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And now my Oz experience road trip starts.....a hop on/hop off bus which I'll be taking all the way down to Melbourne over a 28 day period. It differs from the greyhound, allegedly, as the drivers provide on board commentary and the journey includes some additional activities such as walks, surf lessons etc..
My first destination on the bus was Mission Beach, en route making 2 stops at Babinda boulders and the Johnson River Crocodile River at Innisfail. Babinda is an amusing town as it is in competition with another one called Tully to become the holder of the 'Golden Gumboot' a gold statue in the shape of a welly boot which is awarded to the wettest town in Australia each year. Invariably the recipient of this award is one of these 2 towns hence the competition.
When we were first told we were going to a croc farm I was a bit like 'I am so over crocodiles', but I have to say I really enjoyed myself! The place is essentially a working farm so crocs are bred and harvested at a fairly young age for their skin and meat. Their skin is softer if they are young which is just the way their end customer, Gucci, Prada etc, like it. In addition to the farming they also act as a permanent detention centre for delinquent crocodiles - the type that act as a pest in areas used by humans! We watched a few of them being fed - because it's getting cooler they were a little lethargic, well that was until the keeper whacked them with a stick and boy then they moved! We also got to feed kangaroos, stroke a dingo and see the endangered and evil Cassowary (which we'd been looking for the whole day at Cape Trib to no avail).
Mission Beach itelf isn't really up to much, the hostel was lovely and the beach was ok but other than that... the bus service is atrocious and even the locals didn't seem to be able to understand the timetable. So, in between rain showers, I jut chilled out on the beach. On one of the evenings we went to the pub as there was an important rugby match being played between Queensland and New South Wales - as we were in Queensland we thought we had better support them and fortunately they won!
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