Great Keppel Island

Fed up with mindlessly going along with the crowds Chris delved into the Lonely Planet and came up with Great Keppel Island.....very little write up but what it did say sounded good! Only down side to this plan was that the only bus to get there dropped us off at 3am in the morning at a 24hr service station, complete with fastfood kiosk! We spent 4hrs waiting here for our connecting bus, but we were kept happily entertained by the steady stream of very drunk people who passed through it's doors (it was a Tuesday night in a very small country town) to the extent of watching a paralytic couple arrive in their car for a midnight snack, by the time they left the female driver could no longer stand, let alone drive the car back so it was up to her equally drunk boyfriend to take her home...but not before rolling himself a large spliff much to the disbelief of the onlooking crowd! Did they make it home??? we'd be amazed!

Finally we caught our 7am bus, fatigue got the better of us and we managed to get our first and only hours sleep of the whole night! Perked up a bit once on the ferry, and as the island loomed up we realised our sleepless night was well worth it! The island was centered around one large resort (which was out of season, not a sole in sight), this left the rest of the island uninhabited and free for us to roam at our pleasure along the miles of bushtracks to one of the 16 deserted beaches!!! Oh and did I mention the coral reef that surrounds a few of the beaches, making for some awesome snorkling! We were staying in the YHA hostel, so althougth the island is mostly geared up to rich guests at the resort there is definitely a budget option (as long as you take all food and drink with you from the mainland). We enjoyed three of our best days since arriving in Oz, chilling out in sunshine on our very own private beaches! Another glimpse of 'Island Paradise'!

Where's Wally?

Straight out of the brochure!

The perfect Sunset!

On our return to the mainland we had to spend a day in the small country town of Rockhampton (where we'd spent 4hrs in service station)...not much to see or talk about, highlight being the free sausage sizzle which we went to take advantage of only to see it go up in smoke...flames leaping from the roof of the burger van and the local firebrigade in full action!! So no, we didn't get our free sausage!!! From here we head North to Airlie Beach and the Whitsunday Islands!