Australia is a country that feels almost too vast to comprehend, a place where ancient landscapes collide with modern cities and oceans shift from turquoise to deep sapphire in a matter of miles. Traveling here

It is that saddest of summer rituals for city-dwelling Aussies; the long, painful trek – usually in wet swimmers and with a pop-up cabana and Esky weighing you down – back to wherever you were lucky enough to snag a parking spot within a half-marathon of the beach.

Volunteers continue to work frantically for a second day Wednesday to clear an Australian beach that is covered in whales after nearly 100 long-finned pilot whales stranded themselves on the sand. More than 50 of the whales have already died after they ...