Backpacker Buzz

I think I'm being followed by sharks. 

A few days after I went snorkelling off Rottnest Island, someone was bitten by a shark there. The day before I went for a swim at Scarborough Beach in Perth, the shark alarm went off, triggering a beach evacuation (helicopters patrol a stretch of the coast and if they spot a shark, the relevant alarm sounds). The day I left Coral Bay, a rumour floated around about a girl getting bitten by an otherwise docile reef shark. The newspaper in Exmouth this week reports a surfer getting bitten at a local beach. Luckily no one's been devoured, just nipped at. But Australia's reputation of having an endless supply of plants and animals that can seriously hurt you is being pretty well upheld. 

Sharks are only the beginning. There are stingers, jelly fish, rock fish and stingrays. Then on land you've got an impressive collection of snakes, spiders and crocodiles. 

What I haven't figured out yet is how real the threat really is. I know Parks Canada do a pretty good job of instilling fear of grizzlies into the minds of visitors to Banff and Jasper. Even all the way over here, people have asked me if I've ever seen a grizzly and widen there eyes when I say I have, just like I widened my eyes when I heard about the shark alarm. 

When an Aussie told me about how emus will wander the streets of Denham and Monkey Mia, I casually told her about how bears sometimes do the same in Banff, or even North Vancouver. She was blown away by how dangerous a situation that would be. 

But I know that so long as you don't try to ride a grizzly, and if you stay smart about keeping your distance and knowing a bit about the wildlife, you're not really in a huge amount of risk. Is it the same with the lethal creatures of Australia?

That's not the impression I get. I get the impression that shark attacks are random, unprovoked and pretty common, or that one wrong step in the night can land your foot in the grips of the world's most venomous spider. Meanwhile some Aussies and Europeans seem to have the impression that the Canadian wilderness is ruled by blood-thirsty grizzlies, waiting to pounce on unsuspecting tourists. Maybe it's just a case of tourism and environment departments doing a dang good job of telling people not to treat animals like tourist attractions. While education is undoubtedly a better preventative tool than fear, fear is a whole lot quicker.