Crash and Burn

After saying all my "goodbyes" and packing all my things I rode north to Townsville with Jodi's parents. They are living with their daughter and son-in-law, Michelle and Matt while their house is being built. They have a great stretch of land outside of the city and are surrounded mostly by scrub. The advantages could be missed by most people but I understood them fully. My thoughts were confirmed when Matt called me to help remove a carpet python from the garage one afternoon. If snakes aren't your thing, every morning several white cockatoos land in the yard to eat the chicken's food.

I had been looking forward to visiting the local aquarium and Billabong Sanctuary in town. Jodi's husband, Grabs, my co-worker and mentor and the crocodile farm, called his friend at the sanctuary ahead of time to let them know I was coming. I walked around the zoo in the afternoon waiting for the crocodile shows to start. When they finally did, I was the only person left at the zoo so I got my very own personal croc show. They do a great job of demonstrating the athleticism of these otherwise seemingly lazy reptiles. The big males leap nearly 8 feet out of the water to grab the food presented from a stick!

My favorite part of the day though was the behind the scenes tour. In the prep room there are walls of snake cages filled with native species. Blackheaded pythons, womas, water pythons, carpet pythons and the venomous snakes, taipans, browns and tiger snakes. My dream came true when they said I could get any snake out that I wanted. It would have been easier to ask which snake I didn't want to get out! I proceeded to get pictures with snakes I'd only seen in the pages of Reptile magazines and zoos back home. It was a very fun afternoon.

Earlier that morning I went to the Reef HQ aquarium to get a preview of what I might see the following week SCUBA diving. There is a large, underwater tunnel you can walk through and see different sharks and a sea turtle. I really wanted to see the sea snakes but what I was most surprised about were the flashlight fish. I didn't know what flashlight fish were but I stood there mesmerized in an area of the aquarium where the nocturnal species exhibits are, watching these green lights swimming in the water. It was unreal!

That afternoon Matt and I went for a motorcycle ride at the track behind his house. I knew I was out of my league on the 450cc Yamaha but after a few laps on the track I began to get a little braver and go a little faster. I liked coming out of the corners fast, it was fun. Matt was sitting on the quad watching me as I drove by with a grin on my face that seemed to grow bigger and bigger with every lap. Then I bit the dust. I planted my foot improperly on a corner and accelerated at the wrong time, sending the bike one way and me the other. It's precisely at this point during an accident, the point when you realize "This is going to be bad," that I was flying through the air telling myself to roll when I hit the ground. I didn't listen.

Not wanting to worry my host, I quickly jumped up and picked the bike up as Matt came over to access the damage. We laughed about it awhile, as blood dripped off my fingertips that were held behind my back. Once I assured him that I was okay-but that the day was over-I showed him my wounds, some of which I hadn't even discovered yet. I had slid along the right side of my body so I did a number on my hand, forearm, elbow, tricep, ribs, hip and knee. We went back to the house and I laid in the bathtub for a few hours slowly cleaning the gravel out of the cuts. We were all concerned about whether I'd be able to still dive or not in Cairns.

After everything was clean, and I'd had as many painkillers as Michelle would give me, Margaret came over to patch me up. Margaret and her husband are former missionaries to Papua New Guinea and now she works as a nurse just up the road. She was nice enough to come over and bandage me up and invite me to the fellowship dinner they were having that night at church. Now, I've been known to do a lot of things for a free meal but I've never wrecked a motorcycle for one. Although the dinner was really good and I was glad I went, I think there are many less painful options out there!

The following day I got an early bus to Cairns, my final stop in Australia. I was nervous about whether I'd be able to dive, about going to Indonesia injured and about leaving Australia when I'd had so much fun here. It's only a few hours from Townsville to Cairns, but it sure felt like a long time.

The End of the Beginning.

Rotten chicken heads smell better than rotten pig's heart. Flip flops and shorts, although comfortable and dry, are not ideal working attire. You can never use too much sunblock and going to church is always a good idea. These are a few things I've learned since I've been here. Some are simply trivia whereas others are lifelong lessons never to be forgotten.

I apologize for not posting more pictures. There have been some exciting times on and off the farm in the last couple of months. There have been several encounters with crocodiles recently, both large and small, a few more nest raids-including my second time personally collecting the eggs. The novelty of working with crocodiles isn't gone but I don't run for cameras anymore before a catch or take much time to recount the events in my journal at the end of the day. It's simply become what I do. I still love it, and the thought of my departure is difficult to swallow.

Life outside of the farm has become a lot of fun. I've been going to church every week and my church family here is great. I've really been blessed. Lunch invitations never get old and Ben and I get quite a few of them. The first person I met at church Mark, took us out on his boat to a nearby island to go fishing and relax. The silt and debris from the nearby river made visibility poor and spearfishing impossible. It was wonderful to be out on the water though and the beaches are beautiful around Keppel Island where we were.

Another weekend was spent camping in the national forest and lounging on the beach. Last week I went with one of the deacons Shane, pig hunting. Australia is full of feral, non-endemic animals and wild pigs are one of them. I had been interested in going ever since I heard about it. They hunt them with dogs and kill them by holding their tails and stabbing them through the lungs with a knife! I thought, 'This I gotta see!' Unfortunately, we didn't see any pigs that day but brought home a few rabbits, another introduced animal to Australia.

As I write this, less than two weeks remain before I leave Australia. Early next week I'm making my way up to Cairns to SCUBA dive on the Great Barrier Reef. After that I'll be flying to Bali, Indonesia where I'll meet up with my friend Adi whom I met working in Wamsutter last year. As excited as I am to see Asia and fill up my passport with stamps I am reluctant to leave Rockhampton. Recently, people have asked me when I'll be coming back to Australia and the earliest date I can think of doesn't seem soon enough. It's been such a great experience and I've fallen in love with the animals, the climate, the church and especially the people.

My visa expires at the end of March. If that wasn't the case, I probably wouldn't be leaving. That's the catch-22 I'm in. If you scroll up to the top of the page, it says Terry's World Tour, not Terry's Tour of Eastern Australia. Therefore, I'm trying to think of my expiring visa as a good thing. It's the boost needed to move on, when it would be so easy to stay. I'm comfortable here, I'm happy here. Why would I willingly throw myself into countries where I'll most likely be uncomfortable again, scared again and lonely again? I think this quote from Churchill given at my high school graduation sums up my situation well, "Now this is not the end. It is not even the beginning of the end. But it is, perhaps, the end of the beginning."

Good Morning Queensland!

I love my job. I hope you can say the same thing about your place of employment but I really do like this job. Not since my job working at a ski resort in Colorado have I been paid for doing something I would most likely do for free. Sure, I endured days when I thought my toes were literally frozen and the snow report called for icy conditions and wind, but there were also days when I got to work with my friend Will and we'd ski backwards all day and work on our 360's and I'd tell him as we got back on the chairlift, "Thank you so much for getting me this job!"

Similarly here at the farm I often have my hands around a broom handle or elbow deep in rotting chicken heads more often that I do handling crocodiles, but that's just it... I do get to handle crocodiles! Every once in awhile back at my apartment, I reflect on the day and I have to laugh at the day's events. Earlier this week I willingly tried to get a fifteen foot long crocodile to chase me and I never thought twice about it. Yesterday I helped a baby dinosaur hatch from it's egg. I understand that's not normal!

I've arrived in the middle of nesting season when the females are laying their eggs. Over the period of a few weeks the female will build a nest of sand, dirt and vegetation to lay her eggs in. Once the eggs are laid she covers them up and guards the nest until they hatch. Once we think a female has laid, we go in and collect the eggs from the nest and put them into an incubator.

Raiding nests can get exciting as the females are very protective and usually need to be caught and tied up so we can check the nest in relative safety. Sometimes the female will be in the water in which we can't see her or maybe the male will come over to chase us off his territory. In any circumstance there is potential for danger and excitement.

My usual duties have varied from simply spectating, holding the rope which is tied to the female while she's tied up or distracting the male crocodile while people are in the pen. In nearly every circumstance I'm always on the outside of the fence. This week was my big debut. While we were raiding a particular nest the female retreated into the water unable to be caught. We estimated we had close to ten minutes before she would come back out. While Simmo distracted the male, Grabs stood between the nest and the water so I could collect the eggs!

Seventy-four beautiful white ovals that sounded like glass when they touched each other, and seemed just as fragile as I took them from the nest, marked the tops with a pencil where the embryo will have attached and placed them into the bucket. The guys had told me before about the adrenaline rush you get while you're in the pen, making you oblivious to the mozzies biting you, but I didn't experience that. I wasn't scared or nervous, I didn't feel a rush of adrenaline. I was just plain giddy with excitement. I couldn't believe I was finally in there doing what I'd been longing to do from the other side of the fence. It was great!

The fun didn't stop there. As we were moving crocodiles from one pen to another, my roomate Ben was bitten on the leg by a three footer. It let us all realize just how potentially dangerous even some of the smallest crocodiles on the farm can be. Twelve stitches later he was back at work and just to make sure he didn't forget the severity of the experience we had him clean and prepare teeth for the next two days. It has been raining heavily for the last two weeks which has stirred up the crocodiles. We had a few escapees which had to be caught and put back in their pens. After a few days all the crocodiles had been accounted for. I'm ready for the sun to come back out after all this flooding, mud and overcast skies.

It seems like you can't go too long here without some sort of animal encounter outside of the farm. On more than one occasion there have been pillowcases laying in the break room with pythons inside that people have brought to work to share with everyone. Unidentified geckos go home in sandwich containers to be identified and then released. Simmo stopped by our house late one night with a brown bag in his hand and a scaly tail sticking out the top. It was a frilled lizard that had been run over. I didn't know they had them in this area but I was very happy he brought it out for me to see. On the way home we passed an echidna crossing the road. Cute little creatures resembling an overgrown hedgehog, they are one of the only mammals that lay eggs besides the platypus.

Each day is different and each day is the same. There's always something to learn and adventure is never far away.

... and on his farm he had some Crocodiles!

I could tell you about Brisbane and how it's a nice city with a great river walk through it. Or I could tell you of Australia Zoo, the home of the late crocodile hunter Steve Irwin and how clean it is and what a great tribute it is to his life and passion for conservation. I could even tell you of the scary night I had in Bundaberg at a hostel full of fruit-picking backpackers. I could retell the events and conversations I had during a fabulous dinner with Brooke and Olivia, two Americans I met during my first night in Rockhampton... But I'd rather tell you what you've all been waiting for, the crocodile farm! Koorana Crocodile Farm is tucked away off a back road, aptly named Savages Road. Large crocs lay motionless just beneath the water's surface in pens lining the road up to the restaurant. I arrived on a Sunday so there wasn't much action. My adventure would start on Monday.

A lot of people want to know what I do at the farm. I'll spare you the day-to-day details of farm life and say that I've fed them, eaten them, held them, killed them, cleaned them, caught them, moved them, raided their nests and salted their skins. And that's all within the first week. It feels good to be a crocodile farmer! The farm raises Saltwater Crocodiles for their meat and skin. There are about 3000 crocodiles here. Within 3-5 years they are near 6 feet long and the perfect age for culling. Any older and the meat gets tougher. A couple people work in the abattoir skinning and processing the meat. My main duty is feeding the younger crocodiles. They eat chicken heads every Monday, Wednesday and Friday while the adults get food less frequently.

Croc farmers, like crocodiles themselves are quite opportunistic, so when a lady called up saying she had just shot a cow and was willing to give it to us we all jumped in the truck to go get it. Before long we had it cut up and were feeding it to the big crocodiles. For any Animal Planet watching regular, it's common knowledge that crocodiles bite down with a force of nearly two thousand pounds per square inch. There is absolutely no way you can grasp that amount of power without feeding one yourself and hearing their jaws popping like gunfire and the bones crunching under the force of their bite. I went through a weird emotion at that time. I wasn't in any immediate danger. We would get the animals to come to the fence and then throw them a piece of beef. However there is an element of danger. Hang a little too far over the fence or hold on to the meat a little too long and you could lose an arm real quick! The closest thing I can equate what I felt was as if a friend had handed you a gun and said it wasn't loaded. Then you pull the trigger and the gun goes off. It's a combination of elation that you weren't killed, fear that you were so close to being killed and giddy that you get to do it all over again. Any thoughts of me being young and bulletproof were quickly grounded!

I'm learning something new everyday. If it's not about crocodiles it's about the surrounding towns or definitions to new Aussie lingo. Before I leave I hope to decipher the mystery of cricket! (It's a sport people, google it!)

Here's to a Year of Living...

Happy new year everyone! As you could guess arriving in Sydney without a clue felt like... well, arriving in a big city without a clue! I walked around town from one hostel to another quickly realizing that I wasn't the only one who thought it would be fun to spend New Year's Eve here. All the hostels were full, there wasn't any vacancy until after the 2nd of January. I spent the first night at a hotel downtown and went looking for new accommodation first thing in the morning just to find out what I'd already known, everything was booked since before Christmas. Finally I settled into a run-down hostel near Hyde Park. The location was great, but it's what my English friends would call 'a bit dodgy.' There wasn't much security, only one staff member who was really quite cranky most of the time, the kitchen was a breeding ground for various molds and insect cultures and the dishes left a lot to be desired. On the plus side though, the internet was free, the location was good and since it was the last place in town everyone staying there was in the same desperate situation I was.

I had some preconceived notions and expectations of Australia before coming; everyone speaks english, it's very similar to the USA, the girl to guy ratio is nearly 8:1 and Aussies love Americans. The reality I experienced was much different. It seemed like everyone was Asian, even the people who did speak english couldn't be understood, it's a different country than USA, the ratio-although favorable-isn't all that noticeable and as far as friendliness goes, I wouldn't know, I hadn't met any Aussies during my first few days.

I did however meet Germans, Swedes, Chileans, Swiss, Kiwis, Chinese, Japanese and heaps of Brits. I love the conversations you have between travellers. I've never discussed US politics as much as I have in the first week I was in Sydney. I thought it was interesting that the news here has a close eye on US elections. But there are other topics as well like differing accents, where people have been and where they are going and regional idioms (you wait in queues not lines, smoke fags not cigarettes and wear thongs on your feet not under your dress.) It's been a lot of fun.

For the most part I didn't do much on a day-t0-day basis in Sydney because I was trying to stay within my budget. After a couple of days I realized I'd spent my monthly budget in two days and had to reevaluate! Australia is expensive. I still found time to visit the opera house. Oh the opera house. You know I can't think of any building that has taken my breath away. But the first glimpse of the opera house made me jump with excitement. Maybe it's because it's an icon of Australia, maybe it's the location over the harbor or the unique architecture or maybe it was the first familiar thing I'd seen since I'd arrived-whatever it was, it was a nice sight.

A few of us from the hostel banded together and set out to watch the fireworks over the harbor. We left late in the morning and brought a picnic with us. We sat in a park in East Balmain overlooking Darling Harbour opposite the opera house and Harbour Bridge. It was thirteen hours before the fireworks started, but it didn't feel like it. There was a happy energy among the party goers and everyone was having a fun time. The fireworks were just part of the experience.




The next week a couple of us took the ferry to Manly Beach which was closed, but we could still swim at a nearby beach protected from the strong current. It was nice to relax, sit in the sun and have a swim. It was also one of my first outings in Sydney other than New Year's so that was also nice to see a change of scenery.

Saturday was the kick off to the Sydney Festival in Hyde Park. There were six stages set up around downtown and different musical guests were at each stage. My personal favorites were the Spanish Harlem Orchestra and Pink Martini. They played very good music. Salsa dancers were showing their stuff in the street and I made up my mind then and there that I will learn to dance. It was only reinforced a couple minutes later when I went to the next stage and they were playing swing music and entire swing clubs were there getting their dance on. It was impressive and very entertaining to watch people who can actually dance. A big comparison to the foam parties and late night techno rave crap that goes on at most nightclubs.

At the festival I met a couple girls who told me about Hillsong Church. I was looking for a church nearby so I went the following day. I would say it's your typical large, contemporary church. Complete with t-shirt wearing presiders, full band, good music and there's a coffee shop and bookstore in the lobby. I met a few people who were real blessings, Steve, Vicky and Roy. Steve and Vicky were visiting from Tasmania and we sat next to each other. They were extremely nice and generous. I almost wish I was going through Tasmania just so I could stay with them longer. The other was Roy, once he heard I didn't have a place to stay for the night he offered his house. Perfect! It was a great night, after evening service we went to his house and talked about Africa, the USA, church planting and growth and different books we had read. The next morning he showed me where to catch the bus into town. I'm really glad I met him.

This past week I've been near Crescent Head at a surf camp. It was a good time. There were nearly thirty people in the group. We spent our days at the beach trying to catch that perfect wave that would propel our love of surfing to the level of lifetime commitment. I don't know if I ever caught that wave. I did have a couple really good ones, and I won't be giving up any time soon, but I don't think I'll be making a lifestyle out of it. The best thing about the camp was being outside of the city. It was refreshing to see rural Australia. These are my kind of people, this is my kind of landscape. Uncrowded beaches, laid back working people and not a single tie-wearing, brief-case carrying office worker among them! I saw my first kangaroo too! It's weird, I have this urge to shoot one now. I think it's just to be able to see one up close that's fueling this urge. But it'd be nice to eat it too I think. From the sounds of it, I may get my chance while I'm here. The other exciting animal encounter happened during our last night at camp. We had a bonfire on the beach and on my way back to camp I came across a small black snake. It seems like everything in Australia can kill you in one way or another, but that didn't stop me from going Steve Irwin on it. I'm not sure what kind it was, but I wasn't planning on letting it bite me either way.

I am now in Byron Bay. It's popular with backpackers and it shows, the streets are busy and my hostel is packed with people from all over. Mainly Europeans but others as well. I'm anxious to get up to the crocodile farm and get into a routine for awhile. But that's not stopping me from thinking of where the next stamp in my passport will come from. Anyone up for Fiji in April?