{"id":25095,"date":"2016-06-01T11:29:10","date_gmt":"2016-06-01T09:29:10","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/peregrinusmundi.com\/en-terre-australienne\/"},"modified":"2020-06-08T13:40:58","modified_gmt":"2020-06-08T11:40:58","slug":"on-australian-ground","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/peregrinusmundi.com\/en\/on-australian-ground\/","title":{"rendered":"On Australian ground"},"content":{"rendered":"\t\t
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I left Japan, one fine day at the beginning of May, to fly to other horizons. After six months in Japan, I have decided to make a detour to Australia before heading for New Zealand. Six weeks in the land of kangaroos to see my parents and discover the country where I was born. The plane took off from Tokyo and I left the land of the samurai with a touch of sadness in my heart. But a violent headache quickly made me forget all that. An invisible hand hammered my forehead and I felt like my skull was going to break at any time. Bad pressure in the plane linked to a completely blocked nose was playing tricks on me. It was actually, as I learned later, the onset of sinus problems that caused me a lot of trouble for the next three years. I arrived in Sydney almost fainting, my ears so blocked that I was almost deaf. It took several days for my ears to return to normal and almost three weeks for my sinuses to deflate a bit and my nose to stop running.<\/p>

Sitting on a terrace enjoying the sun, I found my parents who had arrived in Sydney a day before me. It was the first time for me to walk in my country of birth. I was born in Melbourne on June 7, 1989 while my parents were doing a doctorate. They only stayed two years and I left the country only a few months old and without any memories. Throughout my adolescence, we regularly raised the idea of returning to Australia but it never happened. Distance, time and money were making it difficult for us. But following my decision to leave Japan a little earlier than planned and go to New Zealand, my parents suggested that I take a detour to Australia for a family road trip. It was an opportunity not to be missed. So two weeks of vacation for my parents and a road trip launched.<\/p>

The reunion with my parents is happy although I do not feel very well and I do not hear much. We spend a few days in Sydney walking around the city, the Opera and the harbor. The city is big and pleasant but the sudden return to a “more European” civilization disturbs me a little. After six months surrounded by Japanese signs, calligraphy, temples and shrines, I have a little trouble adjusting myself. An then it is time to leave the city and sink into the outback and off we go at the wheel of a small camper-van to cross the State of New South Wales. Here, in Australia people are driving on the left and my father is slightly tense during the first hours behind the wheel. Fortunately once out of Sydney, the traffic is more fluid and the large expanses of meadows and forests spread out on the sides of the road. Australia has changed a lot since my parents left it, 26 years ago, and a strange feeling linked to not recognizing the place hovers in the air. Added to this are long hours of driving to cover the kilometers, a very small living space and the difficulty for me of getting used to the sudden permanent presence of my parents. All this makes the atmosphere a bit tense and disturbs the experience. It is a shame but it is like that.<\/p>

We reach the Blue Mountains, a mountainous region west of Sydney where we go hiking for several days through the eucalyptus forests and the steep hills. My parents know the area well, they often wandered there when they lived in Australia. The forest is very beautiful, filled with ferns and eucalyptus with colorful barks, some of whose trunks reach spans of several meters wide. In the branches an infinity of birds and parrots sing and feed.<\/p>

Some of the birds have absolutely fascinating songs, resembling bells, alarms or gurgling sounds. A certain type of bird, the Bell Miners also called Bellbirds, are small birds with green plumage living in large colonies. Their song resembles little bells and is used to defend their territory against intruders. One afternoon while we were walking in the forest, an entire colony began to sing, performing an incredible symphony whose echo amplified the tones. It was incredible to listen to. It lasted for hours and when we finally left the area where the birds were, our ears were tinkling a bit.<\/p>\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t<\/section>\n\t\t\t\t

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