Never Smile At A Crocodile

Up here in North Queensland, saltwater crocodiles rule the waves but instead of wading out into the ocean to see/be attacked by one, we headed to Hartley's Crocodile Adventures. Hartley's is a working crocodile farm, harvesting their skin for Louis Vuitton.

We started off with a quick tour of the farm to learn more about what they really do. Despite vague animal rights protestations from a woman in the group, we found out that farming of saltwater crocodiles began when numbers of the creatures in the wild started to plummet dramatically. After much consideration, it was decided that the only way to keep the animals from becoming extinct was to farm them specifically for their skin and meat instead of hunting them in the wild. We were shown to the growing out pens where we were allowed to stroke a baby croc and I took easily the best photo of the day.

That face is priceless.

Next up was Jesse's snake show. A King Brown, a taipan (Australia's most venomous snake) and a python were thrust just inches from our face

Then we were treated to some thrills on the cruise boat. 

Sorry for this random man's arm.

With only a thing piece of glass between us and the water and the almighty slam of their bite, it made for some nervous nail biting. But the excitement didn't stop there. Instead we rushed off for front row seats at the crocodile attack show. The boys got straight in the water and had the beast feeding out of their hands before showing us the crocodile's favoured fatal move - the death roll. 

It was brilliant but all very scary and those boys are far braver than I. I'll close with by far the most terrifying image of the day though of this man eating crocodile.

Hehe.