I flew into Cairns and Carol met up with me the following morning. It was the first time in over a month since I saw her. We decided to walk around downtown the first two days and then go to the Croc Farm the day before we left (back to Carol's farm).
Hartley's Croc Farm was pretty fun! At first Carol and I saw Koalas and Kookaburras and we thought they were stuffed. The Koalas were sleeping in trees and the Kookaburras were standing on the ground. There was no real in closure besides a fence. So Carol and I decided to snap photos anyways. That's when one of the birds turned it's head and blinked. I was excited!
We walked on to look at the crocs, which once again I couldn't tell if they were real or fake. They were real. Really big!! And some were green! But like pond scum green. I think there was over 100 of them at this farm.
There is a boat ride out to see the crocs jump up and eat. The boat ride reminded me of the Safari Jungle Boat like at Disneyland. Except this ride you really did have to make sure your hands and arms were inside the boat at all times. The boat guide took chicken bits and hung them from an big long stick and showed us the way they ate. It was intense to hear all the chomping and snapping of their jaws. While on that ride I found out that female crocs have this strange 3 month period where right before the eggs hatch they get crazy and over protective of the nest. I heard that one female croc attacked a helicopter that landed too close to her nest. And within those 3 months she takes care of her young.. but after a certain point if her babies are still hanging around... she'll eat them.
We got to touch a baby croc (about a year old) named Bruce. He was pretty cute. Cause his mouth was taped close by good ole scotch tape. We also got to pet the koalas. Still have yet to hold one.. But I will!
We got to feed cassowaries, which really show how birds evolved from dinosaurs. They are just crazy looking! They have long blue necks with a red.. gobble.. and this weird giant fingernail growing from there heads.
We saw a guy do one of those crazy "get in a cage and make the croc do tricks" guy. It was really neat. He got really close to the croc too. His name was Bart (the croc). So he didn't sound too scary until he started doing the ever famous "death roll".
It was a very exciting and very Aussie trip! And it was fun to geek out with a friend! Who else would let me climb on top of a fake prehistoric croc to act like I was surfing?!?
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