Sergio wraps up his trip to Australia by visiting Matilda the Kangaroo in Sydney. He visits the beautiful beaches, discovers bioluminescence, eats a traditional Aussie snag, and finally gets to hear the beautiful sounds of a didgeridoo in real life! Sergio's adventure with Matilda will be the focus of our new book "The Accent Explorer: G'Day Australia" which will be released in December. If you want to be one of the first people to read it, head to www.theaccentexplorer.com and subscribe to our newsletter. See you next season, Explorer!
Sergio wraps up his trip to Australia by visiting Matilda the Kangaroo in Sydney. He visits the beautiful beaches, discovers bioluminescence, eats a traditional Aussie snag, and finally gets to hear the beautiful sounds of a didgeridoo in real life!
Sergio's adventure with Matilda will be the focus of our new book "The Accent Explorer: G'Day Australia" which will be released in December. If you want to be one of the first people to read it, head to www.theaccentexplorer.com and subscribe to our newsletter.
See you next season, Explorer!
Hi there! It’s me Sergio, The Accent Explorer. Explorer Log: AUSTRALIA, Week Four. I’m finally here, Explorer. Sydney! I’ve traveled thousands and thousands of miles to get here, and let me tell you… it was worth every single step. Let’s not waste another second. Ready for my Top Three Highlights? Here we go!
My first highlight came, of course, when I saw my buddy Matilda again. I ran to her so fast, I probably left a dust cloud behind me! She took me on an incredible day-long journey through the city. We surfed the beautiful blue waves in Bondi, shopped at the special markets in Manly, and made some incredible art on a small seashell. More on this a little later.
My second highlight came when I was invited by some new friends to a traditional Aussie barbeque at Manly beach—that’s one of Sydney’s most popular beaches. These friends cooked up some delicious snags. That’s what Australians call sausages…say it after me! SNAGS (pause). Great job! I placed my snag diagonally on top of a slice of fresh white bread, and topped it with grilled onion and a squeeze of ketchup. Talk about delicious!
Oh, and do you know what was even cooler, Explorer? Once the sun went down, and the beach was blanketed in darkness, we were looking over towards the ocean and we noticed a bright blue light glowing in the water beneath the crashing waves. Do you know what it was, Explorer? It was a cool thing called “bio-lumi-nescence”. Bioluminescence! It turns out there were millions of teeny, tiny organisms in the water that night. And don’t worry, they weren't harmful at all. But each one had spent the entire day soaking up sunlight. Then, at night, they glowed it right back out into the world. It looked like the ocean was sparkling blue, like someone sprinkled magic dust across the water. And Explorer, it only happens a few times a year. I could not believe I got to see it.
That brings us to my third highlight. This one gave me goosebumps. I was walking towards the Sydney ferry terminal when I heard a familiar deep echoing sound in the distance. It was like a low humming sound …MMMmmmmmmm. Can you hum low like that? Hmmmmmmmmm (pause) Great job! I followed the sound, turned a corner, and there it was…it was a real-life didgeridoo! One of the oldest instruments in the whole world!
And sitting right there against a stone wall was an Indigenous Australian man blowing into it. I watched on in awe as this man made all sorts of incredible sounds on his didgeridoo. He made the sound of a kangaroo hopping—boing-boing-boing—the sound of a kookaburra laughing [SFX: Kookaburra], and the sound of a dingo yelping [SFX: gentle yelp]! It was a magic moment with so many incredible sounds. As the man later explained to me, the didgeridoo is like the voice of Mother Nature. I believe him! Every note sounded alive.
And that’s it, Explorer. My trip to Australia has come to an end. I’m a little sad because I had such a great time….but the fun is only beginning for you. As promised, our new book all about my adventure with Matilda is coming in just a few short weeks. If you want to be the first to see it, ask your grownup to head to www.theaccentexplorer.com and subscribe to our newsletter. I cannot wait for you to see all the animals, the sounds, the stories, the beaches…
You are going to love it.
But right now, I need to hop on a plane back home, to Green Ridge, North Carolina where my best pal in the whole world Mimsy the Mockingbird is waiting for me. Oh boy, I miss her so much.
It has been so much fun taking you with me, Explorer. I hope you loved this journey as much as I did. I’m going to take a little break to rest from all this jet lag, but I’ll be back in the New Year with a brand-new season. Until then, you know what to do…keep exploring!