Hartley's Crocodiles

Sunday, 12 July 2015

 

Cassowary feeding

I'm not here!

Sea eagle

Wishing the stick was a bit bigger!!!

Sunbaking turtles

Looking for Little Miss Muffet

Relatives

Well, is it a kangaroo or wallaby?

G'day Mate

Help!!!!!

Paragliding

Rex Lookout

The most beautiful morning so far, since we arrived in Cairns – so clear, sunny and warm.  We had a fairly early start, with a day planned at Hartley’s Crocodiles.  The beaches and sea on the drive north were simply stunning – and obviously being enjoyed by plenty of backpackers.  The day at Hartley’s was great, with cassowary feeding, crocodile farm tour (Kathryn wasn’t too sure about this), then the excitement of crocodile feeding and jumping while cruising the lagoon made for plenty of noise on the boat.  The excitement continued with the feeding of the salties, especially when one of the keepers left the fenced area and entered the enclosure with only a big stick for protection.  Things did start to look a bit dicey for him when one large croc blocked his entrance to the safe area and another two came at him from the front and other side.  We had a bit of a Mexican standoff until another keeper managed to lure one of the crocs out of the way just enough for the keeper to be safe.

We all decided to give the crocodile meat a miss at lunchtime and stuck with boring ham and chicken sandwiches before the afternoon’s entertainment – the croc attack and snake shows.  Emma really wanted to sit in the front row, as close as we could possibly get to the snakes – a bit to close for Kathryn, especially when the inland Taipan showed an interest in checking her out!  We finished our day at Hartley’s with a walk among the kangaroos and wallabies – and found a couple of pretty impressive spiders!

Before returning to Cairns, we stopped at the Rex Lookout, with is spectacular views – and a couple of people flying around on paragliders.