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The Rocks, Sydney, Self-Guided Audio Walk, Hörbuch, Digital, 45min

No visit to Sydney is complete without a trip to the historic Rocks district on the harbour foreshore. And no visit to the Rocks would be complete without this self-guided audio walk. The Rocks is the enclave where European Sydney had its beginnings. Here the first convicts were ordered to build their huts and here they worked the sandstone that made Australia's first buildings. This self-guided walk will take you to the places they lived and tell you their stories. You'll even see where the marks of their chisels are still visible. Steven Lewis's light-hearted but informative commentary has kept this guide in the Amazon travel Top 10. You'll hear tales of kidnappings, murders, foul deeds and the vision that saved The Rocks from government bulldozers. The guide makes for good company as you take a hour-long stroll through the history of this young city and of Australia itself. You'll hear about the lives of the convicts, many of whom had never so much as seen the ocean before they became some of the world's best travelled people. The transportees emerged from the fetid cargo holds of their tiny sailing ships to a land already peopled by spear-carrying aborigines who viewed them with justifiable suspicion. Their settlement shared the harbour foreshore with flightless birds that stood as tall as a man; and animals that hoped rather than ran, carrying their young in pouches. These men and women lived stories we can only imagine through science fiction. The history of these first European settlers, Sydney and Australia is around every cobblestoned corner of the Rocks but the Rocks isn't a museum or a theme park; people live here, work here, and throng to the famous weekend markets. Nowhere in Australia offers such a tangible and unbroken connection between today's Australia and its European beginnings. This guide is your connection to Sydney's colourful and usual past.PLEASE NOTE: When you purchase this title, the accompanying reference material will be ava Language: English. Narrator: Steven Lewis. Audio sample: https://samples.audible.de/sp/brkw/000004/sp_brkw_000004_sample.mp3. Digital audiobook in aax.

Shop: Audible
Price: 9.95 EUR excl. shipping

Lost Land of the Dodo (eBook, PDF)

The Mascarene islands in the southern Indian Ocean - Mauritius, Réunion and Rodrigues - were once home to an extraordinary range of birds and reptiles. Evolving on these isolated volcanic islands in the absence of mammalian predators or competitors, the land was dominated by giant tortoises, parrots, skinks and geckos, burrowing boas, flightless rails & herons, and of course (in Mauritius) the Dodo. Uninhabited and only discovered in the 1500s, colonisation by European settlers in the 1600s led to dramatic changes in the ecology of the islands; the birds and tortoises were slaughtered indiscriminately while introduced rats, cats, pigs and monkeys destroyed their eggs, the once-extensive forests logged, and invasive introduced plants from all over the tropics devastated the ecosystem. The now-familiar icon of extinction, the Dodo, was gone from Mauritius within 50 years of human settlement, and over the next 150 years many of the Mascarenes' other native vertebrates followed suit. The product of over 30 years research by Anthony Cheke, Lost Land of the Dodo provides a comprehensive yet hugely enjoyable account of the story of the islands' changing ecology, interspersed with human stories, the islands' biogeographical anomalies, and much else. Many French publications, old and new, especially for Réunion, are discussed and referenced in English for the first time. The book is richly illustrated with maps and contemporary illustrations of the animals and their environment, many of which have rarely been reprinted before. Illustrated box texts look in detail at each extinct vertebrate species, while Julian Hume's superb colour plates bring many of the extinct birds to life. Lost Land of the Dodo provides the definitive account of this tragic yet remarkable fauna, and is a must-read for anyone interested in islands, their ecology and the history of our relationship with the world around us.

Shop: buecher
Price: 51.95 EUR excl. shipping

Cry of the Kiwi: A Family's New Zealand Adventure (The Complete Series, Books 1-3) (eBook, ePUB)

"...a delicious taste of life in New Zealand." - Monica Told with grace and style, alive with insight and intriguing facts, Cry of the Kiwi: A Family's New Zealand Adventure captures the joys and challenges, struggles and awakenings experienced by a Canadian family that hits the ground running in New Zealand and finds its feet in a land of volcanoes, giant trees, mammalian pests, and endangered flightless birds. In 2000 Magi Nams was a harried home schooling mother who yearned for a big travel adventure, a glorious trip somewhere far away where she could walk beneath the canopies of unknown trees and identify exotic birds. And where she and her family could spend months exploring an intriguing foreign culture. Would the dream ever come true? She had one hope… her ecologist husband was a weasel expert, and New Zealand had a lot of weasels to get rid of. Book 1, Once a Land of Birds: On New Zealand's spectacular South Island, Magi and her family scramble through tangled bush, hike over windswept hills, and dive head and heart into New Zealand life, history, and ecology. Travel and hiking adventures take them to verdant rainforests in the island's northwest, over ancient volcanoes on the east coast, and into the majestic mountain country of the Southern Alps. Throughout it all, Magi and her husband and two sons develop a growing understanding of and affection for New Zealand's maverick persona and its beleaguered, long-isolated native flora and fauna. Book 2: This Dark Sheltering Forest: Amid downpours and summer heat, Magi and her family ride quads over muddy pitted tracks on North Island's Central Volcanic Plateau as they trap stoats, the subject of her husband's research. Long hours in the outdoors introduce her boys to the challenges of field research, and the entire family to the lush, cluttered beauty of a New Zealand rainforest. During time off she and her family hike over an active volcano, snorkel among electric-blue fishes, spot glow-worms in mysterious caverns, walk among New Zealand's rarest birds, gaze in awe at some of the largest trees in the world, and explore a gaudy geothermal wonderland. With a gift for observing and story-telling, the author evokes the majesty and mystery of New Zealand's volcanic North Island, the drama and tedium of six weeks of scientific research and travel, and the tensions and joys felt by two parents and two kids bonding more tightly far from home. Book 3: Tang of the Tasman Sea: Back on South Island, Magi and her family battle home school tensions and adventure inertia before rebounding to backpack the Abel Tasman Coast Track, watch the Aurora Australis from a mountain top, hike to a brooding creek with a history of disaster, follow flashlights deep into caves, and climb over icy bedrock to a look-off in breathtaking glacier country. As their family travel adventure of a lifetime draws to a close, it becomes clear that New Zealand's heart lies as much in its people as in its majestic landscapes and intriguing flora and fauna. With awareness and a rich turn of phrase, the author portrays South Island's natural beauty and reveals how some landscapes her family explores during five final months in New Zealand are landscapes of the heart, and how some trails lead not up mountains but to new peaks within. "An adventure of mind, body and spirit" - Tara "Highly recommended." - Michelle Buy Cry of the Kiwi: A Family's New Zealand Adventure series today and revel in a travel tale set in one of the most beautiful countries on earth!

Shop: buecher
Price: 9.49 EUR excl. shipping