Australia offers some unique places to visit by sea, such as the Great Coral Barrier, which is the only living organism visible from outer space, and Tasmania.

Get more information about cruises and sea travel thorough this link; if you feel like going in a cruice now, don't let any more time pass by; just do it! Life is the only cruise where we all have a one way ticket.

Australia got detached from the super continent Gondwana some tens of millions of years ago; this super continent preceded in every aspect the development of mankind and from it, the continents that we know today originated, for the most part. The Australian continent got detached from what is know South America and Antarctica, and was kept isolated for very long, giving time to genetic and evolutionary forces to play their game with distinction.

Gondwana split at a moment when mammals where gaining control over the ground and vegetation as we know it was only partially developed. For example, weeds were still just appearing, as flowers and most seasonal trees. Something similar, indeed, happened with South America, albeit thorough Central America and the Caribbean, there was always contact with the northern part of the continent.

Sea currents between Europe, Africa and America also favoured some extend of biological exchange, so while isolation actually existed, it was not so deep or strict as in Australia. Now, it is important to stress that South America forms a unique continent along with Central and North America; these are not separate entities, geologically speaking. There have been attempts to consider North America as a separate unit, but strictly speaking, that is not the case an henceforth 'America' is a concept applicable to the landmass that extends from Canada to Patagonia, but that is another story that we will deal with elsewhere.

Going back to Australia, let's continue saying that such isolation from any other source - look at the map: Australia is quite far away from everything and everywhere except little islands - provoked odd changes in many species. Marsupials are characteristic of this continent; they also exist in South America, but not in the variety and numbers living in Australia, but this is an important point and shows that these species were evolving when Gondwana broke apart.

Some of the oldest multi-cellular fossils in the world have been found in Australia as well: what in the realm of palaeontology is known as the 'Ediacara fauna' was found in the homonymous region in Australia. This encompasses an significant group of fossils found in very old rock layers - about 600 million years old - and precedes findings from the Cambrian period, which was thought to be essentially the beginning of life as we know it. It is known that very simple life evolved about 3.300 million years ago, but until the Ediacara period, it was quite rudimentary.

Ediacaran animals, however, are pretty bizarre, and very different from what who have know in our planet, It is like life from another planet. Some of the oldest living plants have been found in the Blue Mountains, near Sydney, and also, the oldest life forms with continuous development as well: in some shores of Australia you may see 'Stromatolites,' which is a kind of accretion of sediments with algae as ancient as the Ediacaran organisms; Stromatolites are still alive and evolving.

It is also interesting to stress that Australia got its first immigrants a long time ago; the aborigines first reached the continent and developed a peculiar culture which is ancient in every respect. For example, they have a deity which is being revered since 36.000 years ago; this is the oldest still-working religion in the world. Just consider that the Old Testamente revered by Hebrews, Muslims and Christians is - in its oldest sections - no more than 6.000 years old to realise what kinds of cultural roots the Australian aborigines developed.Unfortunately, the aborigines, or 'Abos' as some call them derisively, have been mistreated, badly; until recently they were considered, legally speaking, like domestic animals.

Africans had probably more rights under the Apartheid regime than did aborigines under British colonial rule and independent Australia, at least until 1967. But indeed, this country deserves a visit, and we would also recommend you to go and take a look at the great coral barrier. This is more than just a reef; it is a coralline structure that has even geological and deep environmental implications.

Today, the environmental situation is threatening the great coral barrier of Australia. Since it may disappear or shrink a lot, it may be the last time you could see it; besides, the more people that actually visit it and start thinking, the better chances we have of saving it thorough political pressure.

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