Oz

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We got into Cairns and stayed in a hostel to get a good night’s sleep and be refreshed for going back into the world of work. Through a website we’d prearranged some voluntary work in exchange for food and accommodation with an Aussie man called Dean who we believed was a businessman with a swimming pool in Cairns city centre who was only asking for a couple of hours easy work. When we got picked up by Dean we were a bit confused when we were told we were going 40km north of Cairns. There was no swimming pool and although the accommodation was nice, it wasn’t full of the advertised mod cons. After checking the emails we had sent, it clicked that it was a different Dean that we had contacted who wanted help renovating an ex crocodile farm out in the sticks. We were happy enough as we had wanted to go there anyway. Over the next few days we worked the mornings and had the afternoons for exploring the local area. We went to the beach but unfortunately couldn’t get in the sea due to all the tiger sharks and crocodiles! The locals told us not to worry about the creek next to the house as the croc in there had not given much bother although to watch out for the one further down because “it had given a bit of trouble”! We faced our fear and went on a night fishing trip with one of Dean’s workmen and saw the croc but he kept his distance and gave us no trouble. We also visited the new crocodile park next door, saw some shows and Stuart got to see his first kangaroo. We also ended up staying a night at Dean’s mum’s house when we went to Cairns. We saw our first wild snake - she had a small python in the bedroom we were going to be staying in but it was soon got rid of! It was only a baby but was 2 metres long! After a week staying at Dean’s in Wangetti we said our farewells to start our journey down the East Coast.

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