Thierings on Tour

Jazzy woke up to a visit from the tooth fairy! Another tooth lost and it each time it’s been after spending time with Bella and Addie – luckily the tooth fairy knows where to find Jazzy.

We had an early morning round of goodbyes as our road besties set off. As we were only going to Broome, we had a more casual pace and got to enjoy a little more time with the farm animals. 

Broome had a great vibe from the moment we arrived and Cable Beach Caravan Park is the perfect location that’s got beach, cafes nearby as well as nice shady sites and the pools onsite. The operations of big caravan parks never cease to amaze me, it would be a logistical nightmare trying to shuffle people around! 

Anyway, as it was lunchtime, we decided to check out Spinifex brewery. Scarly was dancing on the lawns before the big girls had even hopped out of the car and everyone was off straight to the playground. The beers were cold, the food was delicious and it was a great start to our Broome stay. To top it off, the camels that go to Cable Beach walked straight past the pub!

Then it was off to Malcolm Douglas Crocodile Farm. The girls all had a turn at holding baby saltwater crocodiles, which would have been about a year old. Izzy had the magic touch and her croc was all relaxed and closing its eyes enjoying the moment.

We all really enjoyed the tour!
The first stop was the crocodile lake, which has around 70 crocodiles in it who have been living together since hatching from their eggs and therefore don’t show as much territorial aggression as other crocs. An example of the territorial behaviour being that when they have moved crocs from one enclosure to another in the park, they would come back in the morning to find crocs had climbed the enclosure overnight to make their way back to the preferred, original one. Terrifying!

It’s amazing to see so many huge crocs in one spot and see up close just how big they can get. The noise from their jaw closing as they try to bite their jaw and catch the food being thrown to them just never gets old. It’s a real hollow bang and our guide explained that they have 24 muscles either side of their mouth.

We walked around the farm and learnt about many of the other rescued crocs from various parts of the state (and even country). 
Again, the kids were both terrified and thrilled to see crocs jump out of the murky water when a bit of food was dangled before them. It’s a great display and really makes you think twice about swimming anywhere that could be unsafe around the top end. He gave us a “helpful” tip that if we ever found ourselves in the mouth of the croc to punch the palatal valve, which would flood their mouth with saltwater and lead to anything in the mouth being ejected. Not sure how helpful that would be and I’d rather not test the theory ever…

It was so interesting to hear about all the different crocs that had been given a second chance from their mishaps in the wild. One particular fun fact is that when a croc is attacked and a limb is severed, they can shut off blood supply to that limb within seconds and within days it will be a nicely overgrown stump. Now that’s pretty awesome and a testament to why they live so long!

Talking of age, Henry was their oldest crocodile who is known to be 84 years old, but our guide said that others had been known to live to 104.

All in all, a fascinating place to visit and learn even more about crocodiles!

Kms travelled – 170