Our Travel Adventures: 17th Oct Ellis Beach.... Who's eating who? Hartleys Crocodile farm..

I wake up to the gentle sound of rain on the tent, ten minutes later, the sun's out and trying to fry us alive. Lin's up and just come back from a walk along the beach, just mildly soggy. (anything to get out of making the coffee).

We're off to the crocodile farm today, so its a bowl of daily fibre, showers, fart ar*e around for god knows how long and we're off. Hartley's crocodile farm is only five k down the road, so its not too long before we're parking the bike and getting fleeced at the door. The've got a parrot by the front desk, and even that's giving me lip........

First up is the river cruise and our tour guide is 'Jason'. Now this geezer would look more at home at a biker beer drinking contest, big belly, bald, shades and a goati. I must admit, he had me fooled, the guy knew his job and turned out to be one of the funniest comics I've seen in ages, his safety drill had Lin rocking in her seat and me praying her tenner lady would hold out. No need to find the croc's, they found us and Jason soon had um leaping up and down, (the length these things go to for a Kentucky...). The croc's put on a great show and Jason was a great compair, all to soon, we're back on the jetty.

Right, time to get a photo of that oversized chicken with the chopper sticking out of its head, yep, the one Lin missed taking a photo of from the bike. The Cassowary bird. Now how can I describe this??? Well, it looks like an over sized turkey who someones whacked in the head with an axe and the shafts broken off, then it looks as though the bird has stuck its head into a pot of paint, given itself a hernia and is now wearing its gonads round its neck....... and that's the female. OK, so now we've got the all important photo, its off for lunch. We've seen the show, so nows the time to eat the cast. Croc's on the menu and I'm having some. What did it taste like?. daft question. It tasted like croc and bloody nice it was to, ate the lot. Full tums, (well mine anyway, Lin left hers and she had fish)..

And its off to see more of the weird and wonderful things sneaking round the countryside. We check out the snakes, spiders, turtles, some rather lazey wallaby's and a couple of koalas. All of this is good cos it teaches you what you can poke a finger at, and still have a finger. Time to check out the main event, the croc feeding. Well wadda ya know, Jason's doing it, might even loose an arm or a leg, he's good for a laugh this bloke. True to form, he's got the big croc doing death rolls, shaking its head and leaping out the water after a chicken burger, all time keeping the crowd laughing while dancing round, trying not to be to easy a target for the croc (and he was a big mother.) A good show all round, the crowd happy and Jason still had all his limbs, so he was quite pleased as well.

So the day comes to an end and its back to the camp. We settle down and after a while and decide supper's in order, so off down the camp kitchen we trot, only to find some bugger's messed about with the fridge and turned it right up. Everythings frozen, the lettuce is brittle, we cant cut the cue and the cherry tomato's are like marbles and we'd have to suck um. Sod this, we dump the lot in the bin and head out for a pizza. so the day ended well after all.

Heres the pics... enjoy

I woke up about 5.30am, so rather than wake John, I went and sat on the beach and watched the sunrise...

and so the day begins .........

This is Cracker, the parrot. He meets and greets you at the Hartley Crocodile Farm. He gave John a good bit of lip... rock on Cracker

This is a Cassowary...they are very anti social, very aggressive and a left over from the Dinasaur days.... they leave the men to sit on the eggs and then bring the babies up for two years, while they just go off never to see their babies.... theres women's lib for you!