Hartleys Crocodile Farm

Earlier this week, we rented a car and headed out of town to check out a few nearby attractions.  To our delight, the drive alone was worth the rental.  We took the beautiful coastal highway north towards Port Douglas, stopping for a few photos of the pristine scenery along the way.  I loved how the highway was nestled between the ocean/beaches on one side and the rainforest/mountains on the other.  I think the photos do it justice but imagine 60km of this…  It was a truly gorgeous drive. 

Our first stop was Hartleys Crocodile Farm.  It was admittedly super touristy but it came highly recommended (even by locals) and we had a blast!  Obviously, crocodiles were the main attraction but there were lots of other native species to check out too.  This is a cassowary, an ostrich-like bird with a large talon on its toe, that we’d been warned could be deadly.  Could it have been deadly?  Maybe.  But it seemed pretty unlikely as this guy wanted nothing to do with me taking a photo of him and kept hiding behind a tree as far away from us as possible.

The coolest thing we saw with croc-wise was during our boat trip out into the lagoon, where there were crocodiles everywhere.  They were so big and up close that they almost seemed fake. 

To assure us that they were indeed real, and get us an even closer view of these huge beasts, the tour guide stopped the boat and tapped a stick with a huge chunk of venison on the end of it on the water a few times.  Moments later two of the largest crocs swam right up beside the boat to check out the offering.  Did you know that crocodiles (even fat 700kg+ crocs) can propel themselves five feet or more out of the water with their powerful tail?!  Well, if you didn’t before, now you do.  Check this out!  It was crazy but super awesome to see!

Here’s another impressive crocodile – Paul, a croc nearly 100 years old that’s been on the farm for decades (Fun fact: crocs could theoretically live forever but they only have so many new teeth they can produce and once they stop generating new teeth, they starve.  So in captivity, where they aren't forced to hunt for food, they can live for a very, very long time).  Paul was spared by Hartleys in the 40s when some nearby farmers wanted him killed for biting the heads of their cattle.  He’s one big boy...  I'm pretty sure I would die from fright if I saw one of these in the wild!

We’ve seen our fair share of koalas in Australia but we’ve never seen a baby so Alex had me take a photo of this cute little cub napping in its mama’s pouch.

Finally, the super duper highlight of Hartleys was, for both of us, the kangaroos.  They were so cute; just lounging out in the open basking the sun and happy to be adored by anyone who walked by and wanted to say hello.  We were able to pet them and they sort of purred, like a cat.  Plus, they were so soft Alex joked that, unlike the koala, they must be using conditioner.  We could have sat there with them all day if there weren’t kids waiting for their turn to pet them but we were forced to move on.  Kangaroos at the Croc Farm were an unexpected surprise but one of our favorite attractions of the day and a wonderful note on which to end our visit!