They say it is the worst summer in 60 years here in Australia, but I think it is better for us, otherwise we wouldn't move a finger because of the heat. We haven't had the best weather since we started in Sidney, but a little shower now and then feels really good to cool down. And without the clouds we couldn't even go to the beach, because our German skin would burn right away.

So, what did we do so far? We travelled 2626 km by bus from Sidney to Cairns where we are right now. Australia is so huge, I uploaded a picture from a postcard where you can see the size of the country in comparison to Europe. What else? The beaches of course. Australia has awesome beaches, really beautiful. They range amongst the most beautiful beaches in the world, but most of the time you cannot go into the water because of the poisonous animals and the sharks. On Fraser Island for instance, you can find 8 of the 10 most poisonous snakes in the world and our guide reminded us several times to not go into the water, because it is jellyfish season and there are several deadly jellyfish in the water....scary!!! They look so tiny and not dangerous at all and they can kill a grown human. Crazy world.

We also visited several national parks, like the blue mountains near Sidney, which are not blue at all as you can see in the pictures, Fraser Island and the Whitsunday Islands, where we snorkeled at the great barrier reef. Wow! So colourful and so many fish!! Unfortunately my camera stopped working in New Zealand while swimming with the dolphins, so we do not have any underwater pictures.

What we expected to see but didn't came across yet, are kangaroos and koalas, the most typical animals in Australia. But apparently the west coast is full of them, at least full of kangaroos. To see some koalas you must be really lucky or go to a zoo. We don't treat them very well by destroying their natural habitat, so unfortunately there aren't many left. Same applies to Aborigines. The white people take over their territories because often they lived in special places which are very beautiful, so people prefer exploring the places touristically instead of letting the native people live their life. Esther and me both have read the book 'Mutant Message Down Under' and despite of telling you how we have to change our way of living if we still want to live on this earth in a couple of decades, it also describes the ending of this one aboriginal tribe. They decided not to reproduce anymore because they sensed that there comes a time when their children will not be able to survive in the desert because for instance of the lack of water and the climate changes due to industrialisation. They don't want to live in a world where people don't listen to their intuition and their natural connection with the earth anymore. They even relocated their most sacred place from the Uluru (Ayers Rock) to an unknown place because for them the rock isn't sacred anymore if thousands of tourists climb it every day. Most of the times, the entrance fee to those national parks goes directly to the Aborigines but still, they don't live there anymore and they cannot do anything with the money because in their traditional way of life, money isn't worth anything and there is no such thing as property. Everything belongs to everybody and is given back to mother earth after use. It's a difficult subject and I'm afraid, I am not going to solve the problem in this blog, but sometimes we all need a reminder of being responsible and aware of what we are doing. Travelling especially is not always done responsibly and sustainably, especially if we are talking of backpackers who always want everything cheaper and cheaper and do not really care what the consequences are. I am not excluding us from those people, on the contrary, we also want to see the most beautiful beaches and forests and don't pay for it.

So we should always think about everything that we are doing in our life. The Aborigines in the book say if you do not know what to do or whether your action is good or bad, there is an easy test how to judge on that: If your action is good for you and everybody who is concerned of it, than it is good to do it, otherwise you shouldn't do it. Your actions always have to promote your happiness and the happiness of others. But don't mix up happiness with pleasure ;).

Wouldn't it be good to be able to live like that? Well I guess it takes a lot of practice and courage, but if we start to think about it, it is a beginning.