Adventures With Uluru
~* Adventures With Uluru *~
G'daymates! I'd be Uluru, the world trekkin' koala bear.
I am originally from the land down under, the land of OZ. You may know it as Australia. Australia is a huge island, I would reckon almost the size of the U.S.A., it be way down south, passed the equator. Australia's eastern shore is the Tasman and Coral Seas of the southern Pacific Ocean. To the west, the Indian Ocean stretches thousands of mile to the dark continent of Afrika. And south of OZ you will find the chilly Southern Ocean, and beyond that, the ice covered continent of Antarctica (and all dem pesky penguins). Offshore of the northeast corner of Oz you find the Great Barrier Reef. 200 km southeast, is a piece of OZ that broke off about 20,000 years ago, it's a wild and woolly place called Tasmania and it be overrun with devils! And in the middle of OZ, where the Aborigines or Anangu live, is a really really big red rock, I reckon the biggest pebble in the world actually - 350 meters tall and 9 km around! The Anangu named it after me - Uluru! ... or maybe it's the other way around ...
Some people think that because Australia is down under, that Aussies, as the folks from OZ are known, are upside-down. Well mate, that may be true of some of them, but most Aussies stand upright just like you. Well 'cepting if they been down at the pub getting they's necks oiled wid de mates. Now, me being a koala bear and all, I am known to get me self upside-down in me favourite eucalyptus tree from time to time, usually after I've eaten a lot of eucalyptus leaves which gives me a buzz sort of like when you blokes scull beer at the pub! Sometimes I eat too many eucalyptus leaves and fall out of me tree ... tee hee.
I was born in Sydney, the largest city in Australia and the host of the 2000 summer Olympic games. Sydney's not the capitol of OZ, but it is a really big and sprawled out place, and it's the capitol of the province of New South Wales. Now remember how some blokes think we Aussies stand on our heads all the time, well some of them think we're all criminals down under too. It's not true, well maybe a bit... You see, Sydney and some other places, like Port Arthur on Tasmania, were founded by Mother England as penal colonies in the early 1800's...so right, many Aussies are descendants of former criminals! But not me, I'm full bloody Koala!
There's not a lot of chances for career advancement being a Koala Bear. Pretty much just eat eucalyptus leaves and fall out of the tree occasionally. Well there is making koala size jellybeans on the ground, and making little koala bears (that's fun! tee hee), but that's 'bout it. I'd heard tales of the outback and e'en the back-o-beyond, which is way way past the outback. Hearing all this, I got me a fair dinkum wanderlust. So's one day this Yankee backpacker bloke lobbed through Woollongong, he'd just jumped the ditch from Kiwiland into OZ. He'd be a bit knackered and was napping in the park under me favourite tree. So while he be catching a little kip, I snuck down from me tree and hid way down inside his kit.
Well it's been yonkers now, five and some years, since I crawled into his backpack and we'd become fast mates. He'd been bloody well surprised when he found me furry little arse in his kit, but he let me settle in. Together, we been way past e'en the back o' beyond. All told it be 39 countries so far that we've walked about, and more to come for certain. So maybe this should be named after him, Adventures with MrBill ; but since I'm the one telling the tales, this patch will be known as "Uluru's Adventures"!
I gotta go find me some eucalyptus leaves to munch,
so check me back later mates for more tales.
ava g'day mates – Uluru
Please note: As someone is sure to point out - Koalas are not true bears (Ursidaes). Koalas are members of the Australian marsupial family, along with: wombats, kangaroos, Tasmanian devils, wallabies, and several other animals that are indigenous to Australia. Marsupials are noted for raising their infant young in pouches located on their belly.
However, the "Koala" (Phascolarctos Cinereus ) was introduced to the world by late 18th and early 19th century British explorers and adventurers as "Koala Bear" based not on the koala's zoological genealogy, but rather their appearance, being that koalas looked like "bear" cubs.
As for Uluru, this is all moot, because he is actually of the zoological genealogy of "KoalaBearis StuffedAnimas" and is in fact closely related to the Teddy Bear! I hope this helps clarify names, classifications, and journalistic prerogatives that are used in "Uluru's Adventures".
