June 12 -- Jonah Swigart

On June 12th, I woke up at around 8:40am and walked down the street to get a coffee with my roommates in cairns; Andrew, Nick, Ryan, and Peter-Owen. After that, we hopped on a bus and went to a zoo around 30-45 minutes away. Upon arriving, Dougo gave us our crocodile boat tour passes. After that, we all ate at the zoo, and proceeded to go get pictures with a koala, which now sits on my mantel at my house. After that, we walked over to the crocodile boat tour where we were driven around in a boat in Hartley’s Lagoon for 45 minutes and we learned all about crocodiles, fed them food and watched them snap for it. I learned on that tour that the crocodile has the hardest bite in the animal kingdom, by a longshot. After that, everybody was given free time to explore the zoo. I went to go see the kangaroos and wallaby’s first, but saw everything from cassowaries to komodo dragons. Towards the end of my free time, I went and watched the snake show where some monotone man talked all about snakes and his encounters and the different types and their purposes. As someone who hates snakes, I failed to realize the benefits the bring to the surrounding communities. The man was talking about the most venomous snake in the world, which he was holding, and after the show I went up and asked, “Is the venom still in the snake or did you extract it?” The man was very taken back by my question and almost offended and responded, “What’s this snakes purpose without the venom?”, and that was that. Directly after was the crocodile show, where a young man who
seemed to be the next Steve Irwin taught us all about crocodiles while tying in comedy and close calls with the croc for the approval for the audience. That was my favorite part of the day and where I learned the most. After that, we hopped on the bus and drove to a water hole where we all swam, and then proceeded to head back to the hostile and go to a group dinner. I capped off the night with some gin rummy (Card Game) and went to bead after.

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