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    Keith's Aussie Jottings
    Keith's Aussie Jottings
    Keith's Aussie Jottings
    Ebook67 pages57 minutes

    Keith's Aussie Jottings

    By Keith Kellett

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    About this ebook

    Assorted personal experiences in Australia, covering wildlife, landmarks and observations on the Aussie way of life. Taken from the author's notes, jottings and blog over a number of visits over many years

    LanguageEnglish
    PublisherKeith Kellett
    Release dateDec 5, 2016
    ISBN9781370148288
    Keith's Aussie Jottings
    Author

    Keith Kellett

    Having written for fun while serving in the Royal Air Force, Keith Kellett developed his hobby into a business when he retired. He has published in many print magazines, and on the Web.With time on his hands, he produced more work, and found, to his surprise, it ‘grew and grew’ and was good enough to finance his other hobbies; travelling, photography and computers. He is trying hard to prevent it from becoming a full-time job!He lives near Salisbury, in the south of England, and is presently trying to get his head around blogging, podcasting and video.

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      Book preview

      Keith's Aussie Jottings - Keith Kellett

      Chapter 1: Parks, Zoos and Reserves.

      Chapter 2: On the Ghan: Darwin to Alice

      Chapter 3: Barossa Valley: Wine and Roses.

      Chapter 4: Whale Watch.

      Chapter 5: Kakadu

      Chapter 6: Who Ate All the Pies?

      Chapter 7: Up and Down at Kuranda

      Chapter 8: Termites!

      Chapter 9: Skinny Dog to Coober Pedy

      Chapter 10: Falls of Water

      Chapter 11: Great Ocean Road

      Chapter 12: The Red Centre

      Chapter 13: Under Down Under

      Chapter 14: Out to the Reef

      This is not a guide book, Guide books can cover whole countries, and, if you buy one titled simply ‘Australia’, you’ll probably only use a tenth of it, if that, Neither will you find here recommendations for the ‘Top Ten’ places to stay/eat/drink/hang out etc. That’s usually a thinly disguised list of the Ten Most Expensive places to stay/eat/drink/hang out, etc, Nor will I give you ‘essential’ information, or stuff you ‘need to know’ In most cases, you don’t need a lot of it, anyway. I’ve also avoided ‘must see’ sights … I’ve just given my impression of things I’ve seen and done, and will leave it to you to decide whether you ‘must see’ them or not.

      So, having told you what it’s not, I’m now faced with the much more difficult task of telling you what it is. I could call it a ‘pot pourri’ or a ‘cornucopia’ … but those words seem rather pretentious.

      I visit Australia often, and picked out some of the sights and experiences I’ve had over the years. Most of them are only lightly adapted from my blog entries, and notes I made at the time … hence … JOTTINGS.

      Chapter 1: Parks, Zoos and Reserves.

      Having read Bill Bryson’s ‘Down Under’, I feel that he did Australia a bit of a disservice. He gave the impression that, if the riptides don’t get you, and you don’t get lost in the desert, there’s deadly wildlife around every corner intent on causing you a lot of pain, if not actually terminating your contract.

      So, let me say … I lived in Australia for four years, and I’ve since visited many times, but I can count the number of snakes I’ve seen in the wild without taking my socks off. Add to that (at the time of writing) one red-back spider, two sharks (one, a harmless wobbegong), and one jellyfish. Sure, I’ve seen quite a few crocodiles, but from a respectable distance. Suddenly, Australia doesn’t seem quite a dangerous place.

      Nevertheless, it doesn’t do any harm to see what such things look like, so, in the unlikely event you see one, you can take the appropriate steps … which, in most cases, are long, fast ones in the opposite direction!

      There’s an exhibition called ‘Dangerous Australians’ in Queensland, near Mount Tamborine. It’s a bit basic, just a few tanks and cages in a tin shed. But, they do the business all right, and I believe the creatures here are milked of their venom to make antivenin.

      There’s also snakes, among many other creatures, deadly and otherwise, at Australia Zoo, on the other side of Brisbane It was founded as a small reptile park by Robert Irwin, and made famous by his son, the late Steve Irwin, and his excellent TV series ‘Crocodile Hunter’. It’s one of the very few places that live up to expectations in every way. It conveys the environmental message very well, as did Steve, in his lifetime. If there's any fault to be found at all, I think maybe the zoo should be fully focussed on indigenous wildlife. There's plenty of emphasis on it here, though; Tasmanian Devils, cassowaries and, of course ... crocodiles.

      There's an interesting exhibit of photos and artifacts called 'The Steve Irwin Story', and the whole presentation makes you think, despite the fact he was killed in 2006, that he's still there.

      Maybe, in a way, he is … at any moment, I expected a figure in khaki, with a broad grin and a disastrous haircut to bounce around the corner holding something deadly by the tail, and uttering one of his catch phrases:

      ‘Crikey! Cop a look at this little beauty!’

      The main attraction was the show at the Crocoseum ... (that’s an arena, sponsored by Discovery Channel’s Animal Planet, where they display some of their animals) … and, of course, the crocodiles.

      .

      It's a pity the tigers and the Komodo Dragon were behind glass, as the reflections were difficult to deal with. But, I suppose it's necessary for safety … in fact, the more glass they can put between me and those guys, the better.

      What we didn’t see was the echidna … I suppose it was hiding under

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