I think I'm only gonna write about Australia this week. Why? Because it kinda rules. I like to think of Australia as England's South. We have our South in the US, with the cowboys and wildlife and adventurers and rednecks and great home cookin' and dodgy race relations and all that... Well, Australia's kinda of the same. They've got cowboys too, and their accent is a British one via Texas, in a way. Great food, scary outback residents, crazy animals, walkabouts for years on end, and questionable civil rights for the Aborigines (who were considered in the flora & fauna category of the land up until 1963 or something)...
But I do love Australia. And they are pretty badass there. Recently, a surfer got bit by a little shark, and it wouldn't let go, so he drove all the way to the hospital with it attached to his leg. I guess there, they just clubbed it off or something. And now this:
CANBERRA, Australia - A surfer fought off a seven-foot shark with his board at an Australian beach Saturday, and then continued surfing, a life guard said.
The surfer, Simon Letch, returned to Sydney's Bronte Beach 30 minutes after surviving the attack with a replacement board, despite the beach being closed because of the danger, life guard Aaron Graham said.
"He was pretty calm about it, very laid back," said Graham, who was on the beach when the surfer, aged in his 30s, rode his damaged board in.
Now, in California, there are the occasional shark attacks, but we're talking like once every other year or something. In Australia, they've got netting around the popular beaches to keep sharks out, because they are always in abundance. In fact, this guy got lucky: the last attack in Oz happened a month ago when a shark tore a snorkeler in half. Then, within a week span in December, 2 folks got it on Australia's east coast.Either no fear - or really dumb. It's a Darwin thing, I guess. Ask me if I went into the ocean when I was in Australia. (Uh, that would be No.)
