Dolphins

I think my sister is the luckiest girl on this side of the planet. She got to swim with the whale sharks as well as swimming with the dolphins in the same week!
It takes a little while for the crew to locate the dolphins and some tourists are getting restless, the crew know what they're doing and find a small pod of 5 dolphins willing to play.

These are the bottle nose dolphins (although my sister calls them bottle neck dollies). They're big beasts (300kgs) and very playful. It seems they're interested in Emmanuelle as they keep on sending echo's in her general direction, more precisely her belly. Are they interested in our son? It certainly seems that way.

The bottle nose dolphins here in Rockhampton have developed a rather unique tactic to get their feed of fish. They follow giant bull rays (look at the proportion against the dolphins and you'll get an idea of how big they are) and catch all fish fleeing out of the ray's way. They even turn the rays upside down to steal their catch!

We are very fortunate to this happen in real life. It is very unique behaviour. We see the dolphins follow the rays very closely to catch any fish trying to get away. How lucky are we?!

Fishing

Coming back from the whale sharks and saw pleasure boats returning with their catch. Giant Spanish Mackerel, snapper, bonito's, even tuna. Mhuhuhawhahaaa... I've rented a boat that can go 10 kms offshore, so there's got to be a Marlin with my name on it out there.

Well... it turns out that after a day of fishing small fish, I smell of fish and bad luck because I got not a single hit on any of my 50 dollar lures.

We had a good day, although Emma wasn't feeling too well, we all caught some fish, chased some dolphins and enjoyed the boat.

Whale Sharks

Today we're swimming with the sharks. Not the small 'great white shark', the puny hammerheads or the 3 meter lemon shark I saw while snorkelling yesterday, but with the Whale Shark, the biggest fish in the ocean. The biggest reach 18 meters in length; by comparison, an adult humpback whale reaches 16 meters. In Exmouth the population is mainly comprised of young males.

It works like this: a spotter plane finds the behemoths, the boat manoeuvres in front of it. Lots of panic, yells, pushing and shoving and we're all in the water. Our team: team Alan gets the best views of the two Leviathans cruising at a speed one can just follow if swimming flat out. We repeat this until no one can walk anymore.

My wife, being 6 months pregnant, outswam everybody. She must be the fastest whale shark chaser on this side of the planet! A rude awakening for those who couldn't keep up with her.

My sister finds herself right in the path of the colossus who is clearly used to things getting out of his way. Yrjan swims for her life and misses the giant by mere inches. How’s that of an adrenaline shot.

Coral Bay

About a 140 kms south of Exmouth lays the touristic township of Coral Bay. The camping grounds, 2 hotels and few shops are built next to; you've guessed it: a coral bay.

Coral bay is like a magnet that pulls you in and doesn't want to let go. It makes you sleepy, very lazy and takes away any reason to have to do anything. The average speed of people walking on the beach is about 300m an hour. The most excitement
you'll see here is when people crawl to the water to refresh themselves and then crawl back again to the towels to lay down. If easygoing was a place, it'd be coral bay. Snorkelling here is of course fantastic.

The way North

In Perth we pick up our giant camper, it's a 6 berth with everything (toaster, microwave, television, DVD... you name it!). We've got a long way to go so we depart asap... destination: North.

We stop along the way at the Pinnacles, a park dedicated to weird shaped rocks. It turns out the first day of rain of a 6 month draught is today... the pinnacles are nice, the road is very, very quiet. I’d seen empty landscapes in Namibia, but this beats all. Not a single tree is higher than 3 meters.

Every now and again we see a road train it's a truck followed by 4 or 5 combinations doing 110 kph quickly dubbed ‘killer trucks’ by my sister. And for a good reason: Kangaroos, being cuddly animals, like to hug big, shiny, fast moving things. Usually this doesn't end well for the affectionate animal. The hug lasts for about a second followed by a medium range flight onto the side of the road... Freddy Mercury said it best: 'another bites the dust'.
On our way north we dodge sheep, birds, mice, kangaroos, goats and cows.

We’re off (the four of us)

Yay! Holiday!
Emma, Yrjan and I are off to West Australia. It’s a 5 and a half hour flight west and then a 25 hour drive north to get to where we want to go... yes Australia is big!
The four of us are going to be swimming with the Whale Sharks in Exmouth. The four of us? I hear you say? Who’s the fourth one? Well, Emmanuelle is pregnant with our first son! Woohooo! If we count back he’s made in New Zealand. As far as we can tell he will leave the mother-ship in the first week of September. We do not yet know what we’ll call this new and improved version of the Emma-Bas alliance but we know it’s a little rippa. He kicks mum so hard she wakes up.

Only in Queensland!

This week we are experiencing what the Aussies call a 'Major Rain event'. Which basically means it's raining for 3 days on end. To give you an idea of how much rain fell: The dams here grew by a good 10% which gives us about a year and a half worth of water.
Only in Queensland will you have Hail storms that'll do more damage to your car then driving it off a cliff, and only in Queensland can you have a 20.000 litre water tank in the back garden and fill it up in a single night.Only in Queensland can you have a 10 year draught and catch up in a single week!

Da Sista

My sister made it to Australia! Yay!
We made her tourist proof within 1 hour of her arrival. Explained the city, gave her the keys, a public transport pass, a local mobile phone, internet access and. Ready to go!
We went to Moreton Island and to Byron bay. We fished with hand lines and caught a dozen fish. Nice weekend.

Lady Musgrave

Lady Musgrave is a small Island on the Southern Great Barrier Reef. We took the boat there for a short break.

Sailing

The Easter whether isn't too great. Torrential rains hit the inner lands of Queensland and some of it makes it to the coast. While sailing out we see the main land disappear in a gray mass of clouds. The island we're sailing to is impossible to see as well and our inexperienced captain is looking nervous. He keeps repeating he's never seen this before. Hmmm... not very reassuring.We anchor at one of the inhabited Keppel islands to go swimming, fishing and exploring.The Keppels are great. Not many people go there because the touristy Whitsundays are just a bit further up the coast, so they are basically forgotten islands.

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.

Estelle and the snake

I forgot to tell this story about Estelle while at Agnes Waters:

While recuperating from a copious breakfast Emma and I see Estelle all of the sudden dance hip hop on extra-fast-forward while uttering bone-penetrating yells of fright and fury. What's this? Has she gone mad? Is this the newest dance-rage in Europe? Is Estelle perhaps faking a Epileptic attach not to be deported back to France?

No, it's much worse: while bringing the dishes back to the kitchen a snake that had been hiding next to the television had jumped on her hip and was trying to climb into her hair. A classic case of snake ambush.

After sending the offending animal flying 3 feet through the air, the snake falls on the floor, makes it to the couch and hides under it. No doubt pondering its next surprise.

Estelle regains her calm self quite rapidly for such an event and feels a bit sorry for the snake. She tells me to take it easy with the broom I've just grabbed to push the snake out to the balcony. To me, this would have been well enough to provide me with nightmares for... oh, let's say 2 or 3 years.

Turns out it was a tree snake, about a meter long, extremely lethal for people with weak hearts, but otherwise completely harmless.

Moreton Island bis...

G-Damned! This really pisses me off. We've had a hurricane in North Queensland last week, so the seas were choppy to say the least. This dumb captain chooses to risk it and loses 300 tons of oil off the of Moreton Island coast.
Turtles, Dolphins, Dugongs and birds, everything covered in a thick layer of black stinky oil.
We were on Moreton a few weeks back, and it doesn't look like we'll be back any time soon. Damn.

Newcastle

This week I'm in Newcastle.
Newcastle revolves around coal, coal, more coal and only coal; over a hundred million metric tonnes a year of coal that is. They are going to double that amount per year and still have enough for the next 120 years. So... yeah, If you are a 'militant terrorist tree hugging hippie' for the 'green armee faction' scared of the greenhouse effect: this is the place to blow up. It is by far the largest producer of coal in the world. The lives of about 300.000 people here in Newcastle revolve around coal.

I'm moving up in the world!
People take care of my flights, accommodation and other things. I get to my hotel and find a very nice room, with a giant HDTV, a 2 people Jacuzzi, with a view to the pool. In the morning a taxi is waiting for me to take me to my work. Yay, oh boy, do I feel important now... Well not quite:

I flew out here on Sunday night in shorts, thongs and t-shirt still wet from Byron bay beach. When I landed Emmanuelle called and attended me to the fact that I had forgotten to my shoes. So in the morning I jump in my cab in business shirt, trousers and... thongs to go and buy a pair of shoes. A very interesting sight to the guests at the hotel when I flip flopped past them. Once at the client, I find my working spot is under the main outlet of the Air Co in a gray corner of the office, the server does not have network access and is very noisy. There goes my ego; here I was thinking I was getting important only to find myself working in a spot where some people wouldn't be found dead. Sigh...

Bye Bye Estelle

The day is hot, really, really hot, you wouldn't believe how hot it really is, I mean, you think your oven is a hot place... it is almost, but not quite, completely unlike the temperature in your freezer. :o)

Anyway, the sun is up, we have a car and we have a Sunday to waste so off we go to Byron Bay, one of Emmanuelle's favourite spots. We look to the east from the most easterly point of Australia and see 2 dolphins and later a pod of dolphins swim in the waves. Estelle really likes this place as well and as I will be flying out to Newcastle that evening and Estelle will be flying back to France the next day, it seems a good place for a last day in Oz.

We race to the airport and with only 45 minutes before my flight I say goodbye to Estelle. Having soaked up the Ozzie way of life Estelle is reluctant to leave.

Who's next to visit us?