Everything that can kill you live in Australia

When I moved to Australia, the common joke was “everything that can kill you live in Australia”… They even have vicious carnivorous koalas also known drop bears… In the first year I spent in Australia, every Australian I met, did the drop bear joke.

It was especially a favorite joke of my brother in law, who even if Australian, grew up in New Zealand, where nothing can kill you… So much so that kiwis  stop flying…

So how is really life in Australia?

When you don’t have to deal with giant cockroach (not deadly but really disgusting) that drops on you from trees (true story, my version of the drop bear), you’ll enjoy a variety of spiders , the big one are actually friendly especially the huntsman , it eats your mozzies and cockroaches, so yeah to them… It’s the little one that are vicious one. I used to scream like a little girl in front of any bugs even an ant… 3 years in Australia made a lot me resilient to bugs!

You also enjoy a variety of sea creatures that can really hurt you, if not kill you. Last week we had several shark alerts in Sydney. My technique is to always have someone swimming further away in the ocean than me. My theory that is that sharks are lazy and will eat the first swimmer which will give me time to swim out of the water 😉

We also enjoy a variety of jelly fish. Getting stung by them is really unpleasant . Contrary to the common accepted theory that peeing on a jelly fish stung will help (made famous by the friends episode), it will be embarrassing but it will do you no good. Vinegar and hot water are the only help you will find. One summer Paul got stung by a sting ray, stepped on a sea urchin, and got stung by a jelly fish. By the end of summer, he did not want want go in water, at all…

I am not even going to mention the snakes and frogs which are highly venomous. Luckily enough I only saw a red belly snake once while camping. He was making a stand in front of the toilets…

If the Australian wildlife has not scared you of, since I have move to Australia there has been, floods, inland tsunami, mini tornados and now Australia is facing a heat wave that started a large number of fires in Tasmania, Victoria and south NSW.

I actually just discovered that Australia had an extra category for fire risks. As far as I was concerned, the fire risk ranged from low to extreme. In Australia, there is an extra category: catastrophic!!!! . Basically when that’s on, you don’t fool around trying to save your house, you get the hell out of there as quickly and as safely as you can.

For all these crazy things you have to deal with, Australia gives you an amazing life style, friendly people, beautiful beaches and many other things that would not me trade it to any other country!!!

Today NSW will hit records temperatures with 43 Celsius forecasts in Sydney, so stay in the cold of your A/C at work, enjoy a night time swim at the beach (it will still 30 C at 9pm), and good luck to all our wonderful firefighters, they’ll need it!