The next stop was the lovely seaside town of Port Douglas however on the way we stopped to take in the nearby Crystal Cascades creek walk. We soon realised that walking in 30° 's is a very different experience than the temperatures we had grown accustomed to walking in during our stay in New Zealand and about 3 minutes into the walk we were sweating profusely and wondering if this was such a good idea. Fortunately it was a pretty short walk as the so called Crystal Cascades were a very disappointing sight and certainly not worth the effort! On the way back we were to pass a couple of fresh water swimming holes and Michael was keen to jump in to cool off. I was too concerned about the crocodiles and as a result had no intention of getting wet and had appointed myself chief croc watcher. Five minutes into my watch whilst Michael was having a cooling dip all I had seen were beesties and lots of them. After seeing my third freaky looking spider I had had enough and kindly requested Michael get out of the pool pronto so that we could get back to the van! The drive to Port Douglas only took about an hour and was a lovely scenic coastal road for most of the way. We stopped at a particularly beautiful lookout for a quick sandwich and whist munching away taking in the view we managed to see a few dolphins swimming past. When we arrived in Port Douglas it was the middle of the day and far to hot to go exploring so we parked up the van in the holiday park and headed straight to the beach to top up our tans. Whilst the beach itself is 4 miles long there is only a small section of the ocean that is monitored by lifeguards and as such you are recommended to swim there and if you needed any other persuasion it is also coming into stinger season where all the jelly fish come out and the patrolled area has a stinger net around it to keep out some of the larger jellies. The rest of the afternoon was spent relaxing at the beach taking the occasional dip in the ocean to cool down however you never wanted to hang around out there for long as some of the smaller stingers can still get through and some of them can apparently make you pretty ill! Once some of the heat had gone from the sun we took a wander into the town centre to check it out. As described in many of the guide books it is a lovely town with plenty of cafes, restaurants and shops and whilst Cairns is backpacker central Port Douglas is littered with many posh hotels and fancy resorts so there is not a stinky pub in sight. Unfortunately living on a backpackers budget we were unable to indulge in many of the niceties however we did treat ourselves to the most delicious ice creams we have ever tasted at Shakes Gelatoria before heading back to the van for a very glamorous cheesy beano!The next day was a very relaxing day at the beach where it was so hot, apart from one heat wave in Gran Canaria I cannot ever remember feeling the sun so hot even the water was a warm 28° which was lovely but completely useless to cool down in! It was so hot that we had to brave the stingers every half hour or so as it just got too hot to lie any longer. Our main objective of the day was to keep slapping on the factor 30 and try not to get completely fried as so many of the people around us seemed to be doing! We were both stung a couple of times but only by very small jellies and you only felt a tiny nip which lasted for a few minutes so it was nothing too dramatic. By late afternoon we had enough sun and headed back to the van to get a cold shower and have a couple of hours in the shade before heading to one of the many internet cafes to check our emails and post the last of our NZ photos.Before heading further up the coast the next day we decided to go to one of the many crocodile parks to get up close and personal with some crocodiles in a more controlled environment than just happening upon one on a beach! We chose Hartley's Crocodile Farm where a structured itinerary of shows allow you to see crocodile feeding, crocodile attack, crocodile farming as well as a boat ride around croc infested waters and also a chance to see koalas, snakes, cassowary's (native birds) and many of Australia's other native wildlife. The whole day was fantastic and with over 300 crocodiles in the park there was no shortage of action. The feeding was a particular highlight where you can see the crocodiles leap out of the water and with the loudest snap close their massive jaws around big fish heads and chickens. They have to be the scariest and meanest animals I have ever seen and whilst they talk about sharks attacking humans by mistake these beasts just wait around for a careless human to stumble into their domain and there is no doubt about it they will eat you! They are opportunistic feeders so its not a case of if they are hungry or not, if your there they will come for you. It was really interesting but also really scary at the same time and it has definitely put me off swimming in at risk waters and maybe even so called safe waters around this area (only the other day 3 beaches were closed in Cairns due to a salt water croc being spotted on the beach). The other crocodile demonstrations were really informative including the crocodile attack show were they can simulate what the crocodile will do if it catches you in its jaws. The next show was a snake demonstration where you are able to meet Australia's deadliest snake where one raindrop of venom is enough to kill 2 elephants or 50 000 mice (although I would love to see a snake eating an elephant)! After all the crocodiles we were able to meet some of Australia's gentler creatures my highlights being a wallaby with a baby poking out of its pouch and lets not forget the adorable koalas of which I must have taken about 50 photos. The last time we saw koalas they slept the entire time and were pretty boring to observe however at this park they had a tiny 1 year old who was really active and every time we passed their trees she seemed to wake up and climb around which was so amusing to watch. The last thing we watched was the feeding of the Koalas and fortunately they woke up for a feed which they so often don't do apparently! After the feeding we were lucky enough to get a tiny pat of the little baby before she went back to sleep and she was just the cutest little thing, it was the nicest way to end the day. The whole park was fantastic and with all the shows and demonstrations you really got a lot for your money and we were more than entertained for the entire day arriving for the first feeding at 9 we were there right though until 5 with only a quick stop in between for lunch!