Hartley's Crocodiles

The movie, Crocodile Dundee, was not a documentary. That was the lesson of the day.

We left Sydney and flew nearly three hours north to Cairns, Queensland. The climate here is tropical. After a very brief stop at our hotel, right along the seashore, we got back onto the small bus and drove to "Hartley's Crocodile Adventures."

Hartley's is a commercial zoo, of sorts. It's probably what we would call, back home, a tourist trap. But OAT bought us the deluxe package.

It began with a self-guided walking tour in which we were able to see various crocodiles (of course), as well as turtles, lizards, snakes, Komodo Dragons, and a variety of water birds.

Another section allowed viewing of wombats (they were well-hidden in their pen, so we didn't actually see them), tamarins, koalas, kangaroos, and wallabies.

Further along were pens with monitors (lizards), emus, and fruit bats.

And another branch of the walk took us see cassowaries (a large jungle bird).

We also entered an aviary or owls and other predatory birds.

After our walking tour, we made our way to the amphitheater to view the 3 p.m. "Crocodile Attack Show." The 13 foot long, 450 pound croc was no Sparky the Seal, but it was along the same lines.

Crocodiles will perform for raw chicken. Except they also go after the trainer, who has to do some interesting dodging and leaping.

We left the show before the end because we had tickets for the 3:40 p.m. boat ride. On the way to the boat, our tour leader had arranged a special activity for our group, so that we could hold a python and/or baby crocodile.

Other than the tour leader, I believe that I was the only one who held the python. I did it only so that I could send the photo to the grandkids.

Mary and a couple others managed to pet the croc, but it jumped when Mary touched it, causing a bit of an adrenaline rush.

The boat ride was something of a disappointment after all of that. We had already seen a lot of crocs by then, and had seen one feed on raw chicken. So this was nothing new, except that the crocodiles in the lagoon have catchy names like, "Fluffy," "Oprah," "Popeye," and "Elvis."

The bus drove us back to the hotel for a bit of relaxation before an included dinner. The food was good, but the service was terrible. Then we took a walk on the promenade along the beach. It was a beautiful evening.