Lets face it Australia has a fair few things that would make it onto anyones bucket list. These things are usually of the more fun, interesting, travel related variety. However there are a few items that whilst they are unlikely to be on many peoples bucket lists, they do give you a few great stories.
1) Get Stung By A Jellyfish
Australia is full of critters that bite and sting, so receiving a “gift” from one of these is in essence a quintessential Australian experience, right? Quintessential, possibly, painful, definitely.
We spent a few days around Batemans Bay, a beautiful coastal town 4 hours south of Sydney. With stunning beaches its not surprising that there are quite a few decent snorkelling spots.
Late one afternoon we headed over to snorkel around the beautiful Guerrilla Bay. Around the rocks along the edges of the beach there was plenty of marine life. Including a couple of huge groupers, an extremely large stingray and scores of other fish. We’d brought a go pro a few days earlier in Melbourne and I was able to catch all of this on our camera, excellent!
After snorkelling for 20 minutes or so I decided to head back to the beach so Miranda could pull on her goggles and go for a nose around. As I swam back I was still looking at the fish below me. Sadly I was so engrossed in this that I failed to avoid swimming face first into a large blue bottle (jellyfish). Although I was unable to see it, our go pro managed to capture the moment I was stung.
I swam back to shore with my arms, hands and face completely numb all the while pulling the tentacles off of my shorts and t-shirt. After driving home and jumping in a hot shower the pain quickly disappeared. Take note, peeing on the affected area will not work. Fortunately the sting of a blue bottle is not particularly venomous, and whilst painful it is not life threatening.
In case you are wondering, the photo at the top is me pulling one of the tentacles from my t-shirt.
2) Come Face to Face With a Huge Spider
Following on from our first badge of honour this second one is also related to Australias wildlife.
It’s no secret that that Australia has a number of large and thusly pretty scary looking spiders. On our second day in Tasmania we were preparing to leave Hobart to drive to Port Arthur when I heard Miranda scream. I just assumed she had seen a tiny bug (she is frightened of moths, ladybirds and butterflies). However on the floor of our car was a huge huntsman. Miranda ran inside to find anything to get him out whereas I tried to flick the little guy out of the car. 30 seconds later my plan had failed the spider had run back into the car and Miranda came back with a set of garden sheers.
Our little friend returned to visit us 3 days later as we drove to Freycinet. However this time was half way up my window on the inside of the car as I was driving at close to 100km/h. Cue nearly driving off the road, because I am not a fan of spiders. I wound the window down, hoping he’d fall to the outside, which thank goodness he did! It was then a race between him and the window, would the window close or would he get back in the car? Fortunately the window closed first and our eight legged friend headed off to pastures new.
A fantastic story, but for the next few days I kept feeling like it was on me.
3) Get fined for something
Singapore is known as the place in the world where you can get fined for anything, however it seems Australia isn’t far behind. Not wanting to miss out on this one I managed to land myself a $257 parking fine in Sydney.
I managed to park in a no parking zone, sadly the sign was obscured from view and there were dotted white lines indicating roadside parking along the length of the road. I was only parked there for 15 minutes as I unloaded our stuff into our air bob. Sadly that was enough time for a rather smug meter mate to nab another victim.
