You may have heard that Misery Beach was named Australia's best beach on Sunday.
At first, it seemed like an ironic name for a beautiful beach. But alas, the stretch apparently once housed a whaling station. Some say whale guts used to wash up on the beach. Miserable business that, no doubt.
Anyhow, Tourism Australia appointed beach expert Brad Farmer, who has been writing about beaches for almost 40 years, to name the country's top 20 beaches.
Brad has visited most of Australia's accessible beaches during his research. [Tough job, but someone's gotta do it]
The Hunter may not have made the top 10, but Dudley Beach was ranked eleventh.
Mind you, this isn't the first year Brad has named Australia's top 20 beaches.
In 2020, he named Wagga Wagga Beach at number 9 on his list. It was the first time an "inland river beach" made the list.
Tourism officials reckon Australia has the largest number of beaches of any country in the world. Wonder how they worked that out? One would think Russia, as the world's biggest country, might have something to say about that.
The World Atlas reports that the countries with the most coastline are: Canada, Indonesia, Norway, Russia, The Philippines, Japan and then Australia, followed by the US, New Zealand and China.
Welcoming Towns
Now we know our best beaches, we must know Australia's most welcoming towns.
Booking.com has named the 10 most welcoming towns in Australia as: Maleny [Queensland], Mount Tamborine [Queensland], Halls Gap [Victoria], Denmark [Western Australia], Margaret River [Western Australia], Healesville [Victoria], Warrnambool [Victoria], Hervey Bay [Queensland], Montville [Queensland] and Albany [Western Australia].
Of course, no one is allowed to travel to WA ever again, so some of these places are unfortunately off limits. But a trip to Maleny might be the ticket to beat the COVID blues.
The website said it sourced millions of "verified reviews" from "real travellers" to establish its rankings.
Its most welcoming regions on Earth were: Gorenjska (Slovenia), Taitung County (Taiwan), Tasmania (Australia), Burgenland (Austria), Seychelles (Africa), Canterbury (New Zealand), Santa Cruz (Argentina), Nova Scotia (Canada), Limon (Costa Rica) and La Rioja (Spain).
Off to Slovenia then, hey. Once the pandemic is over, anyhow.
In the Wash
Sportswashing is a pretty common term now. It refers to people, corporations and even nation states using sport to improve their reputation.
A five-day march from Newcastle to Sydney, which began on Monday, brings sportswashing, China and the Beijing Winter Olympics to mind.
The march seeks to "remind the world about the human rights abuses in Tibet".
Tibetan Buddhist Venerable Bagdro, who is marching to Sydney, spent four years in prison after being detained in 1988 for protesting against China's religious oppression.
The monk, who lives in Newcastle, wants to remind the world that the situation in Tibet has further deteriorated.
China believes the Olympics can promote world peace, but Venerable Bagdro rejected this "when there is a crackdown on Tibetans and China is actively destroying monasteries and religious statues in Tibet".
Sad and stressful story, that. Time for a bit of qigong.
