Jul 9
Where are we again?
Last night Claire and I spent our last night in Cairns meeting up with our Dutch friend Rody and one of his friends at a place called the Woodshed. We decided to check it out because of their drink specials and it was part of our hostel’s pub crawl. It turned out to be a lot of fun, the best part being the gold fish races. The bar had two narrow tanks with tiny checkered flags to mark the finish line. They auctioned off goldfish representing countries around the world. Rody bought Paddy from Ireland and I bought the something Dike from Holland. Once the fish are dumped into the tanks you take a straw and blow bubbles behind them, encouraging them to move forward. I think mine had a bad fin or maybe it was Claire poking him with her fingers because he didn’t make it far. Rody’s however finished second and won him some good coupons.
This morning we woke up early to catch our Oz Experience bus. I wish I would have paid attention to the directions the lady behind our hostel desk gave us because Claire and I waited at the wrong spot talking to Rody and his friend while they waited for their bus for about fifteen minutes. Claire believed we were at the right spot but I felt nervous so I called and while on the phone with the company Claire realized she had a missed call from them wondering where we were. Apparently we were at the wrong spot. We made out fine though as the bus came back and before long I was asleep.
Our bus made a pit stop at a crocodile farm where crocodiles are raised and bred for their skins. The keepers say this is to keep fashion companies from sending poachers out and damaging the wild population but it still seemed weird to be at a crocodile farm. We saw so many other animals like kangaroos, peacocks, boars, dingoes, and emus. We held a little crocodile, snakes, and large birds before beginning the tour making us all squirm a little. One of the coolest things we saw was the handlers hand feeding the HUGE crocodiles whole pieces of chicken, feet and all. Some were there because they had caused problems around people in the wild. The largest croc had eaten 50 of one farmers cattle including a prize winning steer worth over $10,000. There were other awesome animals including a male emu sitting on his eggs in a trance while the keeper lifted him up revealing the large green eggs. Another emu stalked me as our group moved around the crocs making me speed up my pace a little. We also saw a kangaroo with a leg sticking out of her pouch eating out of our hands until a group of school children came running up.
We headed off yet again and took a pit stop for lunch where Claire and I were about to make sandwiches. As we looked around for my bags with the jelly and knives I began to panic as one of my bags was apparently not there. Claire said that it was probably in there somewhere but I had to be sure and I’m glad I did because it wasn’t. I guess someone at our previous stop had moved it to reception and so our driver had to turn around and pick it up.
We are currently on Magnetic Island off the coast of Townsville. Pretty much in the middle of no where at a hostel on the beach. There are palm trees, hammocks, little shacks, AND it’s ladies’ night! Well my internet credit is almost done and the bar is playing games to win prizes so until next time . . .
Miranda