Awesome bets and the return of the bare bum

“Maybe we should get the van fixed”.. “What!? Maybe we should get you fixed!”

The next day we used to explore this little bit of paradise. It was around this time that the thought of taking the plane back to the Netherlands in a few months time, started to become less of an option. I had wanted to come here for years and the idea of having this experience tied down to a time limit made me panic. The guys liked Coral Bay enough to try and find a job there. A bit bummed out I couldn’t work because of visa restrictions, I spent the afternoon on the beach researching other options instead. Also trying to plan how to tell my mum it was likely I wouldn’t come home for while, was something I had to work on.

Snorkelling is so overrated in Coral bay . The minute I got into the water, a massive school of fish surrounded me and followed me about, hoping to be fed. When I saw this little boy feeding some bigger fish some crisps from his hand, I ran out to get my chocolate chip cookies and do the same. Who needs goggles when fish eat out of your hand?

Fish feeding

Mark had found a whale shark tour he booked for the next day. I now wish I had gone too but at the time it just seemed a little bit above my budget and I left it for what it was. Later that day we ran into the Danish again on the beach. How small is the world?!

We joined them again that evening and Lisa started the discussion about their food costs. Turned out Martin likes his food, a lot. They had steak earlier (!) and spent about $130 every other day just on food. Wow.. She was trying to get us to convince Martin it was too much, especially when she found out that we spent next to nothing. Then the conversation turned into star-talk. I told them how annoyed I was not to find any of the constellations I usually see in the sky, such as Scorpio and the Big Dipper. Alright, the Southern Cross is pretty cool when you see it for the first time. I concluded being on the southern hemisphere must mean that everything is different here. Not only that, but being on a less populated area of the world made it possible for us to see the milky way and millions of other stars that are usually invisible because of city lights. Lisa swore she had seen the Big Dipper a few times. The whole conversation got loud, everyone joining in and Martin saying it was impossible to see it here. When she suggested that if she could find it, they had to eat pasta and sauce all week, Martin thought this was unlikely but they shook hands to seal the deal anyway.

After 11 pm she took everyone down to the beach, looked at the horizon and pointed it out laughing and yelling that she had won. It was upside down, but it was the Big Dipper alright. I’ve never seen anyone get so excited about eating pasta and plain, bland sauce. Oh, he’ll get used to it

Mark and Ben took the dark and deserted beach as a chance to do a quick drunken skinny dip… together. Screaming and stumbling they ran in while the rest of us just laughed at the disturbing sight. What Ben didn’t realise was that Mark had left his boxer shorts on. Though at first it did look like Ben was wearing shorts too, it that turned out to be his incredibly white bum. He figured it out when Mark got out of the water. ” You’re gay Mark, you’re  not even naked! So gay!”

Before the Skinny Dip

After an amazing morning walk on the beach by myself, we had to leave for Exmouth. Jobs were scarce in this town and Dick ended up not really feeling up to working on his holiday. We got in the van, waved goodbye to the Danish…. and nothing. The van did not make a sound whatsoever. Again!!!! But we were in luck! Jacob turned out to know a thing or two about cars and spent the whole morning fixing stuff, replacing fuses and finding jumper leads for us. What a guy He even got our lights and the radio to work again. Damned van.. At least there was no embarrassing running around the parking lot involved this time. Jacob did mention we needed to get our engine fixed and he estimated it at around $2000 to do so. Sooo…That’s out of the question. It does give the journey a little extra kick, you know? Not knowing we would make it..like..anywhere?