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Published: March 23rd 2011
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This morning was once again rain. You think we'd be used to it by now! Oh well, we headed down to the Port Douglas markets. Unfortunately because of the rain lots of stalls decided not to set up. There were still a few there to have a look at. Saw some pretty cool things. One man was there making sugar cane juice because there is sooooo much sugar cane in this area and down the east coast. Mom ended up buying herself a little something from one stall that uses wood from the rainforest.
Well, it started to really pour and we didn't bring our umbrellas so I threw my rain jacket on and made a mad dash for the car to get the umbrellas for mom and dad. Dad ended up buying a boomerang from an aboriginal guy who made them and painted them himself.
We headed off down south from Port Douglas to a place called Hartley's Crocodile Farm. It's like a zoo but it's main attraction is of course the crocodile. We first got onto a boat the cruises the little river set up they have on the property. 18 big crocs live in the water
system there. As the boat goes around you can see some of them laying on the banks. When they see you and the boat the slink there way back into the water. We learnt a lot about crocs and all the myths that there are about them.
The driver of the boat puts a chicken head on a big pole and slaps the water to attract some crocs. You can see them surfacing to check things out and swim towards the boat. He lifts the pole up into the air and the crocs pretty much propel themselves out of the water to try and get the chicken head. It's a pretty spectacular sight to see. Their jaws are intense and can snap shut with a lot of force! That was really cool to see.
After you get off the boat you get taken over to the croc farm area. Crocodiles are a protected species in Australia because of the over killing of them in the early days for their skins. The government allowed these crocodile farms to be set up. So we learnt about how they are farmed. The temperature that the incubator is set as will determine
the sex of the baby crocodile. They are only about a degree or two apart. All parts of the crocodile get used in this process. The skins get used to make leather items, the meat gets used as many people over here eat it (think chicken with a fishy texture apparently). The teeth and claws are used to make souvenir items. We got to see them get fed which was like a huge feeding frenzy!
We were then free to walk around the park and do our own thing. They have a ton of different crocodiles from the saltwater to the freshwater varieties and some lizards as well. They put on a bit of a snake and reptile show so we checked that out which was alright but the real show was the croc show when one of the guys goes into the cage and interacts a bit with the croc. I'm surprised how fast they can dart out of the water which makes them so dangerous.
There is an area you can walk through where kangaroos and wallabies are hopping around freely as well so that was cool. These ones didn't let you get too close. We
also got the chance to hand feed cassowaries which was pretty cool. We were feeding them papaya. Quite a fascinating bird. After that it was time for the koala show. A girl gave a little talk on koalas and at the end we got a chance to give it a pat and take a pic with her and the koala. They are so darn cute! It was a really fun day and a great learning experience for all of us. I would definitely recommend checking out a place like this one!
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Spurwing Plover
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Scary birds
Those are TAWNY FROGMOUTHS and they can look scary at times