The morning awakening was not the last one for
today, and surely not the worst. I enjoyed a full body shower the usual Stan style - from
the water container - this time without pushing it over the fence. Eating lots of green
peppers (tons of Vitamin C) I headed towards the coast. I visited the Cania Gorge, where I
almost stepped on an opossum, well hidden in tall grass. The animal looked at me, smiled,
and hopped away, before I could seriously point my lens at it (which happened to be a wide
angle again).
In
the afternoon I felt the need, or urge, to call home. Naturally my family had no idea
where I was and I wanted to keep it that way for the moment being, so I had plenty of
stories ready. I located a phone booth, which was not that easy, and even found out how to
dial abroad (0011 prefix if you wondered). Since I was collecting all coins over the past
week, I thought I should have plenty of ca$h on hands. WRONG! Here we come to Awakening
#2, the bad style. All my coins in the $1 - $0.10 range miraculously disappeared within a
few minutes in the phone slot, and trust me, I had many of them. Now I have an empty cup
holder again and can start collecting just in case I need to phone again.
When
I arrived in Rockhampton I had to realize that the Aussies take it seriously with
holidays: not a single store seemed to remain open over Easter. So I bought some (junk
food list omitted) and apples and expect to live on that plus fast food for the four days
to come. After this $20 shopping orgy I headed to the Pacific, as I wanted to get a first
look at this beauty of a blue ocean. Unfortunately, somehow I thought myself back in the
SF Bay when I saw a brown - something - from the first cliff. How does someone dive in
this? Soon I recalled that Justin just came along and probably stirred up some dirt. So I
went closer to the local harbor where I saw a beautiful catamaran. When taking pictures of
it I was invited on board by the owners. She's an Aussie, he's Dutch, and they live on
this 12-people boat, and make a living with taking people diving out in the BLUE. For
A$125 per 24hrs per person, 5 people minimum, the boat is yours. I was shown every detail
of the boat which they built themselves (market value A$600k) - really impressive. The
last (and only) time I saw something similar was when I was on board of the Caesars Palace
yacht on Lake Tahoe, Nevada. Since their customers for the coming 4 days were not around
yet, I chatted with them and thanked for their hospitality with a few rolls of film which
they forgot to buy. Should I be able to afford it one day, I sure would love to come on a
trip!
Since it was already dark when I left their boat, I didn't really know where I was parked - we shall see at sunrise. I was told that the sea should be clearer more north - and more importantly, more east - so let's head north; east is kinda tough.