Captain Cook

I must admit – every time I see a crocodile all I can think of is Peter Pan and Captain Cook – so there was a whole lot of that yesterday. We headed out to Hartley’s Crocodile Farm (farm as they breed crocs to sell for skins) – but it was one of the best animal viewing areas I’ve ever been to. The highlight of the day was the very first boat tour where they took us into a lagoon with 18 crocodiles and fed them off the side of the boat. Chris actually got the most amazing video footage – that I would put on here if I could – but you’ll have to see it when we get home!
We ate real crocodile meat for lunch (described as a cross between chicken and fish – but it was verging on a little leathery) so that was a treat and saw a lovely young woman handling the most deadly snake in the world – the Easter Taipan. I actually figure that all the tourist items that we have taken advantage of since we arrived here in Australia have had to do with the sun and beaches – or weird and wacky indigenous animals. Which leads me to my ignorant person of the day rant.
So we took a bus transfer up north to get in the croc park (as it’s halfway to Port Douglas for those of you with a map) and on the way we picked up an older British couple who sported perhaps the most pretentious accent I’ve heard in a long while. They jumped on the coach and we drove down the beach where they had just recently placed the stinger nets. A little background: stinger nets are placed in the warmer waters to create “safe” areas to swim in as the box jellyfish is somewhat deadly – not like the fun bluebottles that we get down on the Gold Coast. So yeah, they had placed the nets in the previous day and the woman comments that she was happy they got a swim in before that – it was just that more pleasant (at this point I asked myself if she thought they attracted the stingers, but I still gave her the benefit of the doubt). However, about 3km down the road she then proceeded to ask our guide if they would also have stingers on these beaches…now perhaps I’m being a little intolerant – but really. Come on now – it’s an OCEAN – I’m guessing that the whole concept was a little beyond the woman – but I honestly felt a little like I was watching This Hour Has 22 Minutes’ talking to Americans – but this time it was snooty British…sometimes I wonder about people – but she did give us a good deal to talk about later that day.
One might wonder what Chris and I have been up to here in Cairns other than being super tourists – and the answer is “not much.” It’s been great – although we are both looking forward to jumping back on our bikes tomorrow (and maybe heading up to Noosa where we get to see the big boys of Australia cycling duke it out in a crit – I want Baden Cooke to win!) Cairns has been everything we were expecting – namely hot and gorgeous and it has given us a chance to interact Aussie style with some locals. Consequently, I’ve been working on my Oz vocabulary and here are a few of my favs:
True: Used in a context of “you’re kidding me”
Flash: As in I have a flash bike – we might be more inclined to use flashy
Fair Dinkem: Chris’ favourite and I haven’t quite figured out how to use it, although many a postcard try to explain it!