Got the new car, a Hyundai Getz early in the morning and off we headed North towards the Wet Tropics of Queenslands far North. On the way up we stopped off at a place called Hartleys Crocodile Adventures for a Squizz (Aussie word for Gawk). It is a bit Reptile zoo/farm and they do shows and things so we actually spent the day there. The first thing we did was a Cruise around their man made Lagoon, which took them 8 years to construct. They have loads of crocs in it, the bigger ones, and the tour guide tells ya a bit about the differences and some interesting facts before she ties some meat to the end of a stick and hangs it over the side of the boat.... this is obviously where it starts to get interesting. She starts out by telling us they recently moved a new female into the lagoon and that she is a little bit deranged and unpredictable. The day before the guide had had a close call when this croc had grabbed her by the arm, and the guide didnt mind telling us she needed a change of pants afterwards... she was still visibily shaken from it but assurred us that only the children on board were in real danger. Anyway, up leaped the crocs as she pulled the meat away so they wouldnt get it, and she wonders why she gets attacked... teasing crocs surely isnt wise. Still, they are mightly scary looking beasts, so prehistoric and evil looking. They leaped out almost to their hind legs to get at the food and the noise of the jaws snapping was seriously frightening. A few years back they got a new croc in from a zoo and had to put him on a no food diet for six months to get him used to their way of things. When they finally did feed him the local police had to be called because of reports of a bomb going off in the area. After that we dusted ourselves off and went over to check out the Crocodile feeding, more of the same frightening experiences here, snapping and fighting crocs a few meters away behind some fences.... We made up our minds there and then not to mess with crocs in the wild!!!!! After the croc show we walked around the park and saw some spiders and some koala and kangaroos and a Casowary. There ARE only 1500 of them left in the wild, and they are weird looking. They look like they should be extinct, and I dont mean that in a mean way, more of a they look like they dont belong in our time at all. Anyway, after some lunch we popped down to the snake show featuring as its main attraction the worlds most poisonous snake, the inland taipan also known as the fierce snake, native of Australia of course, can kill you three times with one bite in only 15 minutes time, can kill 250 mice with one drop of venom..... and the worst part.... it has never killed a human on record, useless if ya ask me!!! Finally for our croc experience was the crocodile attack show, this consisted of a Steve Irwin wanaby getting into the croc enclosure, with one croc in it, and teasing him with food and showing us the death roll whilst trying to teach us about crocodile safety....????? Basically the point was dont do anything he did I guess. That was more or less it, apart from the farm.... the croc farm. It is what it is, a farm for making crocs, for eating and making bags out of, pretty sick if you ask me but no different to a moo cow farm I guess. On we went to Port Douglas after this, looking forward to a swim in some cold water, its hot up here in the far north