The Mighty Dougie Crocs

We've had 4 more days of amazing croc adventures in Port Dougie and tomorrow are off to where the rainforest meets the sea at Cape Trib.  The Lummos came up on Monday for another big cook up while the Lord and I watched The Black Whole in which Nassim Haramein explains how space is denser then matter and every atom is a black hole (but should be described as whole because it doesn't just disappear it comes back).  How we are all black wholes, made of 99.9999% empty space (which is what every atom is made of), and constantly fluctuating into and out of material existence, dipping back into the Unified Field at the speed of light, constantly informing and being informed with everything in existence- and that's NOT a whole lotta croc.  The Lummo girls were wearing crocs however, and we had icecream o'clock hit us with the force of 5 fired up kids by mid arvo, then threw the aerobi at the park til I threw it in the water and it started to get dark.  The next day we hit Hartleys Croc Farm which we enjoyed much more then Australia Zoo.  The croc shows were great and the people were fun. I took a photo of a guy who had one of Archer's t-shirts on too!

Us on the boat going deep into croc territory

 Nathanial calling to them

 Wooz finally gets a croc to come over

 The oldest, biggest croc, Ted just looks on with his 1 eye and 1 tooth.

 

 Bit of fishing

 A croc trying to camouflage himself

 Stan was very funny on the boat ride then he took the snake show, showing off his inland taipan, the deadliest snake in the world, and telling all the kids out there to bug their parents into getting them a snake.  He said if they bugged us enough we would definitely get them a venomous snake!  Arch then helped him with the demonstration of what to do with a snake bite, just like he did 6 years ago.

 Learnt some other interesting things like crocodile sex is determined by the temperature of the egg, a swan can kill someone by beating them with their wings, and a cassowary can get very angry and gut you like a pig.  Also koalas are boring and yet they are a billion dollar tourist industry for the country and if a crocodile grabs you and drags you under you can put your hand down their throat and open up a gland that lets water in so they have to let you go and go take a breath.  Stan also mentioned that kids don't seem to know where any food comes from now, they think Dumbledore says "Expecto Cornflakes" and it just appears!  The boys fed some wallabies some corn after that and then we bought a fish bag, a Spirit Dreaming cd, and the boys got a couple of crocodile magnets on the way out to celebrate a great day. 

 On the way home we stopped at Rex’s lookout for a great view down to Oak Beach where Fi and Ant stayed.  There we watched a hanglider take off and Wooz jumped off the edge to try and fly like a bird as well.   

 When we got back we had a nice time rock hopping up Spring Creek, trying to get to the falls, but having to turn back as it was getting dark. 

 The next day we did the indigenous tour with Linc Walker at his home at Cooya Beach just north of Port Douglas.  It was definitely one of the best days on tour as Linc in his very friendly and laid back manner taught us their traditional ways of fishing and gathering food.  We collected wild almonds, coconuts, ate green ants, learnt how to throw spears with and without the woomera, then went crabbing and speared a bucket load of sand and mud crabs (Arch was the standout) including some very feisty big ones that were all buried in the sand under water (how we didn’t spear each other in the foot!)  Then Linc speared a stingray and took its barb off that they use for the end of their spears and the stingray swam off apparently fine.  He showed us how to tame a puffer fish, where the dugong and turtles come up to feed, where to find coccles, mangrove mussels, edible pippies and the snails that live in the cone shells.  Then he took us back to his mum’s place and she cooked up all the food for us plus damper and muffins and we gorged ourselves while Linc showed us all sorts of shells,  told us some great stories and showed us how to play the didge.  But the best lesson was how everything should be easy, he called it lazy, and that’s how they read the behaviour of the animal life because that is a law of nature- least effort.  He also said one of their laws was no waste so you had to eat everything you caught.  We did a good job of that.  We paid for 2 hours with Linc and he gave us 5 what a gift. 

 The next day the boys were keen to go fishing again ofcourse so we hired a plonk for a couple of hours and went out on the river.  Arch and Kirst had a go at being skipper and we went right up the other end of the river, passed a croc, and dropped anchor and had a fish.  Kirst was the first to catch a little bream, then I caught an even smaller little fella, then Wooz stepped up to the plate again with his fishing and caught a good size bream and a butterfish.  Arch stuck to his crabbing reputation and landed a huge Jenny which we had to throw back- can’t keep the mums.  Talking about mums we won’t mention Kirst and her boat behaviour.   

 We threw all our catch back and went to the Tin Shed for lunch with a beautiful view over the water then did a big shop to stock up for our trip to Cape Trib.   

 

 Went to the skatepark at the end of the day and had a kick of the footy as we watched the Dougie Crocs train.  Beautiful sunset and headed back for a nice dinner of wraps before heading deep into croc country.