Have a Great Keppel Day

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After the Fraser Island trip I caught the bus to Rockhampton (locally known as Rocky, in keeping with the shortening of just about every word by the Australians: eg bottle-o = bottleshop) which is the beef capital of Australia. So mission number 1 was to get a decent steak. I stayed at the Ascot Hotel which has a backpackers above the pub and is known as having the best steak in Rocky. They bring the steak out of the kitchen sizzling on a very hot slab of rock, you then cook it to your liking. It was absolutely deliceous and I was particularly impressed that the provenance of each steak is listed in the menu.

The following day I caught the coach and then the boat over to Great Keppel Island. It is like a paradise island with palm tress, golden sandy beaches and small rocky headlands. The YHA holiday village lends snorkels out for free so soon after arriving a few of us went out for a swim. One of the fellas had sat next to me on the Auckland to Bay of Islands bus in NZ, that's over 3 months ago. I have not been to the Great Barrier Reef yet so cannot compare, but we saw quite a few pretty fish. A few people subsequently told me they had seen a turtle which I would love to see - perhaps out on the reef proper.

The island was considerably more lively than usual due to the presence of 170 American university students on a party weekend. I had a couple of good evenings at the bar and it was pleasent just to lounge around the day afterwards rather that being so busy as has been the case lately. More snorkeling followed on the second day and also a fair amount of lounging in the hammock.

On the the second evening at the bar I saw something I had not seen before: one of the students stood and talking with his pals urinated in his shorts, to make things worse he then jumped straight into the swimming pool. Even the native, hard-drinking, local Aussie country boys I was sitting with were a little shocked!

Great Keppel was just what the doctor ordered: there was nothing to do besides relax, and it was very enjoyable.

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Comments

[Stef]

Yanks
that the yanks for ya, they can't hold their drink!