Bredl's Wild Farm

My Airbnb host, Ren, recommended to me that I visited Bredl's Wild Farm while I was in the Whitsundays. She told me Rob Bredl, an Australian documentary filmmaker and reptile specialist who is known as the "Barefoot Bushman", created a sanctuary farm, particularly for crocodiles, but it also houses other species indigenous to Australia.  She mentioned that it would be a good place for me to learn about the animals and to get an opportunity to see all of the animals in one place.  Throughout my time in the Whitsundays I met several people who were doing substantial tours throughout the country and others who were Australians on holiday visiting family in the region. Most of those people said that they felt that getting a sanctuary experience like this was the best value - in terms of experience and finances.  Taronga Zoo (Sydney) was heavily criticized and often described as being a "money grab" when it came to getting animal experiences.

I scheduled a visit for a Monday, but I wasn't proactive about renting a car (required to get out to the farm) and couldn't make it. I was a little worried because I already paid for my ticket, but I called and they were super flexible and willing to change my ticket to another day.  I was pleased that they were so helpful and willing to accommodate my changes.  I was also happy that I could get a rental car with only a few days notice. The good thing about a beach town is that most other people are making impromptu plans too, so when something's not possible it's usually do-able a few days later.  I will also commend Bredl's Wild Farm for providing some solid recommendations about what to bring on the visit (a packed lunch and tons of water) - it made for a much more pleasant visit.

I enjoyed my visit at the farm. I was a little taken aback at first because the Daniel, the son who started our tour, was waiting to greet the group as they trickled in.  We first met at the cassowary enclosure and then later progressed further in to the property to the rest of the experiences.  I was the first person to arrive and Daniel asked me right away about American politics.  He was quite aggressive about asking me about President Trump. This was the third time this happened to me on this trip. I can't say it surprised me, but what I was surprised by was that each time men were asking me about Trump, telling me that "you are the American and I follow politics, but it's your home country so I'm sure you know more", and then they proceeded to tell me that I must be happy with our President because of the strength of our economy.  It wasn't quite "mansplaining" but they really didn't seem interested in hearing my opinion - no matter what it was.  They also were not interested in entertaining an assessment of a president beyond the strength of the economy. There was zero interest in any of the societal dynamic in the United States. So, it's fair to say I was a little put off from the start of my visit. I was happy when others started arriving and we moved away from talking about American politics.

Generally speaking, the farm was really interesting, I enjoyed interacting with the animals, and I had a good time. It was clear that everyone who met with us knew a lot about animal behavior, but I also questioned their knowledge some.  Much of the information was presented from an experience perspective with a little bit of book learnin'.  There was a clear bias of experience over formal education and an outright criticism of those who were more formally educated.  In fact, I heard Daniel blatantly mock a zoologist's knowledge. Context was missing, so it's hard to tell if there was just disdain for anyone who is formally educated or if maybe this zoologist was speaking beyond his/her knowledge. And despite what some people might assume about professors, I really do believe you learn an immeasurable amount from experience that you can't learn in a classroom.  I also clearly believe in the importance of gaining foundational knowledge through schooling.  There were several times during my visit in which someone would ask a question and the answer was posed in an "experts say this, but we know better" sort of a way and then it was almost always followed up with a statement about how "I'm always reading and learning about the animals and staying up to date with information".  I don't believe that the care of the animals was suffering because of this lack of formal education, but there were a couple times when I think the answers weren't known it felt like our guides were faking it somewhat, or making something up to sound like they knew what they were talking about.  I don't expect that someone can answer every single question about all of the animals, but if you bill yourself as a foremost expert I expect you to be able to provide a reasonable answer to why you might NOT know something. It's ok to not know it, but just admit it.

Something that was done quite well was that the group was limited to about 24 people.  For a portion of the experience we were broken up into two groups. This enabled us to have a more intimate experience with the animals and our guides.  We all were given the chance to hold every animal we were invited to hold, feed and pet the others, and get a good view of crocs from the safety of our caged truck.  It really was all-access.  Oh, and I forgot to mention this earlier but the price of the experience was easily half the price of others that I saw that offered only one animal (i.e., to hold a koala only). So, without further ado, here are a bunch of pictures of me holding animals, some of which I'm thrilled to be holding and some of which I am not, but decided I'm only living once so I might as well just go for it. There are also pictures and video of the crocodile experience.

Cassowaries

We all got the chance to feed the cassowaries. They primarily eat fruit.  Cassowaries are known as "the most dangerous bird on the planet" but the stories about them are often inflated and misrepresented.  Yes, it's true they can mess you up, particularly by puncturing you with one of their claws and then if they happen to sweep down that claw can slice you open pretty bad. According to our guide, there is only one recorded death in Australia from a cassowary. The kid who died came across one with his brother and tried to club it to death, so yeah... flight or fight kicked in and unfortunately one of those kids paid the price.  And generally speaking, if you don't mess with them, they won't mess with you.

Emu

Kangaroos

I think I got all of my kangaroos and wallabies separated appropriately, but I'm far from a marsupial expert. So if I got one or two wrong, just go with the flow. Generally speaking, kangaroos are more gray in color, they are bigger, and I think they have bigger ears and snouts that remind me of donkeys a bit. 

This little kangaroos was crawling in to the pouch to nurse. Kangaroos vary in how long they'll allow a joey to nurse and have access to the pouch in general. 

 Wallabies

Wombat

Wombats are more temperamental and can bite pretty hard (aka do some real damage), so we were not permitted to hold Stella. We were allowed to pet her though. 

Chickens and a Duck

Chickens and a duck aren't that exciting except I thought these ones were pretty bad ass looking. That being said, I legitimately salivate when I look at them because I think of plump, juicy chicken breast. Maybe that's a bit messed up, but it's true.

Turtles

Turtles aren't exciting either, but I opted to hold one because despite having grown up with plenty of turtles around, I've never actually held one. I was told, "hold it like a sandwich". 

Skinks

Skinks are a family of lizards that have over 1,500 different types of lizards in it.  I know that because that's what Wikipedia told me. Generally speaking, I was not interested in holding any of the lizards or the snakes, but the guides joked that if you held a koala - which of course you do almost right off the bat - then you need to hold the lizards and snakes or they send one home with you.  I held all of the things mostly out of peer pressure, some level of indifference for most of it, and maybe even out of a slight curiosity of some of it. It's also hard to back out when you have a 6 and a 7 year old next to you jumping at the chance to hold all of them. 

Pythons

I really don't need to ever do this again. Ever. 

Crocodiles

At first glance it may seem really cruel, but the sticks and bucket were not used against the crocodiles.  The sticks are used to prod sometimes, but mostly they are used to lightly hold over their eyes or to rub across their eyes and their brows to get the crocs to close their eyes. The buckets are used to make noise, as well as to be an object to stop a croc's jaws if need be. 

I was very conflicted about this croc's front left foot. I noticed it was bleeding and I asked about it.  The answer that was given to me was that there are growths on the sides of each of this croc's feet and one seemed to be a bit bloody. I just kind of stared back at that response because... well, duh. After repeating himself a few times in slightly different phrasing (there was a lot of that), our guide eventually said that a vet has looked at it and offered to take it off, but that it's cosmetic. Because it wasn't functionally a problem and the croc didn't seem to be bothered by it - which is how it seemed, they decided not to do anything about it. I think I was uncomfortable with that answer for two reasons: 1) it was a live bleeding animal and a decision was made to let it bleed while a profit was being made off of it, and 2) the guide, Daniel, kept talking about chasing records for size and, with respect to the cassowaries, not altering the environment, animal, or food because of the hopes of reproduction. The cassowaries are a different situation because they are hard to breed and the circumstances are finicky. That being said, throughout the visit we were getting tidbits of information about making decisions based on desired outcomes, not the entire picture. It contributed to a low level of unease I had about the farm. I don't want to say they were doing anything wrong. I'm out of my element and I don't know. I don't even want to imply anything unsavory. But I think they themselves gave the impression with some of the things that were said that they are motivated by records and outcomes other than providing a safe and and happy environment for the animals.  The bloody foot was one element that made me low key suspicious. 

Koalas

I'm so glad that I was able to hold a koala. They really did seem quite sweet. I did have a moment where I questioned, and still do, whether letting tourists hold koalas is a good thing.  I love the idea of increasing exposure to a variety of animals and educating people about them. I think there's something to a tactile experience that can be more impactful than just looking, especially when it's looking from a distance. But, as you can see from my pictures, the koala I was holding was done by the time I got a chance to hold her. She was being rewarded between each person and was clearly well cared for, but it made me question whether we're stressing them out too much with this sort of experience.

Sugar Glider

I saved the sugar glider for last because it was just this cute little fuzz ball. She was full grown and napping in this little pouch. She was super soft and did not seemed to be bothered by, much less notice, being passed from person to person and petted.

Ok, that's it. Despite the somewhat critical nature of this post, I really did have a good time and was happy to have these experiences. 

The Heart of the Reef & Paradise Cove

My mom texted me the other day and said, "I didn't know you were going to the Great Barrier Reef."  I replied to her saying that the GBR was close, but I was technically at a different reef.  In my brief preparation for my stay in the Whitsundays I read a quick blurb on the internet about how I was near Hardy Reef, not the GBR, and then I moved on.  Here's something to know about me - I hate planning. I hate doing research. I don't want to learn about where I'm going. All I want to know before hand is what I need to do to be safe. Other than that, I just want to go there and learn from locals. I'd rather talk to someone than sit in my apartment reading the Internet or a travel book. I feel like some of the magic of the unveiling of this new-to-me location is minimized if I know about it and have already seen a lot of pictures. The flip side to preserving this magic is that, frankly, I can be quite ignorant about where I am and I can miss out on amazing opportunities. Several years ago when I went to South America with Melissa I was quite thankful she was more of a researcher and planner because there were several experiences that would have been unavailable to us because they required reservations far in advance, like our hike up and down Huayna Picchu (you can check out her go pro video here where at times you can hear me repeating the mantra "people do this every day, people do this every day, people do this every day...").

So... yesterday my plan was to lay by the lagoon and not do much of anything else.  It was supposed to rain a little bit in the morning, but then clear up.  It did just that, but then it started raining again in the early afternoon - down pouring, in fact. I decided to eat some lunch and get my nails done while it rained. In a small beach town there isn't much else to do while it rains. No complaints, though - I'm happy for Australia to get rain!  Plus, my feelings about rain are quite different now because I'm not on vacation and hyper aware that I only get "x" more days of sunshine.  Had I done research I might have also learned that I am visiting the Whitsundays in the rainy season. Who knew? To be fair, I did check the weather trends for this area before I booked my trip and even thought it's the rainy season it is warm and sunny most of the time.  Anyway, I'm a little off track here. While I was getting my nails done I was speaking with the the two lovely ladies working in the shop and they looked at me like I was mad crazy when I said something about missing the GBR.  They were astounded that I didn't know that Airlie Beach is called the Heart of the Reef.  This is because there's a massive coral reef in the shape of the heart in the area, not necessarily because it's the central or middle part of the reef. You can read a little more about it here if you'd like.  I have not seen the heart myself because you have to access it by helicopter or seaplane.  After more than 30 hours of travel a week ago I have very little desire to get back into a plane right now. I'm also 99% sure a helicopter ride would make me yack. As if I needed another reason, the stories of the helicopter crashes in Hawaii don't exactly get me interested.

Most people who are interested in going to the GBR do it by going up to Cairns, a town about a 7.5 hour drive north of here. I think that if you access it from Cairns there are more opportunities to see more vibrant coral and possibly more diverse marine life. Let's be real - I haven't researched it so I only know a tiny bit of information from the snippets I've heard from other travelers.  I feel pretty stupid for not putting two and two together and realizing that the GBR is practically right outside my window, but the more I think about it the more I realized that there have been a lot of advertisements for opportunities to see "the reef" and marine life, but very little referring to it as the GRB here. And then add in the fact that there are sections of the reef named different things... I won't belabor the point any further.  What is pretty cool is that I actually did see part of the GBR on a snorkeling trip I booked the other day.

The Whitsundays is a beautiful region and also totally not what I expected.  I mentioned in my last post that there is very little beach access despite it being a beach town.  It's more of a hub to the destinations than the actual destination itself.  If you get in the water here you have to make a decision of whether you're going to risk getting stung by a jelly fish or wear a stinger suit. This is why I end up at the lagoon most days. I don't really want to have to buy or rent a stinger suit and I'm not too keen on getting stung, so I might as well just swim in the man-made lagoon and look out into the ocean. I'm a liiiiiittle disappointed that I'm not actually in the ocean every day, but it's not the end of the world. Because it's the hub to the popular destinations I decided to book one excursion while I am here and then also a trip to a sanctuary to see some crocodiles, kangaroos, koalas, and wombat.

I went into a shop for Red Cat Adventures to book a day trip that involved snorkeling, lunch, and a trip to Whitehaven beach.  If you were to do a Google image search for the Whitsundays the bulk of the pictures would be from Whitehaven beach. Again, if I did a little research I would have learned that Airlie Beach, the main beach town where I'm staying, does not look like Whitehaven beach.  I thought the entire area looked like that before my arrival. It was a little disappointing to find out that I had a totally false image in my head, but that's absolutely my fault for not doing better research.  So, anyway, I went in to book the trip and was presented with the opportunity to do an overnight trip to Paradise Cove that included the snorkeling and trip to Whitehaven, but also included an overnight stay at this amazing resort - all for the same price.  I hesitated for a moment, then the saleswoman told me that they were looking to fill the trip because there were too many people who were requesting the day trip and not enough interested in going on the overnight trip. It seemed to me that they wanted to provide people with the day trip components, but they also need people to go online and do TripAdvisor and Facebook reviews of the overnight experience to drive more business. I accepted the offer for the next day.

It was a lovely experience! First off, I met some great people. I've been surprised how many Irish people I have met. Two of the four couples I spent most of my time with on this excursion were Irish, as was one of the women who did my nails yesterday and a man I met in a pub a few afternoons ago. The other couples were British and American. They were all lovely. It always amazes me how easy it can be to make new friends while traveling.  We all set off around 1:30 PM for about a 45-minute boat ride to our snorkeling location.  We left about an hour late because the gear box on the boat apparently broke right as they were last bringing the boat into the marina. My thought was, "Take all the time you need, gents." I didn't particularly care about leaving late, as long as our boat was in proper working condition.  After it was fixed, we were off!

We snorkeled for about 30-45 minutes. Generally speaking, I like to snorkel, but after about 10 minutes I become a bit bored with it. This was a positive experience for me in that I didn't tap out until right about when our guide was asking everyone to get back in the boat.  I got to see several different kinds of fish, some the size of sardines and some as big as my entire torso, if not larger.  I have no clue what any of them were called, but there were a lot and they were swimming all around us.  We also saw a jellyfish right before we got in the water, but none of them bothered us. Our guide took a few pictures, including some under water, but didn't tell any of us how to get those pictures later. If I'm able to get them later I will make sure to post them.  Here are a few of me in my stinger suit and jumping off the front of the boat.

After we finished snorkeling we took about an hour boat ride to the resort.

The resort was located on the main land, but it's tucked into a cove that makes you feel like you're on a private island.  The story was a bit unclear, but it seems that a millionaire, who maybe owned a telecommunications company at some point, built the resort for himself and put it in his wife's name before declaring bankruptcy.  I guess she still owns the resort and the tourism companies rent it out from him.  He reserves the right to book out time on the calendar for his own use, but it's often host to guests.  A similar version of this story was told over and over, depending on who we asked.  No one seemed to have the exact version of the story.

When we arrived there were all sorts of snacks laid out of us, which we devoured.

The view from the main house was absolutely amazing.

I didn't take any good video or pictures of our bunk house, but it's safe to describe it as "glamping".  I stayed in a shared room with three sets of bunk beds, a private toilet, a sink, and air conditioning.  The air conditioning was pretty amazing for me because my Airbnb in Jubilee Pocket does not have it.  The cabins have broad beautiful porches, but I didn't spend much time there because we were warned that our cabin was in a "high snake" area. I wasn't took keen on looking for any or giving myself the opportunity to come into contact with them by chance.

We saw a bunch of other wild life like turtles, a bird that looked like some sort of wild turkey or peacock, and what many of us believed to be a dingo.  One of the American guys who lived in Australia for a while said that many people refer to any feral dog as a dingo, so I don't know if we actually saw one, but that's what people were calling it.

After getting situated I went swimming in the pool for a little while, screwed around in the outdoor shower that had lovely hot water, and then took a real shower in the outdoor showers by our rooms (looking out for snakes the entire time).  After that, we ate dinner - a lovely chicken curry and rice prepared by our skipper. We all hung out for a bit and then hit the hay for the night.

The next morning we all packed up and headed to Whitehaven beach.  The boat ride took about an hour and then we had around two hours on the beach.  The beach is full of beautiful white sand that doesn't get hot and most of the water is quite shallow.  There's no doubt that it was gorgeous, but I have to say that I was a little underwhelmed.  I feel like a snob saying that, but I think I would have enjoyed it more if it were a beach I could waste the day on, as opposed to a beach I had that experience within a specific time frame.  I have been spoiled by all of the amazing beaches I've been able to experience in Turks & Caicos, Vietnam, etc.

All in all I really enjoyed the experience and am happy I did the over night package. I was with cool people who made it easy to have a good time.