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We didn't have to give the Moke back til 9am this morning so we got up early and made the most of having transport, making our way over to the IGA at Nelly bay to pick up a couple of provisions and stopping at the Harbour to take a few photos. Will also thought he would re-live his mini racing days and put the little Moke to the test up the hills and around the bends whilst Jo held on so as not to be thrown out the side of the car. It was then time to fill up with petrol and head back to our hostel in Nelly Bay to hand in the keys.
With the Moke safely returned we made breakfast in the camp kitchen - a treat of bacon and egg sandwiches. We had intended to cook them on the barbie whilst watching sunrise, but the it was a little cloudy in the morning so we didn't make it to sunrise.
Once we had checked out we joined a tour of the nature park which the hostel was joined to. The first animal we met in the nature park was a 6 year old salt water
crocodile. This was by definition a baby still but was still about a metre long. The oldest croc in captivity is 180 years old, but no-one knows exactly how old a crocodile could live in its natural habitat as they have proved difficult to study as their lifespan is do much greater than ours.
Once our guide had told us a little about Barbie we had the chance to hold her ourselves. Barbie had her jaws taped closed so Jo was happy to be the first to volunteer to hold Barbie. You could feel all of her muscles moving as you held her but she was used to being handled and so was very calm. Although when we tried turning her around to get a better photo of her face she would move her head so that there was always one eye on whoever was holding her.
Once we had all had a chance to hold Barbie we moved on to some of the feathered inhabitants. First of all we met Shadow the red tailed cockatoo. We would have normally had the chance to hold Shadow but he had injured his leg the previous week and so had
to remain on the guides arm but he was still happy to pose for photos. Next we moved on to the more common white cockatoo. This one was more unpredictable and so couldn't be held but we were given the chance to go into his enclosure and stroke him. Jo went in first and avoided any pecking. We were warned that generally this cockatoo was not a fan of males but Will decided to brave it and try to stroke him too. As soon as Will got within a metre of him the cockatoo didn't look happy as he raised his crest of yellow feathers and opened his wings to challenge Will. Will decided to take the advice of the guide and leave the enclosure and the cockatoo then returned to normal.
Next we took a look at a couple of adult female freshwater crocodiles. These are generally less aggressive than the salt water crocodiles but as these were fully grown adults we weren't handling these ones! We did get a chance to hold a few smaller lizards though; a blue tongue lizard, a bearded dragon, a frilled dragon and a shingle back skink.
Then it was time
to meet the cutest animal of all, the koala. We all had the chance to give the koala a stroke and take photos whilst the guide was holding him. The guide told us how the eucalyptus leaves that they eat are poisonous to most animals but that the koalas build up an immunity to this when they are Joeys and are fed on 'pap' excreted by their mum. The pap is a brown, gooey substance which slowly builds up their digestive systems so that they are able to eat the eucalyptus leaves.
The last animal we were given the chance to hold was a python. Jo decided to opt for the role of photographer rather than handler on this one and Will stepped forward to have the python draped around his neck. After a few minutes the snake started to get a bit more inquisitive and decided to get his head a little closer to Will's head which is when Will decided he had had enough and was happy to give the python back to the guide.
The next animal was a little more dangerous than all the others and so was kept in a case. This was
a whistling spider, he had fangs that looked like legs because they were so big. The whistling spider is aggressive and so would be likely to bite of he were handled. Although they are not necessarily deadly as everyone's reactions to their bite differs slightly we didn't mind standing back and just taking photos of this one.
As we left the nature park, our guide took us for a walk through a wooded area where there were lots of little butterflies flying around. They migrate up to Magnetic Island in the colder winter months and then head back to Brisbane once it warms up in summer.
After the nature park we decided to make the most of the sunshine and so walked down to the beach at Horseshoe Bay to lie in the sunshine and swim in the sea.
In the late afternoon we walked back to our hostel to have a shower and some dinner before catching the bus over to the Ferry terminal. It was dark by the time we crossed back to the mainland on the ferry but it was still warm so we sat outside on the boat. As it was Saturday night
there were a few groups who had obviously been enjoying a day of drinking on the Magnetic Island but luckily it was a smooth crossing on the ferry so they didn't seem to be suffering with any sea sickness.
Once back on the mainland we only had a 10minute wait for our Greyhound bus which was taking us on the 12 hour over night journey to Gladstone.
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