East of Rockhampton lay the tropical Keppel islands. Since I'm the owner of a brand spanking new car, we chose to drive down to Rockie, it a 9 hour drive. By the way, driving 700km is more expensive than taking the plane.

The islands are deserted (and it's Easter!) the only resort on the Island is in shambles, the construction site of a new resort is abandoned. If these Islands were in the Caribbean region, each square meter would be worth thousands of dollars and a beer would cost you serious money. Here the prices are low (complete brekkie 14 bucks) the beaches abandoned and the Island unconstructed (no Meridians, Hiltons or Novotels).

We sit on the sand and see a couple of lorikeets fly by, they are beautiful. Suddenly the veer right and fly straight at my head. Judging by the noise they're making they want something. They stay with us for a couple of minutes and fly off again.

The fishing is great and a bit frustrating: there is a giant school of sardine-like fish and larger fish (I'm guessing trevalies) are attacking the fish from all sides. I'm standing in the middle of the school and try to throw my bait in the general direction of the action. No luck today though.We walk up and down the pristine beach and pass a very lazy day.

Cane Toads

Cane Toads were imported to Australia to get rid of insects in the sugar cane fields. Dumb, very dumb idea. The Cane Toad, much like myself, enjoys the climate here and with a very efficient defence against any decent predator (the Cane Toad is poisonous) it thrives(from 102 released in 1935 to an estimated 500,000,000 today. There are waaaay too many Cane Toads and containing them is impossible. Moreover they are getting bigger every year.

Australians, being a fun-seeking sub species of the human race, have developed many games involving the Cane-Toad. The unfortunate Toads are good substitutes for balls and Toad golf, Toad cricket, Toad tossing are popular sports. See the movie to catch up on local Queensland lingo and Toad hazards, and yes the bloody Toad is called Baz!.

At night, you see them hop out of the Sugar Cane across the road. Of course most of them make it, but a select few don't Hop, hop, hop, h.. Splat, splat, splat, splat. I stopped counting after 20. My giant 4-bie wheels gave them no chance. It's like shooting fish in a barrel... without water... at point blank range... with a riot shotgun.
Remember the game Frogger? Well, it's the same but this time I'm the car.

Frog-splatting is not without danger. As they are getting bigger every year these animals can leave a nice dent in your car. A big frog that jumps just before you hit it at 110 kph will most certainly require you to clean the green goo of your car and have the dent fixed. Anyway I made quite a few 'Road side frog-pizzas', 'Green splat stains', 'Zie frog legs and splattered head' and ‘Pancake frogs’ and thus helped the local fauna a bit.

New Car!

We have our new car. It's a Suzuki Grand Vitara, 4x4 All wheel drive. It is a brand spanker and the color is champagne beige... or baby-puke porridge beige... depending on whether you like the color.
There is something very nice about new cars, they smell great!
For those who think I might be compensating: I owned a smart... and here in Oz, believe it or not: the Grand Vitara is considered a small car. When I told my colleagues I bought a Grand Vitara the immediate reaction was, ah yeah, that is a tiny little car man, but a great starter.
Emmanuelle, my ace in the hole, took the price down even further. I think we got an excellent deal.

Mate, buddy, bro, friend, compadre

My new found best mate Jerry, a car salesman, sees me approach a car and comes running out. His sweatty palm and his smile chisled in his face tells me he's been having trouble selling cars. I offer him 2.500 below the price, he says no, I walk away leaving him my phone number. The next day: before 08:00 AM he calls, got him I think to myself.

Jerry: Bas, mate, how are you going?
Me: Not too bad mate, not too bad.
Jerry: So, buddy, mate, friend, are you going to buy that car?
Me: Sure am Jerry, but you'll have to drop the price.
Jerry: Mate, chum, amigo, how much?
Me: 3000 dollars
Jerry: Mate, comrade, bro, no can do. how about 1000 dollars
Me: Ain't happening 3000 or not
Jerry: Compadre, homey, duderino how about 1250
Me: Nah-ah 3000 or I walk
Jerry: bye , ,

That bloodsucker just hung up on me. A well, there are more cars on sale at the moment.