Dive, dive...shark!!! By megan

On Friday we went snorkelling on the Great Barrier Reef!! We got up early, and went down to the marina. It took an hour an a half to get our first snorkelling site, so the boat left at half eight so we could make the most of the day.

When we got the first reef, ( the barrier reef is not one continuous reef, but lots of sections of reef) the boat stopped and I looked over the side and saw beautiful, crystal clear water.

We got our gear on, (we had to wear thin stinger suits) and started to snorkel.

As soon as you looked down, it felt like you were in the middle of Times Square as it was so busy. The coral was a burst of colour. This reef was called turtle bay, and we were luck enough to see a couple. After an hour of snorkelling, we got back on the boat and sailed to the next reef. Our marine biologist, Alisha, gave us a tour of this reef. We saw...a reef shark, a cuttle fish, a cousin of nemo (red with a stripe instead of bright orange; apparently not many sites have true nemos left as the popularity of the film meant that many were taken and sold) and a giant clam, as well as loads of other colourful fish of all shapes and sizes. The clam had green sensors around its opening, so if a shadow passed over it, it would close. Alisha dived down and showed us this in action!! I enjoyed doing surface dives to get closer to the coral and fish. We continued to snorkel until it was time to go back to the boat for lunch. As we ate, we headed to the 3rd and final reef called opal reef. Emma and I were first off the boat, and straight away we saw at least ten sea cucumbers. Alisha dived down and brought one up for us to see and touch. The sea cucumber opens and closes its bum; the perfect home for a fish, so some actually live inside!! We spotted another giant clam, and Emma and I took turns diving down and making it close. All too soon we had to get back on the boat to head home.

On the way home, we sat on the bow of the boat. My mum and I saw a dolphin popping up a couple of times just as the sun was starting to set. (It was too quick to photograph unfortunately; we had better get some photos on dolphins on Emma's birthday!!)

I loved snorkelling, and would definitely do it again.

Crocodile attack by Megan

We haven't managed to see crocodiles in the wild so far, so my Mum and Dad took us to Hartley's crocodile adventure park. When we arrived, we were greeted by some parrots. They were sat on a long stick with a silver bowl of food attached to it. On the desk there was a huge tank, but Emma and I couldn't see anything inside it. First we went on a boat cruise across a lagoon filled with crocodiles; 26 altogether!

The boat was really well designed, and luckily had glass panels to protect us from the crocodiles. The man hung a piece of chicken onto a rod, and started to splash it around in the water in order to get the crocodile's attention. The water was very shallow, yet the crocodile could still swim up undetected with no ripples on the surface. A crocodile swam up, and jumped out of the water to get the chicken. On the side of the banking there was a female croc guarding her nest. There were no eggs in the nest, as the staff had taken them out to take to the farm, but as she doesn't know this, she will continue to guard the nest until March. After that, the man out some meat on a branch, and the second largest bird of prey in Australia ( a type of eagle), swooped down and picked it up. Once we had finished, we went on a crocodile farm tour. There were 5 massive tanks where they put 2 crocs to mate. At one time a female can lay roughly between40 and 60 eggs. The staff then take the eggs, and put them in an incubator. The temperature of the incubator is adjusted to decide the gender of the crocs. They make them male, as they grow bigger and quicker. Once they are old enough, the baby crocodiles are then put in a pen together until they are three. They have make sure the crocs don't fight, as they want them to have A+ skin, as it sells for more. At three years old, the crocs gets stunned, killed and then they sell the body parts for a variety of purposes. We got to touch a baby croc's belly!

After that we went to the snake show. I volunteered to hold a lizard, and the man asked me to walk around with it so everyone else in the audience could stroke it.

When I had finished, the man was busy talking about a snake, so I had to put the lizard on my knee and wait. I looked down and realised the lizard had pooed!!! Next we went to see a crocodile attack show. One of the keepers went into a crocodiles enclosure, and told us all about how crocodiles attack and kill people; including showing us the death roll. It was really exciting, but you would never catch me in there!!

Last but not least, we fed the cassawary birds and stroked a koala.

I had a great day, and I now know just how sneaky and dangerous crocodiles can be!!

Crocodile attack by Emma

I am glad that we haven't seen any crocodiles in the wild after what we saw today when we went to Harley's crocodile adventures. The first thing we did was the boat cruise on the lagoon. We saw our first crocodile after about one second. The man put some chicken on a pole, and the crocodile jumped up to get it.

We also saw one of the female crocodiles guarding her nest even though all the eggs had been taken to be incubated at the farm. She lunged forward as the boat moved towards her.

Then we went to the snake show. A man called Jesse told us all about snakes found in Australia, and one of the snakes tried to bite him! Next was the crocodile attack show; where a man went in beside a crocodile and tempted it with chicken on a rope. He then twisted the rope to get the crocodile to do the death roll. I felt very nervous in case the man would get killed, but he was fine. When the crocodile jumped up to grab the chicken, it's jaws made a weird popping sound...very scary!!

There was a section with wallabies and female kangaroos where you could walk through and stroke and feed them. I really enjoyed it this, and discovered that sweet corn is their favourite; a bit like me!

After that we went to see the cassowary feeding. Cassowaries are very large birds that are endangered in Australia. There are still wild ones in the rainforests, (although we didn't see any) and they are very important, as they spread seeds in their poo!! There are 3 ways in which a cassowary can kill you. 1) it can head but you with its horn on top off its head, 2) it can kick you with its large feet or 3) it can stab you with its little toe in your chest, then drag the toe down to your groin, making all your inside spill out!!! Thankfully we were safe because we were behind a fence. We were allowed to feed it. I gave it mango and a dead chick..eeeewww!!!

Before we left, we saw the koala bears being fed. I stroked the bear, then we went home to bed...lights out!!!

Cape Tribulation by Megan

Yesterday was a very busy day. We got up early (7:00 am is VERY early to me)to go and pick up the car we are renting. The car is white and has five doors. The apartments we are staying in have a garage below our room, so we keep parking it in there. When we had sorted out everything e.g licences and stuff we were taking, we got in the car and drove to an area called Cape Tribulation; that is where the barrier reef meets the rain forest! It was a long drive,and we had to go on a ferry across the Daintree river. Some crocodiles live in the river we crossed, but unfortunately we didn't see any.

At about half way through the journey, we stopped at a viewing point. The view was amazing, and it felt like we were 30,000 feet in the air as we could see for miles!

When we got to cape tribulation, we stopped at the picnic area for some lunch, then walked up a short boardwalk to another viewing platform. There were some wooden planks on the floor to make it easier to walk. Whilst we we looking at the view, we spotted a baby shark. A nearby guide told us it was a bull shark! She also said that when the tide was high, you would sometimes get sea turtles and dolphins coming into the mangroves too!

After that we went down to the beach, which was beautiful. A sign said no swimming as there are crocodiles in the water, and jellyfish that could be life threatening.

Next we went for a walk through the rainforest further down the coast. We saw lots of bugs and giant sand crabs.

By now we were starting to get really hot, so we went for a drink, then to a swimming hole in the rainforest. It was safe to swim, as the water is always too cold for the crocodiles, and little sun gets though for them to heat themselves up. In the water there were loads of fish swimming about our feet; they weren't afraid to come close. The water was freezing, but very refreshing. Someone had made a swing from a vine. My Dad tested it by jumping on, and as it could hold his weight, we knew it could easily hold mine.

I put my legs through the loop, and started to swing. While I was on, I spotted a small turtle swimming over the stones. I asked my dad to see if he could watch it, but it was too fast. A few minutes later a bigger one swam past; we think it might have been the mother of the smaller one. Before long it was time to start heading back to Port Douglas. On the way, we stopped at the jetty in Daintree village for another shot at spotting some crocodiles, but again we didn't see any. We did however have an amazing view of some mountains.

Lurking in the rock pools by Emma

On Tuesday we went to the beach early in the morning. we couldn't go far onto the beach when we arrived, as the tide was in, so we set up on a small patch of sand near the trees and played cards. We then had a quick dip in the ocean. Once the tide went out, we went to the rock pools.

There were lots of creatures there, but some were easier to catch than others. We caught all sorts of stuff; a crab, tiny fish, hermit crabs, star fish and hermit crabs. We tried to catch a shrimp, but we couldn't get it as it was too fast.

After we had finished, Megan and I did some sand sculpting. I did a turtle and an island with a palm tree growing out of it. There are lots of plan trees lining the beach here. I found a coconut which my Dad later cracked open. We all tasted the milk; I hated it!

When we were walking back from the beach, I saw a lady holding a baby wallaby she had named Clover. She said that she was looking after it as its mum had either been run over or attacked by dogs. She was having to feed the joey with a bottle every 5 hours. The lady let Megan and I hold Clover (very cute).

After a quick change, we walked to the marina to book our snorkelling trip (Friday). We had heard about a pub that gives scraps to a giant fish called a groper every evening, so we went to have a look. It was massive; about 2 m long and half a meter wide (there is some video on our Flickr page).

On the walk home we saw some tropical birds. The birds are extremely noisy in the evenings in the trees near our apartment.

We had a barbecue by the pool for dinner and tried some crocodile.

My mum and I didn't like it, but Megan and my Dad did. Thankfully we had some burgers as well!!

Waves of fun by Megan

Hello everybody! So that is a month of our holiday over; it's going so quickly. we started off the day by going to the famous ( in this area) market in Port Douglas. it was very busy, and had lots of different stalls. One lady was doing hair braiding, so Emma and I got ours done. Emma picked light blue, silver and gold, and I picked light blue, silver, shiny blue and white.

After that, we went to the marina to book our snorkelling trip at the Great Barrier Reef. We had hoped to go tomorrow, but as the winds are to be too high, we will have to go later on in the week. When we were in Asia, we were craving a roast dinner, so when we had finished at the marina, we went for Sunday lunch at an Irish pub. It was just what we had hoped for; with creamy mash, roast potatoes and real Yorkshire puddings!!

After that, we headed down to the beach. Emma and I went straight over to the rock pools. When we were there yesterday, there were loads of giant crabs, but unfortunately there were none today. Once we realised there was nothing to catch, we went back to where my mum and dad were sitting. I wanted to get straight into the ocean as I was very hot, but my dad told me to wait for him as the waves were very high today. We have to swim in a netted area as it is jellyfish season here, and the jellyfish could give a deadly sting. The waves were so high my dad had to jump to stay above them and even then he didn't manage sometimes. I got pushed back a few times. Even though the waves were crashing, the water still felt really warm. When we first walked onto the beach yesterday, we noticed lots of tiny holes in the sand. We didn't know what they were until I spotted a tiny sand crab scuttling into one. The crabs are everywhere, but are quick to move out of the way when you walk. We started to play football next to the waters edge. When we had finished, my dad and I listened to some music while my mum and Emma started to make sandcastles. Emma soon decided to turn the row of sandcastles into a chair, and my dad and I came to help. It ended up being a very big chair with a footrest and walls surrounding it. When we got back from the beach, Emma and I had a swim in the pool, then had tea and chilled out watching a film. Port Douglas is very hot, but I love it!

Port Douglas - Here We Come! By Emma

Our journey to Port Douglas was horrible and tiring because it went on and on and on. Luckily a man was waiting to take us to our hotel from the airport. As soon as we got there, we quickly unpacked then went for lunch which was delicious. We went to the supermarket, and went back to the hotel. After that, we all then went to bed because we were really tired.
 The next day, we went to the beach. The beach is hot, beautiful and the sea is like a hot bath. We saw lots of wildlife and had a great time. The sea was very blue but is was green where it was most shallow, then got more blue the deeper it went, until it was the deep blue sea. Surrounding the beach was luscious rainforest.

We have to be careful though because there are lots of stingers (jellyfish) and also saltwater crocodiles. We swam in a special area that was netted off.
 Last night we went for a walk, and saw the most amazing thing. We saw the biggest bats EVER!!! They were about 70 centimetres across. They were eating mangos from the trees, and then throwing them on the floor. We also saw them arguing. We tried to get a picture, but it is not very good. We went to the marina to try and see some crocodiles. We saw loads of fish and because there were loads of fish one big thing kept splashing in the water. We thought it might be a crocodile. I am looking forward to going on a trip to see crocodiles on Thursday.

Port Douglas is epic!