When my mother and sister came to visit, they just couldn't believe how different Australia was to their expectations. "It's so mountainous!" they exclaimed. "It's so beautiful!"
As the week went on and this comments came with more frequency, we asked them what exactly they had been expecting. "Well," they said, "like the movies." Hollywood's version of Australia involves lots of red sand and flat plains, and this is what they had been expecting to see when they arrived down under.
Of course, the reality is that Australia is diverse. It is mountainous. There are rainforests, deciduous forests, and places where you can't see a tree in any direction. Even the famed Australian "Outback" is more than meets the Hollywood lense. "The Outback" can refer to almost anything on the interior of Australia, the "2.5 million square miles inhabited by less than 60,000 people." Although you're unlikely to see many other people in the outback, you might see desert, sheep stations, tropical waterholes, or massive crocodiles. If you're lucky you may even get to see the World-Heritage-Listed Uluru, and other majestic sand formations.
Whatever Australia is, it certainly isn't uniform. When I arrived I wasn't sure what to expect, but I now know that whether it's beach, mountains, or bush, it's probably going to be strikingly beautiful.
