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Thursday 31 July 2008

Crocodiles


30 July – Wednesday

Today we went crocodile hunting – at Hartley’s Crocodile World! A really interesting, full day experience starting with a boat ride around the lagoon looking at some of the crocodiles. They had a large, toothless crocodile and the Swamp cartoons immediately came to mind – a toothless crocodile and a bunch of tourists in a boat. The remainder of the day of filled in with a visit to the crocodile farm (crocodiles are farmed for their skin and meat), followed by another informative talk of crocodiles while we watched them being fed. After the two legged animals were fed at the rather over-priced eatery, it was a walk around the complex to see more crocodiles, snakes, lizards, koalas (one was actually moving!!!) and the cassowaries. After our birdwatching experiences of yesterday, we spent a lot of time looking in the trees and spotted plenty of more birds, some of which we were even able to identify. A kingfisher kept us amused for a while, diving for little fish in among the crocodiles.

We weren’t bothered about the crocodiles being fed chook heads or fish, but the day old chickens being fed to the quolls was a bit different. The afternoon concluded with another talk and display with snakes, then a very brave (or stupid) man paddled around in an enclosure with a large crocodile and even hand fed it.

From all the information we have received today we now know not to camp next to creeks, waterholes or rivers, and always take a dog when camping north of Gladstone – crocodiles will always take a dog before a human!

A cold night last night followed by the usual beautiful day.

1 comment:

ruri huriah said...

hai, wow you want like irwin adventure ...