Monday, May 28, 2012

Of all the places

Of all the Australian cities, sites and natural wonders that Bryson visits, which would you most like to see?
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4 comments:

Erin said...

Wow, that's a hard question. His description of how beautiful Sydney's harbor is really made me want to go there. And the Great Barrier Reef sounded really neat. (I've always wanted to go there anyway.)

But I was especially captivated by his description of Uluru/Ayers Rock. I loved how he said it was just a big rock but they couldn't stop staring at it, how it changed in the changing light and looked different up-close. It reminded me a little of Delicate Arch, how people just sat there watching it as the sun set. It's just a rock! But enthralling, somehow.

12:08 PM, May 29, 2012
kc said...

I enjoyed all those, too. And his ramblings through Perth on the West Coast. And the strolomites up the coast (Robyn Davidson talks about these a little too in "Tracks" — what magnificent things). And the way he described Melbourne made it seem sort of quaint and prim.

But, yes, the rock. I think that's the thing that most captured my imagination — how people travel to the middle of the country to behold it and how it stuns everyone, even those who think they've developed a certain immunity from seeing it a zillion times on postcards and whatnot.

Davidson, a native Australian, had the same reaction.

"Traveling across that solidified sea of sand was exhausting me, so I decided to ride Bub (one of her camels). And then I saw the thing. I was thunderstruck. I could not believe that blue form was real. It floated and mesmerized and shimmered and looked too big. It was indescribable."

Then she descends a valley and loses sight of it.

"I held my breath until I could see it again. The indecipherable power of that rock had my heart racing. I had not expected anything quite so weirdly, primevally beautiful."

8:15 PM, May 30, 2012
kc said...

Also, he mentioned that he didn't go to Tasmania, but he didn't really say why, did he? That was a bit disappointing to me, as that's somewhere I'd really like to go (and it seems bursting with the kind of offbeat stuff he'd really get into).

8:35 PM, May 30, 2012
Erin said...

Yeah, good point. I wonder why he didn't go to Tasmania. It's right there, for pete's sake. And Tasmanian people are pretty quirky, I think. He would have liked it.

11:03 AM, May 31, 2012

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