I’m posting this a day late, but in the US it’s still January 26th (or it was when I started writing this), so it’s all good.
Australia Day is the official national day of Australia. Celebrated annually on 26 January, it marks the anniversary of the 1788 arrival of the First Fleet of British ships at Port Jackson, New South Wales, and the raising of the Flag of Great Britain at Sydney Cove. (If you visit Wikipedia, you’ll find this word for word!) What this means is that most businesses were closed today. So I played with horses, broke a lawnmower, and burned some fish fillets. Woo hoo!
The Australia Tourism Board recently pulled an ad it had invested $15 million dollars into, simply because the timing was very, very bad. The video featured Kylie Minogue and other celebs, picturesque scenes of beautiful places, and idyllic tableaus showcasing cute animals, but this was all set against the real life backdrop of news reports featuring burning koalas and horrifying fires. People were a bit incensed that the tourism board seemed to be so insensitive to what was happening and attempting to sell the idea of heaven when it had become a real life hell for the local people and animals trying to outrun infernos that could move far faster than they could. (Just the physics of these blazes was terrifying). Even though the ad had been rolled out long before anyone realized the true scope of the catastrophe unfolding before them, the backlash quickly signaled those in charge to pull the ad out of respect.
All the same, Australia remains a unique and beautiful place to be and there really is much here worth feeling attached to. The fires won’t last forever, but this place will. You should really come have a look at it someday.
We now return you to your regular series of chronological travel posts.
