Heute machen wir eine sehr weite Reise. Es geht nach Australien. 

Woy Woy is on the coast, one and a half hours north of Sydney by train. To go there you travel through a national park. Woy Woy means ‘lots of water’ in Darkinjung – that’s the language of the local aboriginal people.

So in these days my grandpa worked in Woy Woy. He bought an old boathouse that he turned into a holiday home! And when I was a kid we went there every summer for two whole weeks. Those summers were sweet as! We swam, chilled, and because the house was next to the water, we could fish out the window. That was the best!

I got up and looked out of the window. Can you guess what I saw? Smoke! I saw smoke in the sky on the other side of the bay. I was so shocked I said “Hooly dooley!”. My dad was surprised at this. He said “Struth mate, what’s wrong?” He stood up to see what I was looking at, and that was when he started swearing...

My mum was confused: “What’s with all this swearing, guys?” She asked. “You sound like a couple of sailors!” Then she saw it too. “Oh crikey, look at all those houses on fire!”

On the other side of the bay the national park was on fire! “Look at all those fire trucks,” I said.

So, what did we do? We waited. And we threw buckets of water on small fires, that was all we could do! 

The fire came closer and more houses were in danger, not only those on the other side of the bay but also the houses on this side. Some people from this side of the bay got in their boats and went to rescue the people on that side. We sat in the garden. Some people just watched their houses burn down. 

The helicopters carried water to drop on the fire. It was a strange and beautiful sight. All those people in boats and the helicopters and the smoke and the sparks dancing in the dark evening sky. 

So our house didn’t burn down. But every time I see a news report about bushfires in Australia I remember that day. I remember how quickly you can get into trouble. These things happen all the time!

But I also remember how all those people helped each other. Our neighbors were there for each other in an emergency. That’s what I remember the most - It was far out! 

Unsere Sprachreise ist für heute zu Ende. Ich hoffe, die Geschichte hat dir gefallen und du hast ein bisschen Aussi Slang gelernt. Wenn du mehr über Demonstrativbegleiter lernen möchtest, schau doch mal in unsere Anfängerkurse in der Babbel App rein.