Last day and return

28/06/2015
The last day, i returned to Sydney. The morning, i went to the taronga zoo (yes, i really like zoos). They were a lot of animals i didn't know before : the quokka (marsupial),a rakali (an amphibian rodent), a bandicoot(a marsupial too),and a lot of birds. I saw kangarous and two other animals that i realy liked : the echidna and the lyrebird. The two echidneans species are with the platybus, the only mamals who lay egs. The echidna look like a hedgedog, but bigger. It can dig wery well. Curious fact : the echidna female haven't nipples, they produce milk in their stomack and it goes out throught the skin pores.

















And for the lyre bird bird let me show you why it's amazing. This one has been near to the zoo construction work.

At midday, i took my meal at the Sydney Tower, which is 309 meters tall. I trieded kangaroo meat (i told you i would try it !)

It looks like steak, but has a very strong taste (too be honest, i didn't liked it very much, but at least i trieded). Next step : crocodile meat !













The view from the tower

The evening, i prepared my things. The fly was at 5 p.m and i arrived at New York this mornong. Australia was a wonderfull place with only one problem : live is very expensive (Sydney is the fifth most expensive city in the world). Howewer, i want to go there again !
I you can do this experience, do it ! You will came back wiser and with good memories for all your live.
Pablo

my travel

26/06/2015

I finished my tree weeks travel. The first day, we went to the Blue Moutains, who are near to Sydney (50 km). It took us less that an our to go there. I was with Sarah Temple, a 26 years old Australian women who studies the koalas, and John White, a 30 years old british scientist who study the rare long-noosed potoroo. My job was to help them to count the mamal population of the moutains. We were one of the many groups who walked on the moutain at night, trying to be as sneaky as possible, searching for koalas who had an tracking collar. The information of the collar helped us to know where they were the last six months and what were they doing. I only managed to find two koalas in three days, but i find another thing : a Blue mountain water skink, a specie of endangered lezard. I also couls hear dingos when i was trying to sleep.












The skink was so fast i couldn't take a photo, so i searched one in internet

After the three days in the blue moutains, i went to the Great Coral Reef with two scientist who are trying to preserve it. The travel was one day long, aand finally whe arrived to Townsville (very original name...). The great barrier reef is the biggest living structure of the world : 344 400 km². It can be see from space, unlike the Chinese Wall(it's a legend) : that show how big it is. Unfurtunatly, it's bisapeatring because polypse (animals of the familly of jellyfish who look like worms and form corals) can't tolerate global warming and are being eated by starfish ( you can't believe it when you see them, but they are graeat predators). My job was to see the progresion of white corals (dead coral) and if i saw trash, to clean it. The coral reef is very clean, because of a strict reglementation, so it wasn't very hard.

                                                                                                            One of these horrible starfishes

A lionfish. NEVER,NEVER touch it, exept if you want to comit suicide. In nature, beautiful colours =i'm venenous (or at least i want you to think that so you will let me in peace).













A giant clam, the bigest bivalve molusc of the world.

A christmas tree worm. For me, it looks like all exept a christmas tree.

















We stayed a week in Townsville and then i went to Kakadu national park, in the Northen territory. It's a reserve which include six landforms and more that 12000 species (10000 are insects).  It's one of the first places where non-Aboriginals people arrived to Australia. I stayed there a week too, and i helped the park guards to preserve the wildlife : kangarous, wallabyes, wallaroos (that's an original name too...). I even could see wallabyes from near. Now, I am in Sydney again and i will left tomorow

An aboriginal peinture



















                                                No swimming !























A wallaby. I had to take the photo from far away to not scare him ( or her?) so the quality is quite bad

My first impression

My first impression


08/06/2015

Hello everyone. My name is Pablo. I'm doing a gap year (even if it's only tree weeks) in Australia for preserving natural wildlife and i will share this experience with you.

I've take the plane from New York, and after an escale in Sao Paulo, and 18 hours of trip, i'm here. I'm a bit nervous : it's the first time i'm separated from my familly for so long, but it isn't so much time, so i think i will be fine. I'm in Sydney now and i'm amazed by the beautifful buildings like the opera.






                                                                                                                             The opera


It's cold because it's winter : i wanted to go in Ausralia during the colder season, so it won't be too hot in the interior. I will also try Australian food. Until now the only think that i've eat here is meat pie, one of the typical foods. I sweer to myself that i will try kangaroo food. The meat pie was good : like it's name show, it's a meat pie. It's generaly served with fries and ketchup and you can find it in every restaurant or fastfood. Tomorow, i will visit the city : the royal botanic garden and the Sydney aquarium, and the next day i will start my trip in Australlia. Good nigt !

09/06/2015    

I have visited the city today. I first went to the royal botanic garden. I've seen a lot of trees, including Moreton Bay figs, a parasitic tree who stangle it's host tree.

                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                         
                                 The opera view from the garden

The place i liked the most was the aquiarium : they have sharks, platybuses, rays, reefs and       two of my favorites animals : the first is the saltwater crocodile, who is a crocodile who can swim in saltwater, and can be 7 meters long.  These reptiles often kill people.

Rex, the 5 meters saltwater crocodile of the aquirium.

No, I won't give you my food

 The second animal is cutter : it's a dugong, an elephant reelative who look like a seal and it's often called sea cow. The two dugongs of the aquarium, Pig and Wuru, are th only australian dugongs on captivity(there are five dugongs in captivity in the world). the two were separated from their mother, but they not brother and sister. Normaly, they should be set free in wild, but the first try showed that they can't  survive in nature. Wuru is younger but 2 times bigger that Pig, because she his a female (female dugongs are bigger). Goodbye !