Hartley's Crocodile Adventures

On Thursday June 27th we rented a car and went out touring. We first went to Outback Opal Mine Store and learned about opal mining in Australia and looked at the beautiful stones they had for sale. Our next stop was Hartley's Crocodile Adventures which is not only a crocodile farm&park, but also home to some other animals. We walked around and saw loads of crocs, most of which were pretty motionless. The first pen we got to, Dave thought they were fake because they were so still. Then we took a tour of the farm, where they raise crocodiles for profit and saw the year old babies. The most valuable part is the skin and then the secondary parts are the meat. They use all the meat from their farm in their on-site restaurant, which we ate a crocodile burger at. All of the skins from this particular farm are sold to Louis Vuitton. We also saw a snake show and a crocodile attack show. During the attack show we saw the famous crocodile roll and the head shake to tear their victims apart. We went on a short 30 minute boat ride around the lagoon, where our guide fed the crocodiles from a wooden pole. It was really cool to see them jump out of the water to get the meat off the stick. They really do move quick and jump high to attack and eat. We also got to see koalas and the Australian Cassowary, which is the largest bird here standing at 6 1/2 feet tall and weighing about 100 pounds. There were also lizards, turtles, snakes, birds, etc. Our favorite part was most definitely the kangaroos and wallabies. We were walking to get to the wallaby feeding at a certain time, and while following the path we arrived at a gate. The gate was closed, but not locked with a "push" sign on it. Then there was a second gate also. Over the fence we could see all these cute wallabies and kangaroos. There was no one else around and we weren't sure wether we were suppose to go through or not. After all the gate wasted locked and it said push, but we couldn't fathom the thought that anyone would be aloud to go into the pen with these animals. I mean could you imagine that at Jacksonville or Atlanta Zoo? We debated the topic for about 5 minutes, then went through the gate. After about 10 minutes of being alone, a park ranger came in with the food. We got to feed them right out of our hands and pet them all as much as we wanted. It was really cool. We loved the little guys. It was certainly the highlight of our day.
After the crocodile park, we drove up to Port Douglas, a small resort town north of Cairns. We walked around town for a bit, then had a yummy meal at one of the local restaurants. It was a lovely day for exploring.