RY Day 16 – Crocs, slides, bbq & sunsets !!

So… this gorgeous pic of Jordan is how we finished our Saturday, but more of that later.

Our initial plans for today were foiled by the wet weather… so.. Plan B. Crocodylus Park. While initially we thought it was a tad expensive ($125 for the 5 of us), by the end, we were really happy to have gone.

This place is not only a zoo, but a crocodile farm, which at first I thought was gross. In the carpark, there’s a sign that says ‘Hold a crocodile’ and a sign beside it that says ‘Crocodile meat available for your next bbq’.  However, after the 45min tour that actually explained the entire farming process, I felt much better about it. 

How many crocs do you think are in this pond??? 525 !! Wowzers.. talk about cramped.  Lol.

While this pic is kinda blurry, does anybody else agree that this emu is doing an impersonation of the kangaroo?? LOL !!

Now, this Meerkat was downright hilarious.  There were apparently several in the pen, but we only saw this one as there was an eagle flying about, so she was constantly communicating with the rest of them to stay hidden.  It was so funny because she took her guard job so seriously. Her stance and expression were so entertaining. We stood watching her on security detail for a good 10mins.

This is the monkey enclosure… bahahahahaha. They are a modern breed that wear clothes,  hats & boots. 😁😂😃😄

In this pic, Master 12  & DH are walking along the boardwalk that crosses over the 10 croc areas. They mostly have breeding pairs in them.

Miss 13 was hanging out to hold a snake & a crocodile (not at the same time though. Lol) This snake was very friendly, & let’s just say that Master 12 has now upped his persuasive techniques for getting a snake as a pet.  Maybe it’s a good idea. . It could stop him picking up random snakes outside ? Lol.

Bubbles the snake !!

This cutsie crocodile is a year old and was quite cool to touch.  It’s belly felt like pancakes..😊 I think it’s cool that their sex is determined by the temperature the eggs are kept in,  so they can actually plan for what they need etc. .

This next pic is DH making friends with another of his height blessed kind. I must say,  they did seem to have a bond going on. Mr Ostrich kept following DH along the fence.

 

 

 

These white lions were totally cool..

 

 

 

Our next stop was Leanyer Recreation Park. It is a free water park & playground run by the YMCA. 

 

 

 

Let’s just say the kids LOVED it !! Personally I liked the cafe, as they made the BEST iced coffee I’ve ever had..

 

 

 

& Yes, Dad was roped in to going down the slides.  However, it didn’t look like he minded. 

 

The park had one of those buckets that fill up and then dump out, but quite often they don’t hold a lot of water… the one here was not one of those… it takes 3mins to fill and then dumps out a copious amount of water. Miss 13 did comment that it actually hurts to have it land on you.

After finally dragging the kids (& DH) away from the waterpark, we headed home for an early dinner before our plans to watch the sunset over the beach.

Tonight’s dinner plan was bbq out in our courtyard. Not a bad setting at all. Chef DH did a fab job.

After we’d eaten & cleaned up, we jumped in the car and made our way to Mindil Beach. I took the ipad and did a time lapse  video of the sunset, however it wasn’t as good as it could have been due to the cloud cover.

Miss 13 enjoyed doing artwork in the sand, while Masters 10 & 12 made a raft-like structure out of materials they found on the beach.

Seeing I had to sit up on the dunes the whole time we were there, both because of my knee, and also to do the video, I was able to hear things going on behind me in the carpark on the other side of the dunes.  It seemed as if there was some drunken behaviour going on back there, but I just assumed it was some young people so I wasn’t that concerned.

But unfortunately when we headed to the car, we were to have our most scary experience with Aboriginals yet. A seemingly drunk (but uninjured) aboriginal guy was in the carpark. He was not far from our car and he was pointedly following us to our car. He asked Terry to call him an ambulance, & when Terry ignored him and indicated for Miss 13 to get in the car on his side, & I hurried the boys into my side of the car, our ‘friend’ gestured to the group of 5 or 6 other Aboriginals that I hadn’t even noticed were here, to come over. By this stage we were like, how do you lock the doors in this car?? Clever Miss 13 had hers locked straight away as he was closest to her door.  I chose to not to look where the others were as I was trying to not freak out.

Such a sad way to end our nice evening. 😐

Thankfully,  there is a movie on right now that is making us all laugh (Ace Ventura), so all is good now.

Until t’row peeps, where hopefully weather won’t spoil our plans, as it will be our last opportunity to do this.

Blessings xox