The next day, we set off on the final day of the Oz Experience part of my trip towards Cairns. One of our first stops was in Innisfail, where the centre of Cyclone Larry had hit the mainland. Apart from the obvious damage to the rainforest and crops, there were still plenty of roofs with tarpaulins on them to keep the rain out and a number of buildings that had evidently been abandoned because they were so badly damaged.
We weren't able to go to one of the walks in the Atherton Tablelands because it was still closed, so we went instead to the crocodile farm in Innisfail. We had a guided tour around the working farm at feeding time, getting a good look at both saltwater and freshwater crocodiles. The freshwater ones can grow up to about 3 or 4 metres and attack people unless you provoke them, but the saltwater crocodiles are the ones to watch out for; they grow up to 7m long, weigh up to 1000kg and see you as just another source of food.
Crocodiles are the longest surviving relatives of the dinosaurs and look the part to match. As the world's largest reptiles, they hunt using stealth but not so frequently as they can survive months without food. Left alone in the wild, crocodiles can easily live up to 100 years old.
After the tour, we had the chance to handle a snake, a baby crocodile and a blue-tongued lizard, which I had a go at. Snakes aren't as slimy as you might think and feel like one giant leather muscle, which I guess they are in a sense. The baby crocodile had its mouth taped shut, but even though it was small you wouldn't want to get in its way!
We drove to a lake for lunch and had a look around before driving further north towards Cairns. On the way, we stopped briefly at a waterfall in the Atherton Tablelands and the Curtain Fig Tree, a huge and unique plant formed from the freak collision of two fig trees. Our penultimate stop of the day was at the A.J. Hackett bungy jump site, the only one in Australia. I didn't opt to do a bungy because I think it's overpriced and not as good as the ones in New Zealand, but several of the group did and seemed to enjoy the thrill a great deal. We finished the day by driving into Cairns and then went out that evening for our farewell dinner at The Woolshed.
