Blue Planet 2 Barrier Reef 5

To celebrate the first five episodes so far shown of seven, with therefore two to go, in the Blue Planet second series, here’s five more photos from my dive course on the Australian Barrier Reef in 1989. I’m in the first photo, as I just noticed from my tattoo, but not the others.

I Love Ocean Creatures

I loved the garibaldi fish trying to keep its locality fertile in the last episode, like a human environmentalist or farmer; and the clever octopus, knowing how to defend itself against a lovely looking pyjama shark, using knowledge of shark biology and complex camouflage.

A group of us who travelled up from working in Sydney rented the underwater camera. As well as the stingray I and my dive partner also saw a giant turtle, but didn’t have the camera then.

I would of course return to Oz to write Werewolf of Oz: Fantasy Travel by Google Maps. The latest episode of Australian Wilderness with Ray Mears was in the Walpole Forest, a beautiful big nature reserve, where WoO started; and starred a cute quokka.

Meanwhile, back in Blighty, tonight’s Countryfile focuses on the Cleveland Way mostly coastal path. The walking route I’ve walked the most on in the U.K., with the coastal path my favourite part, although Helmsley to the North Yorkshire Moors was very nice too; the Moors are interesting and an important nature reserve.

Australian Children and Wildlife Surviving Monotheism

In the last blog post I mentioned the book and movie Oranges and Sunshine, which told the story of the Home Children sent from Britain to elsewhere in the Commonwealth, where many had to endure tough slave labour work, as well as abuse. The same kind of poor white children and sexual abuse suffered in Britain from a new wave of monotheism in the last thirty years… as well as elsewhere in Europe.

Another PhD For Me?

I write this because I think it’s relevant, and I couldn’t in university, where important topics like this were considered politically incorrect, and irrelevant topics such as what colour a kiwi is are encouraged, as argued by a recent subject of New Lives in the Wild.

Ironically, with a little self-parody, whether a kiwi is green or yellow is relevant to the greenYgrey world colours, with only grey left out. My sunrise/sunset research declaring the colours predominantly PinkyOrangePurple (POP) rather than red could be another PhD for me, although I’ve probably only done test research so far, and would need to do much more sampling to confirm it.

Monotheism Can Be Interpreted as Nature Destroyer

Often it was at the hands of monotheistic religious institutions such as convents. Animals also suffered much more than under the indigenous pagans, who respected the Earth and animals more, as Native Americans, Native Africans, Native British and Native Europeans did. Some animals went extinct, such as the Tasmanian Tiger.

I don’t know the situation now, and hope the abuse has ended, as the Homes Children project has, and Australia is protecting its wildlife, although I did see a documentary that said many species were losing their habitat due to expanding human communities. It is still a beautiful country though, with lots of wildlife and nature to see.

Australia Wildlife Photos

I had a nice year in Australia in 1989, altogether, but there were some tough times, such as not finding much work in my first few months in Sydney, and malaria (vivax) emerging after I’d stopped taking the tablets after leaving Asia.

I saw some wildlife, including kangaroos and a dingo while passing in a car out in the bush, but didn’t get photos of them. I went to a wildlife centre in Sydney to see others I didn’t see in the wild, such as koalas:

and wombat:

I also did a dive course on the Barrier Reef in Queensland after finishing work in Sydney, and travelling up with a couple of car loads of friends, most of whom did the dive course.

Barrier Reef Diving

Ray Mears Australian Wilderness 

I was reminded of Australia recently when I saw Ray Mears was visiting Nitmiluk, which was somewhere Grey visited on its epic solo fantasy fiction trek by Google Maps told in Werewolf of Oz, and other episodes also followed Grey’s trek, such as Kakadu and Kangaroo Island.

The classic Werewolf of Oz episode featuring Nitmiluk and Kakadu, as well as Humpty Doo, is still available on the greenygrey3.wordpress.com site. It of course stars a creature combining Humpty Dumpty and Scooby Doo:

Marc Latham books available on Amazon.