It's better to use your head than break your back

We had one more stop before the Whitsundays: Emu park. Youssef was working there, which is why we went there in the first place. We'd heard Amarins talk about the Keppel Islands where she'd worked, and in her opinion we had to pay those a visit. We slept in an apartment with actual beds and a big shower and mirrors. There was a shared kitchen-space, a swimming-pool and a place to hangout at and play games. Youssef was doing Ramadan, so he couldn't eat during the day. It must've been easier for him to do Ramadan in Australia than back home I reckon, because the days were short. It got dark around six, which was when we had dinner as well, opposed to the summer-months in the Netherlands where it gets dark well after nine.

Emu Park is very close to Rockhampton. We didn't know what to expect in Rockhampton, but it wasn't an old, almost western-looking city, where all the shops were closed and the restaurants were empty. There was a small zoo, next to the botanical gardens, so we went there for the day. This is when Anneke decided to stay in Australia and go back to Brisbane for two more months, instead of going back home. The crocodiles in the zoo were enormous, aggressive looking too, and there were monkeys with babies. The zoo in combination with the garden was the only thing in Rockhampton worth going to and overall it was a nice day out.

Youssef had arranged a day-tour to the Keppel Islands for us the next day. I got so sick on the boat, I'd never felt that sick in my life, but it was absolutely worth it. When we arrived we hired some flippers and other snorkel-gear, because the Keppel Islands are right at the start of the Great Barrier Reef. Anneke, Chris, Youssef and I snorkelled around and at one point I noticed a giant turtle. I called everyone over to show them. The turtle looked pretty old, his shell was really rough and to see a sea turtle that close took my breath away. I swam alongside him for a while and Anneke came over with her GoPro to film the whole thing. Something that surprised me was how far sound carrier through water. I could hear the turtle nipping at the coral and I could hear the fish swim through the plants. After a while it was time to go.

Our tour-guide told us he was very experienced and made us walk along the shore over the rocks. It wasn't an easy walk. I saw someone slip and cut open his leg on some barnacles, and decided it'd take longer, but was probably safer to walk through the water along the rocks, instead of over them. Right at the end of the path, Chris slipped too. His cut was more severe than the others though, and he couldn't walk anymore. Someone sent for the speedboat and they took Chris (and our bags) with them back to the ferry. Back ashore the little tour-bus dropped us and we took our car to a nearby chemist to have them look at Chris' foot. Some people back at the Keppel Islands had bound and bandaged his foot already, cleaned it out. Now all we had to do was buy the things that they'd used to take care of his foot, to be able to take care of it ourselves. From that day on I was the person to clean and rebind Chris' foot as long as it needed to heal.