Hartley's Crocodile Adventures

On Tuesday, October 25th, we spent a wildlife-rich and action-packed day at Hartley's Wildlife Park. It is located approximately halfway between Cairns and Port Douglas, and we only had to drive 20 minutes from Palm Cove, where we stayed. We arrived at 9 o'clock, and as poor students, we even received a discount, so we only paid $33.30 per person. At the ticket counter, the lady gave us a park map and wrote down the times for each show so that we could see everything. The park's main attraction is not the animal enclosures themselves, but the various shows.

Our first stop at 9:30 was the Cassowary feeding. Cassowaries are strange and creepy flightless birds that live in the rainforests of northern Australia. I find them creepy because they have a wicked look and very strong legs for kicking. But if you leave them alone, they are harmless. It was the first time Andi and I had heard of and seen these birds, so it was pretty cool. We even got to feed the birds with pieces of fruit ourselves! The caretaker told us some interesting facts about the animals, which was also quite fascinating.

The next stop was the Crocodile Farm Tour. The farm is the origin of the park, and the staff member there explained the beginnings and purpose of the farm. It is actually a commercial crocodile breeding farm. When the crocodiles reach a certain size, they are slaughtered and the meat and skin are sold, just like with cows or pigs. Only with crocodiles. It's quite a strange concept. When we saw the large tanks with hundreds of crocodiles, it really hit us that this was a real farm. And they don't hide it, they even sell crocodile handbags in the park's gift shop (by the way, they were quite nice, but at $2500-3500, they were rather unaffordable). Andi and I found it strange that an animal park sells such products because you would think that such a park only has animal-loving people and free, happy animals. But the park is mainly there to make money, and that's how it works. We were a bit concerned whether all the animals were kept in appropriate conditions because the enclosures seemed small to us, but we really don't have any expertise in that area. So it should be fine. On the tour, we also had the opportunity to stroke a small crocodile, which was really cool. It felt cool and bumpy.

At 10:30, we were supposed to be at the lagoon where the boat tours start. Unfortunately, we found out there that we were supposed to get a ticket at the ticket counter, which we didn't have, so we were not allowed on the tour. We went back to the ticket counter, and they gave us a ticket for the 12:30 tour, with a hint that we shouldn't lose the tickets this time. It was a bit annoying because we didn't even know that we would need tickets. But well, instead we walked around the park a bit and looked at other enclosures. At 11 o'clock, there was the crocodile feeding anyway. It only takes place once a day, so it was quite crowded. We managed to find a seat at the edge of the stands, and we could still see pretty well. The show was different than what I had expected: the animals didn't get much to eat because they don't need to eat much, but the caretakers triggered their hunting instinct by holding a piece of chicken on a long stick above a crocodile, and it would jump up to grab it. There was a loud popping sound when the jaws closed. I had never seen anything like it. Even the big male crocodile jumped up from the water and grabbed the chicken. Insane. The whole thing reminded me a bit of teasing a cat with a toy and quickly pulling it away when the cat reaches for it. But they did it with 4.5-meter crocodiles!! There were quite a lot of crocodiles in the enclosure, and during the show, there was an altercation between some females, and they jumped on each other and snapped at each other. It was quite a spectacle. The caretaker assured us that crocodiles are built for such fights. Well, if she says so...

After feeding the so-called Salties, it was time for the Freshies. They were in a different enclosure, and the caretakers did not have to be as careful there because the Freshies are smaller, and humans are not on their menu. Shortly after the caretakers entered the enclosure, we could see an incredible number of crocodiles that wanted to eat something, and one of the staff members said that there are 140 crocodiles living in the whole lake. Crazy!! She said that it's not a problem for them because they often live crowded together in nature when waterholes dry up. Still, I thought it was a bit excessive to keep so many crocodiles there.

After the feedings, it was around 11:45, and we had some time for lunch before we had to go on the boat tour. We sat by the pond of the waterfowl enclosure and could take a rest.

The second attempt with the boat tour went smoothly, and we could make ourselves comfortable there. The driver took us to a spot where he lured the crocodiles with the chicken stick again, and we could watch them jump right next to our boat (which was of course secured with walls). Then we cruised around the lagoon for a while and could see crocodiles here and there. It wasn't super special because we had already seen crocodiles so close in the water during the Yellow Water Tour.

After the boat ride, we had some more time and visited the part of the wildlife park with the wallabies/kangaroos, wombats, snakes, and quolls. They were all a bit sleepy, but we could spot a wombat in a tree trunk. I had always wanted to see one, so at least I could see its face. And we were able to take some cool photos with the kangaroos :)

At 2 o'clock in the afternoon, there was a snake show. I thought it was absolutely amazing. The guy had a few different snakes and showed them to us while explaining how to recognize them, where to find them, and how venomous they are. His last snake was the most venomous snake in the world!! Very fascinating. After the show, we were also able to stroke a snake. It felt totally smooth and cool

After the snake show, at the same location at 3 o'clock, there was the Crocodile Attack Show. And the name did not disappoint. The guy walked barefoot in this waterhole with the almost 5-meter-long crocodile, luring it with a chicken stick, and telling us how dangerous crocodiles are and how many people have died because of them. He knew some gruesome stories about really stupid people, for example, going swimming in the jungle at night. The show was very fascinating and really exciting because you never knew what the crocodile would do next, and you couldn't even see it in the muddy water. Sometimes the guy would say, "Where's he?" and poke around in the water with the stick until the crocodile resurfaced. Not really reassuring, even if it was mostly just for show :D By the way, the crocodile's name was Hagrid, a fitting name^^

By the way, the park also had a small section where crocodiles were kept in individual enclosures because they had caused trouble somewhere else. The fences had small signs with stories about how they ended up in the park. Most of them had eaten too much livestock or even pet dogs, were caught, and now have to reflect on their actions in the park, as one of the caretakers put it nicely. There were also a few alligators to see, and it was then that you really noticed the difference between alligators and crocodiles. The alligators looked really cute and are also much less aggressive and dangerous than the crocodiles.

After the crocodile show, we continued with the wallaby feeding at 4 o'clock. But it wasn't as exciting because they already had the same food in their bowls before. The cool thing was that the caretaker also fed the quolls, so we could get a good look at them. Quolls are the largest carnivorous marsupials in Australia and very rare. They have a funny white-spotted fur and look like slightly larger martens. They got dead mice to eat :D

After that, we went to our last stop of the day: the koala feeding at 4:30. Feeding the koalas actually just meant that they got fresh eucalyptus branches, and they would eat them during the night. They are nocturnal animals, after all. But the caretaker also walked around with a koala, and we could stroke it. Sooo soft!! It was great that they made something like that possible for us. We could have also taken a photo with a koala on our arm, then we would have felt it even more and for a longer time, but first of all, we thought it was too expensive for $20, and secondly, we found it pretty intense to have the poor koala passed from one person to another. So we only gave it a quick stroke 

After the koalas, our day was over. The park closes at 5 o'clock anyway, and we started our journey back home. In this case, home meant driving to Port Douglas. That was about 25 minutes, and when we arrived there, we looked for Karo and Matze's campground. They have been there for a few weeks now and work at a hotel. We found the place, booked two nights, and met the friendly couple. It was so nice to see them again! It was really cool that it worked out for us to meet at the campground. In the end, we spent 3 nights there and had a kind of vacation. More details will follow in the next entry :)