A Name Like "Mooloolaba"

One of the best parts about Australia is trying to say the names of places because it's Aboriginal in orgin. It took me about 2 weeks to easily and clearly say Mooloolaba. Every name here has about 20 "o's" just to get you all tongue tied. I mean really they just love it! Anyway the local beach is in Mooloolaba, about a 5 minute drive from the Uni. It's a nice beach, but it's a touristy area so a little north tends to have the better beaches.

Now Australia has just about the best lifeguarding system I've ever seen. They have a marked area that is meant for swimmers, which is nothing unusual except they say ONLY to swim between the flags. They advertise this in the international airport, TV and even at places like the bank or grocery store. It's kind of funny, but they seem to leave out the reason why... 

 The answer is where the flags are, "shark nets" are too. The lifeguards sound an alarm (of which I've heard 2 or 3 times) if a shark has been spotted. Then they clear the water and take a intense rescue boat out and try to spot the shark(s). I understand that the shark attacks are just a mistaken identity for it's intended food, but still not exactly the way I want to leave this world. I must say needing a net to prevent you from getting attacked by a shark it sure does give you a good feeling about swimming!

The other day on the local new 3 sharks were chasing a school of fish around in Kawana, a town just 20 minutes south of me. The footage was actually pretty sweet! The sharks would burst out of the water attacking a few fish! : ) I love sharks!