Life on the road is a croc!!

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After the excitement of our dive we had a Saturday night out in Cairns – but in true travelling style we thought we would compensate for spending cash on a night out by camping at the side of a road! We stocked up some cheap fizzy wine then headed out to sample the night-life of Cairns, hitting some good Aussie bars and an Irish pub to have a belated Paddy’s drink!

We paid for this the next morning when we woke up dying, drained in sweat in our oven on wheels!! To add to this, as we had been parked under a tree we had ended up with loads of ants over our campervan so we had to spend half an hour blasting them off with some killer spray. After this relaxing start for a Sunday morning we headed to the local outdoor swimming pool so we could take a shower! We lead a glamorous life – ‘easy like a Sunday morning’!

It was time to leave Cairns and hit the road south to our next planned stop – Innisfail. We had heard that there was a cracking croc farm to check out. We stopped for the night at a free camp-site – actually just a lay-by at the side of the highway called a ‘driver-reviver’! It was a classy little joint with toilets and a picnic table – what more can you ask for? We cooked up a wee meal on our gas stove and watched as the area became infested with frogs!

The next morning we headed off to Johnstone Crocodile Farm. We weren’t sure what to expect – maybe just 1 skinny little croc for the tourists! But we weren’t there for long before Paul had a baby crocodile in his arms and then before he could scream out in terror he had a snake draped around his neck. The picture is priceless! Tina couldn’t laugh for too long though as she ended up with the same treatment minutes later - unfortunately though she sh*t herself and dropped the baby croc!!! Mortified!

After being re-assured the croc wasn’t hurt and somehow getting over the trauma of our experience we were taken on a tour of the farm by 2 Aussie guides. Believe it or not they had thousands of crocs on the farm! Some of the crocs we were shown were enormous. As part of the tour the guides fed some of crocs raw chicken which was pretty terrifying to watch – the crocs would be nowhere to be seen then suddenly launch out of the water to snap up their dinner! You couldn’t pay us enough money to do that job!

The croc tour was amazing to see and we learned so many facts about the do’s and don’ts to avoid coming into contact with an angry croc – which can only be handy for staying here! The farm also had a bunch of kangaroos lazing around which we were allowed to feed which was pretty cool as they were happy to come and eat right out of the palm of your hand!

Pretty satisfied with our day at the farm we headed back out on the road to get to Mission Beach for some lunch, which is another stunning spot. On the drive there and after we started noticing lots of damage by the road to trees and buildings which had been caused by Cyclone Yari which hit here only a few weeks ago – the destruction caused seemed to last for endless miles down the coast which showed how powerful it must have been.

After leaving Mission Beach we hit the highway again and settled down for another free night’s stay at a different lay-by – it’s a tough life being a traveller on the road!!

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Photos

Mission Beach
(Cyclone damaged)

Comments

[katrina]

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Dont blame you for dropping the croc Tina - they're not exactly cuddly material. Love Skippy tho - can you bring him back with you? :) Katrina x