of this corner of the Earth is its local population. The fact is that the Australian aborigines did not know civilization before the Europeans came here. In the 19th and 20th centuries, they became unique material for historians and anthropologists, from which scientists reconstructed the way of life of our ancestors, their social structure, economic relations, religious beliefs, etc. Here Australia once again confirms its image as a “country in reverse”. Today it is one of the most developed countries in the world and can rightfully bear the title of “window to the past,” showing the world its history, like an album with photographs, and it must be said that, judging by these “photographs,” the past was truly beautiful.

The country is upside down. Australia

Her whole life is moving in reverse: winter is beginning here, and New Year greeted in the heat. The North Star and the Big Dipper are not visible from here. Instead, the constellation southern cross points the way, not to the north, but to the south. The original name of the country was Australasia, that is, South Asia, and when it turned out that it was not an overgrown island, but a separate continent, the country began to be called simply South.

Geographical maps here like to be drawn upside down, so that Australia is at the top and the rest of the world is at the bottom. You cannot take a piece of coral from here and you cannot come here with dirty shoes. Here plants are protected as living beings, and breeding rabbits results in a huge fine or prison. Here kangaroos hop on left-hand drive roads, and trains are made from trucks.

Australia is often compared to America: the same cauldron of peoples and traditions that was brewed by convicts and adventurers, the same war with the local culture, now so carefully protected, the same illusion of limitless freedom.

But Australia is unique, if only because its inhabitants feel a little chosen - they live on a solid piece of land, almost on their own planet, and consider us all antipodes.

Melbourne is a city created for life, where people do not run to their work, but leisurely spend time, enjoying life in every possible way.
If you describe Melbourne in one word, the word that immediately comes to mind is “serene”.

Famous Australian road signs flash before our eyes all over the continent. Sometimes it seems that there are more signs than the animals themselves

Grand Pacific Drive is a scenic stretch of road towards Sydney.

Bondi Beach is the most popular beach in Sydney.

Sydney - largest city Australia, spread over 12 and a half thousand square kilometers, is the capital of the state of New Wales. The history of the city began with a small settlement in Sydney Cove, which grew to four and a half million people. Sydney's population is largely composed of immigrants of varying degrees of settlement, different nationalities and diss.

The city of Gold Coast is a resort metropolis in Australia, very reminiscent of Miami in spirit.

Brisbane is an even more relaxed city than Melbourne.

This place is called Rainbow Beach, a beach that turns into all the colors of the rainbow at sunset.

And this is Whitehaven beach, the most beautiful beach in Australia, one of the 10 best beaches in the world.

There are many unique animal species here. In Australia in large quantities live platypuses, echidnas, kangaroos, wallabies, kangaroo rats, opossums, koalas, wombats, Australian bandicoots, marsupial mice.
This is the home of the dingo dog. Australia is home to a huge number of reptiles. There are 100 species of poisonous snakes and 70 species of sharks here.
In Australia alone you will see giant termites and 700 species of birds.

The kangaroo deservedly bears the title of the main symbol of Australia. Kangaroos on the coat of arms, kangaroos on stamps, half of Australian souvenirs are somehow related to these animals. According to legend, a sailor, seeing a kangaroo, asked a local aborigine what this strange monster was in front of him. The native replied “ken guru,” which meant “I don’t understand.” Whether this is true or not is not known for certain, but it sounds beautiful...

About kangaroos with humor

Despite the fact that most people consider the kangaroo to be a kind and sweet creature, in fact, the most common type of kangaroo, red kangaroos are huge (1.5-2 meters tall) frostbitten monsters with a criminal muzzle and prison manners. At the zoo, their main occupation is either squatting or lying on their backs, scratching themselves in one place
During the mating season, kangaroos fight among themselves for the possession of the most attractive females, and therefore, having met you in the forest, the male may think that you want to take his kangaroo away from him and attack you with his fists. The guide advises in such cases to fall on your back and shout: “Kangaroo, you are a real man, I am not worthy of your woman!”