Bring on the Toads!

We are leaving a beautiful resort in the tropical town of Port Douglas about an hour from Cairns flying to Sydney.  Our hotels have all been great even if the rooms are small like a European boutique.  This one had Koi ponds with cute little green tree frogs, waterfalls, a great pool with a swim up bar, and outdoor seating at the bar and restaurant.  A noisy white lipped tree frog kept us company with an amazing croak for such a little guy.

Hartley’s Crocodile Adventures is an optional day trip along with lunch.  John guides us around the park, and he is a wealth of information about the animals.  Adorable koalas are asleep in their trees, but other than eating eucalyptus, their only food source, koalas are basically lazy and sleep twenty hours a day.  The wombat is also asleep in his log and ignoring all the interest in him.  Both animals have a hard plate of cartilage on their bottoms which allows the koala to sit for hours without moving nor discomfort.  When a predator chases a wombat into its burrow, the solid plate protects the animal’s soft fleshy parts.  Dingos have even been killed by furry little wombats when the predator’s jaw or head is crushed between the top of the burrow and the cartilaginous bottom of the wombat.

Both of these marsupials have “backward” pouches so joeys may be seen peeking between their mom’s legs!  A baby’s gestation is only a few days before the infant emerges about the size of a grain of rice.  The mother koala even licks her fur to smooth a pathway for the infant to travel to the pouch.  When the mother is ready to wean the joey she prepares a mixture of her poop to feed to the baby.  Eucalyptus leaves are not only indigestible but also poisonous without a certain bacteria in the animal’s gut.

We wander pathways through different environments….wetlands, woodlands, and rainforests visiting animals in each one.  A pair of emus are thoroughly enjoying their water hole rolling around and splashing in the muddy water.  Even John has never seen this behavior!

The lizard house has an assortment of snakes and lizards all basking in the light either artificial or real.  The monitors look prehistoric with angry black eyes and are busy exploring a hole in a tree in their enclosure. 

A cassowary, another Australian native similar to an emu but with glossy thin black feathers, a sapphire blue neck, and a head crest evidently has a wicked razor-shaped nail which can slice an animal…or man…open.

The large fruit bats hanging upside down wave their leathery looking wings as if to create a breeze, and a owl preens it’s feathers inside the box.  We try but are unsuccessful in getting the kookaburra bird to demonstrate his distinctive call.

We board an enclosed boat for a trip around the lagoon to see the crocodiles and witness a feeding session.  The crocodiles in the water lazily propel themselves with an undulating tail while others are basking on the banks.  One large croc has her mouth completely agape perhaps sleeping and using this as a method of cooling herself off.

The boat driver extends meat on a pole from the front of the boat as a tempting treat for a large crocodile in the water.   He lunges upward, and his jaws snap shut with a resounding clap, and you can image the pressure exerted.  Several more feedings are done so both sides of the boat has a chance to witness these creatures.  Thank goodness for a safe distance!

A final lunch before leaving the harbor in Port Douglas of roasted pork tacos along with a Bundaberg blood orange sparking drink.  These come in a multitude of flavors including ginger beer, but I’m going to be looking for the fruit flavors back in the states.

I search for a particular t-shirt around town about snorkeling on the Great Barrier Reef, but I  can’t seem to find the right one.  I start to walk the two miles back to our hotel, but I get lost and wander around several streets, but none are the correct ones.  I finally walk back into town, ask a store owner about the shuttle, and he tells me to catch it at the Irish bar at the end of the block.  Well, I couldn’t find the bar either, and finally paused in a patch of shade to rest.  After 30 minutes, the shuttle appeared, and it was with thanksgiving I pay my $6.00 and ride in air-conditioned comfort back to the resort.

John has a special treat for us tonight before dinner.  We load up into the shuttle, and disembark at the pub with toad racing!   Locals, tourists, families, and all ages crowd into this outdoor venue packed with a couple of hundred people, and I am so excited!  The announcer talks about the history of the cane toad coming from America to eliminate the cane beetle, but as I described earlier, it is a huge failure resulting in several billion pests with no predators.

He reaches into a large bucket and pulls out a wiggly brown ugly toad.  Each one has a name…Jerry Springer, Camel Toad, Donald Jump, …with a colored hair tie across the toad’s middle to distinguish it.  People are invited to be a “jockey” for the first race with only one requirement.  You must kiss your toad!

Toads are placed in the middle of a table, and the jockeys have party blowers to encourage their toads to jump with the first one off the table winning.  However, some toads escape and are making for their freedom between people’s chairs and legs.  This creates bedlam as people scurry out of the way while the jockeys try to catch them.  It’s all great fun!

The next round is a betting one with people bidding as high as a $100 on their favorite toad for the opportunity to be its jockey!  I know Australia is a huge gambling nation, but as the final bid is made, the announcer hands the credit card reader to the individual and payment is accepted immediately.  

I am in the wrong business since this toad racing is a profitable enterprise… $6 entrance fee x a couple of hundred people, food and drinks revenue, plus hundreds of dollars from the race betting!  This guy is printing money!

Driving to the airport is an opportunity for John to teach us more about his adopted homeland.  Within twenty years of English settlers in Australia, a distinct accent had been developed.  His theory is it’s a blend of English, Irish, Scottish and drunkenness since lots of alcohol was being consumed in an early “rum economy “.

In 1942, the Battle of the Coral Sea, the body of water east of Australia before joining the Pacific Ocean, pitted the Empire of Japan against the Allies.  Japan planned to capture ports in the Solomon Islands but were diverted when they discovered the Australian and American fleets were nearby.  It is the first major naval battle where the ships never had visual contact but launched aircraft to find their enemies’ vessels.  The ships were vulnerable since they could not leave the area after the planes were in the air or they would not have a safe landing target,  and although, ships fired on enemy planes, they never fired on other ships.  

The Japanese fleet returned to Japan for repairs while the Allied ships patched themselves up in place.  Ultimately this affected the outcome of the war.  Australians have always been appreciative of America’s defense of their country when many of its own men were fighting abroad during World War II.  Of course, this caused some jealousy at home since the “Yanks” were winning all the Aussie girls’ hearts!

The northern town of Darwin was bombed by Japan during the war with 230 people killed, but it was reported that only 12 people died to reduce the shock to Australian citizens.  Japanese subs were also in Sydney harbor.  Japan culture has numerous stories about dragons, and Aussies would drag the largest crocodiles they could find to the coastline to deter the enemy from landing!

In 1980, Paul Hogan was working as a painter on the Sydney Harbor Bridge.  He joined a local comedy troupe, was in several popular local comedy shows, and decided to produce and star in a feature film, “Crocodile Dundee”, which was a huge success and was the number one movie in the world in 1986!  

American studios bought the name of Fosters Lager which is prominent in the film, and the way Americans and the world perceived Australia was based on this movie.  However, there is no Fosters Lager in Australia; only in America!  Likewise, “Put a shrimp on the barbie” was a publicity stunt featuring Hogan when Australians only eat prawns!  However, it did cause an increase in the demand for prawns in Australia!

Steve Irwin is a national hero who unfortunately died in 2006 at age 44.  His father, a plumber by trade, also rehabilitated wild animals and collected snake venom.  At four years old, Steve, with his little sandal foot on the head of a brown snake said, “I got one!” to his dad who realized that his son had a special talent with animals.  

For his twelfth birthday, Steve finally received permission to jump on the back of a 1200 lb crocodile and wrap his snout!  He became a crocodile relocater and decided to make a promotional video leading to a multi-million dollar enterprise and the Australian Zoo where the motto is “Animals first, Employees Second, and Customers Third”!.  He was dedicated to the environment and animals and bought thousands of acres of land around the world to preserve it and manage it intelligently.  

His wife, Terri, now manages the zoo and foundation along with their two children.  In 2008, John was on a trip with seventeen boys when one found an injured snake someone had slammed against a tree.  They got a ranger involved who notified the Irwin’s wildlife rescue organization, and they flew a helicopter to pick up the snake.  They later reported that it was alive and recuperating, and if unable to be returned to the wild, would live its life at the zoo!

We have been blessed with great flights, no lost luggage, and except for my cold (which I unfortunately and unintentionally spread to several others), and one of my tour mate’s fall on a walk in King’s Canyon, our group has been healthy and fortunate in traveling together.  I mention this, and I’m afraid I jinxed the group!  One piece of luggage “almost” didn’t appear when we arrived in Sydney, and another one of our group is feeling a little GI distress.  I am so sorry I said anything!

Sydney, Australia’s first European city, has 5 million people, and is not planned like Melbourne.  In 1788, Captain Phillips following Captain Cook’s map from his previous exploration where he inadvertently ran into the Great Barrier Reef, finds Sydney harbor.  After two days, conflict erupts between the Europeans and native aborigines with shots fired and spears thrown.

Before the American Revolution, England sent 60,000 prisoners to the “new world”, but after the war, Australia became the depository for the criminals and unwanted from England.  For the next 100 years, 160,000 prisoners are brought to Australian shores.

Sydney harbor is one of the largest and prettiest in the world, and it is no longer a working one with shipping moved north and south.  A lot of the city is “gentrified industrial “ with terrace style buildings displaying their original convict-cut stone facades.

The same mayor for 22 years has resulted in a vibrant modern metropolis with the foresight to install bike lanes even before electric bikes became popular.  We pass multiple apartment buildings and office complexes where rent is expensive especially for any property facing the harbor. 

Our orientation walk takes us to Darlington Square with a plethora of restaurants for every culinary taste.  We head to Darlington Harbor with its green space and amphitheater shell for concerts surrounded by beautiful modern buildings and the convention center.

I am exhausted, and after dinner at a ramen restaurant, head to bed for an early night.  Unfortunately, this resulted in an early rising when the hotel clock said 6:00 AM, but I found out later it was really 4:00!  It’s going to be a long day!