Day 7: Cairns to Port Douglas

We woke to grey rainy skies - we were so lucky to fly yesterday in that spectacular weather! After a mad scramble we managed to vacate the hotel by 8:10am. 

View from the hotel - no hills in background, Convention centre on left

The living/dining area of the hotel room

We then drove to Hartley's Crocodile Farm and we just made the 9am boat trip. There were 26 crocs in this lagoon and we saw quite a few of them.  They did some feeding off the side of the boat which was great fun.

After the boat trip we had a drink and a snack before heading down to the crocodile farm.

The croc farm is where they grow the croc's to then be killed for handbags, belts and shoes.  The farm is essential otherwise the trade would go into the black market and the crocs would be poached to met the demand. All croc eggs are male and it depends on the incubation temperature  whether they become female or not.

After this we walked around to the Freshwater crocodiles, through the birds and then onto the Croc feeding area for the 11am show.  The show was really good as we saw a lot of jumping crocs and some truely massive ones.

 After the show we had lunch and a bit of a break at the cafe. Once we were all energized we went for another walk past more crocs and ended up in the reptile area.  Lots to see!

Lastly we went to the 12:30pm Croc attack show.  This was a shorter show without the cool barrel role and head shake demonstrations however it was still good to see.  He was a very brave keeper!

Then it was time to go, so we trekked off to Port Douglas.  Rohan feel asleep 6km out!  The hotel was in a great location at the end of Macrossan street, right on the inlet.  Our room was ready, so we parked the car in the underground carpark and Steve took the bags up.  I stayed in the car with the a/c on to let Rohan sleep.

Eventually Steve came back and I woke Rohan and we went up to the room.  The hotel/apartment was pretty nice!  We all had some biscuits in the lounge area and chilled for a bit.

When we thought Rohan could handle it, we walked to Coles down the road and did the grocery shop before heading back.  Steve and I went out into the outside lounge area (this apartment is seriously big) and had a beer whilst the kids were in the lounge watching Mister Maker (ABC for kids).  They were SO tired after a big couple of days, so a bit of TV relaxation probably helped give them a rest.

We decided to go to the Ironbar for dinner as they had macaroni and cheese for the kids which was a nice change.  Julian went for that but Rohan was adamant that he wanted Chicken nuggets. Steve had a Coral Sea fish curry and I had a Chicken burger with a side of vegetables.  It was all really good.  The boys finished the meal with ice-cream - 3 scoops, so they were very chilled afterwards.

The apartment has a lovely free-standing bath, so the boys had a "relaxing soak" before going to bed.  Their room has no windows and a very solid door, so it is pitch black.  We put the bedside clock in there to act as a nightlight (we forgot the groclock but they are coping well).