Sunday
5th May
Yesterday was action-packed. Pete jogged off to catch the bus at 9.04 – he
says he can’t run out of sight in a month, but I have seen him running for the
bus, and he is SPEEDY!!! He came back
about 45 minutes later with a small dove-coloured car he had hired, from Cairns
Older Car Hire. Very suitable for us…it
is some sort of Daihatsu, I think, and Pete is quite pleased with it although
he is a bit perplexed at times when it does NOT perform like his beloved
WRX. (We more often than not have to
pull over into the slow-achievers lane, which is a bit of a blow to the pride
of Captain Pete.)
Our first adventure was Hartleys
Crocodile World of Adventure and Fun, or something along those lines. Fantastic!
I was a bit over-awed by the presence of so many crocodilians… It seems
very strange, to stroll past a 5-metre crocodile with no more than a cursory
nod and a muttered, Golly Gosh, just look
at that one!! If there weren’t a
sturdy cyclone fence between IT and ME, I would not be so calm…
Yes I did take photos, with my beautiful
little Canon, but I am not particular proud of these. It seems like cheating…
Our guide on the boat trip on the bigger
crocpond was wonderful. He was so very
funny, so entertaining; I’m not sure how he sustains this, day after day, with
yet anther boatload of gawking tourists asking the same questions over and
over. He seems very happy with his lot
in life, and has a very healthy respect for the crocs which he encourages to
leap out of the water for a bit of a snack.
We learned a lot about crocs. Our salties, in Australia, are the most
fearsome and strong of all crocodilians.
The basic message is…DON’T go into the water, or even next to the water,
if there is any possibility of a salty strolling by… They also have the most
amazing immune system, and can recuperate from a (fellow crocodile-inflicted)
wound with amazing speed. And no…we are
not being over-run with crocs… They are just about back to normal numbers in
the Northern Territory, after many years of unregulated hunting, but in
Queensland they are still in (relatively) low numbers.
After a whole lot of feeding, leaping,
boating (some by crocs, some by us,) we repaired to the café where Pete had an icecream
and I had…a yoghurt with passionfruit topping… There are lots of scarily fat,
not to say HUGE, people in far northern Queensland and it has all made me just a
bit frightened of hot salty potato wedges, which is what I REALLY
wanted…followed, yes, by an almond-flavoured Magnum…
Some extreme regional prettiness - this photo taken from Thala Lodge resort, where we sneaked in for a peek at the luxury, and for Pete to make the waitresses giggle a lot...
Our next adventure was a bit of an
exploration of Port Douglas and its environs.
All very pretty, tropical, touristy.
We called in at a little yacht club, where there was a lively 50th
birthday party on the lawn. Most people
in bright clothes, and bedecked with leis.
We stayed to watch the band for a while – Barbary Coasters. I very astutely said to Pete, I bet they play
Jimmy Buffet!! (SO clever…) And yes, when they came back from their
break, the first song they played was – my song, Margaritaville! Followed by Changes in Latitude. I was very happy.
We walked along the beach at Port
Douglas, and marveled at the many people lying on the hot hot sun, getting a
lovely suntan…SO not a good idea…Yes I know I am getting a suntan too, but not
by lying in the sun…in fact I cover up and stay in the shade as much as
possible. I just absorb any rays of sun
which glance my way and turn what used to be a very desirable colour and is now
seen as Work Of The Devil.
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