A first trip ‘round the world, part 45

In retrospect, I believe that Kooroora was the most dangerous ski run at Mt. Buller, because of its out-of-control “booze-culture”. I also thought that Australians were heavy drinkers. Well, yes and no. 

They were among the heaviest drinkers in the world, guzzling more than ten liters of pure alcohol per year, at least according to some data I recently read. I’m sure it had not changed much since we were drinking at Kooroora. 

According to the World Health Organization, Australians drink more pure alcohol per year than Americans, Canadians and the Japanese. The report states that: “Australians drink 10.6 liters of pure alcohol each year, much higher than the global average of 6.4 liters.” 

The reason we did survive Kooroora is that we benefited from some serious training in France, a country in which, the same report claims, the average person consumes more than 12 liters of pure alcohol, beating the Russian that could only handle 11.7 liters and the Aussie of course! 

Then, what about America? We’re still below the 10 liter level, but Covid-19 may derail that good behavior. The report also found Australians were among the highest binge drinkers in the world with 45% of them identified as such. 

This affects mostly youngsters aged between 15 and 19. Binge is defined as “heavy episodic drinking” where 60 grams of pure alcohol is consumed in one sitting, In that category, putting Australia almost at the top of the world. 

There must have been a “binge” virus when we were at Mt. Buller, and those of us that were not vaccinated caught it. What is certain though, is that we always showed up every morning, on time, for the class lessons. At 23-24, we still felt that we were absolutely indestructible! 

This said, I’m glad we checked out of the Kooroora bar before delirium tremens hit and before they’d bury us at the Mansfield cemetery... 

I’ll raise my glass to that!