Okay so we’ve been terribly busy doing….well not a lot! Well who can blame us when we have this pool 5 metres from our back door!!! After 11 nights in a camper van we are absolutely loving being in a spacious holiday home in Palm Cove, just 20 minutes north of Cairns. 

Luckily for us, it’s the quiet low season now, with school holidays being over and the weather now officially in the ‘Wet Season’. It’s crazy monsoon downpours one minute, hot clear skies the next and about 95% humidity! 😅A little different to an English February!!!!

We decided to use this week as a bit of a base for chilling after time on the road and also catching up on homeschooling, which has gone really well. We’ve got a little routine going and break times are spent in the pool, the girls have no idea how lucky they are!!!

The local area is very beautiful, Palm fringed beaches, lush bush and such amazing and intricate tropical plants! However we are well aware of the fact we’re in an area full of dangerous animals! Even the beaches have signs that say don’t swim, crocodiles and jellyfish present in the water! Yikes if there’s anything that’s going to put you on edge it’s the thought of two beady croc eyes 👀 sneaking up on you!

So yes we’re absolutely delighted with the lovely safe pool right outside our door!

However today after schooling was over, we’d finished swimming in the pools during the many downpours….and the sun finally came out to play, we decided to head over to Hartleys Crocodile Farm! Figured that might be the safest place to actually get up close!

We arrived just in time for the crocodile farm tour which was very interesting and so fascinating to learn about the crocodile leather industry. We then took the boat tour along the tree lined lagoon, shortly after setting off we could see the eyes appearing up through the murky water and large bodies zig zag swimming towards us for the pole feeding by the side of the boat! Woah, such powerful creatures, with such a strong lunge and bite! Amazing to be so close!

Facts of the day, Did you know crocodiles can stay underwater for up to 6 hours, and last a whole year without food! No wonder these prehistoric beasts have lived for so long on earth! Incredible stuff!

After getting safely back on land we went to see the venomous snake show and then the crocodile Attack show! Which basically consisted of a crazy barefoot Aussie messing around with full 4-5 metre long adult croc in the water! Impressive but boy that man was nuts!

So after a couple of nail biting hours we decided to head to the more fluffy gentle part of the farm….koalas, wallabies and kangaroos! It was lovely we got to go into their large enclosure and hand feed them dinner! The girls loved it and we were there for ages making sure everyone had some corn, carrots and apples!

We also fed the cassowary birds, now there’s a strange Australian animal! Well described by the keeper as a sort of Emu in drag! 😂

All in all a good day out!

As we drove home along the coast, we stoped at a rocky cove where we spotted lots of man made rock sculptures created out of stones and pebbles, so we jumped out the car and decided to add our own one to the hundreds there! Obviously keeping an eye out for any sneaky crocs!!!!