[See image gallery at bohopunk.com]

If you’re interested in taking this tour, let me know and I’ll send you our pilot’s details!

Friday morning, after sleeping in a bit, we headed out for to find breakfast at Ducks Nuts.  The service was terrible, but our food was pretty good.  Over breakfast we laid out our game plan for Friday.

First up, Crocosaurus Cove.  We arrived just in time for the Big Crocodile Feeding, which seemed a bit more like Big Crocodile Taunting.  The caretakers would tie a piece of dead bird to the end of a big stick and slap it against the water until the crocodile came over to them.  Then they’d hold it in the air until the crocodile snapped his jaw or jumped out of the water.  I think it was really more of a show than actual feeding, and it was fascinating.

[See image gallery at bohopunk.com]

This crocodile, whose name I cannot remember, was the newest addition to Crocosaurus Cove.  When the caretakers entered his pen to feed/taunt him, he decided he was not interested and sunk to the bottom of his pool.

As we toured Crocosaurus Cove, we came across Burt; he starred in Crocodile Dundee!  The caretakers explained to us that crocodiles, like dogs, can be trained using food/treats, toys and positive re-enforcement. (They like to be scratched on the head!)  Who knew?!?

The caretakers put on a display of a crocodiles jaw strength using this machine and brick of ice.  It was definitely impressive.

[See image gallery at bohopunk.com]

After the big crocodiles, we came to the juveniles.  The caretaker here mentioned that these guys are extremely dangerous and like to bite.  They are about 5 feet long and extremely cute!

[See image gallery at bohopunk.com]

These three reminded me of Flotsam & Jetsam from the Little Mermaid.

I mean seriously, check out this image that I grabbed from Disney’s own page.

The last thing we did at Crocosaurus Cove was tour the museum of the different types of Crocodiles, which included the American Alligator (cute compared to the crocodiles around the world).  In the museum, the caretaker had a baby crocodile who was about 18 inches long.  She offered for me to hold him, so I did!  I was surprised how smooth and soft his belly and spiny back were.  She told me that even the massive ones we’d seen outside were still this smooth and soft.  To prevent him from biting me, she had taped his mouth shut, because their jaw strength is in closing, not opening.  I asked her if this hurt his soft skin, but she said she’d first put a layer facing outward so that no sticky stuff would touch him.  Unfortunately, we were not allowed to take a picture of him or me holding him – she wanted to sell me the picture.  The baby crocodile was really cute!  If they didn’t get so big and scary, I would want one.

After visiting the crocodiles for the better part of the day, we were extremely hot and decided we should stop for an adult beverage and snack.  Shortly after sitting down at Shennanigans, it started pouring down rain.  Even with an umbrella, we would’ve been soaking wet.  The people of Darwin were not bothered, however, and continued with their regular business.  I suppose if you live somewhere with a season called “Wet” you learn to cope.  We, on the other hand, waited it out before venturing on our walking tour of the waterfront.

Darwin’s waterfront is quite industrial, so there isn’t a lot to see.  It was interesting to see swimming in designated areas only, though, because the crocodiles live in the bay.  The swimming beach is caged off to keep the crocodiles out and there is a wave park right on the beach for swimming, tubing and surfing entertainment.  The waterfront and pier connect to the park along the Esplanade, which is where our hotel was situated.

It had been an extremely hot day, so we headed back to the hotel to get cleaned up for dinner and watch sunset, which was nothing to write home about.  Ben did some research and found Hanuman, which boasted Indian Asian Fusion cuisine.  The reviews on Urban Spoon were fantastic, so we gave it a shot.  If Hunaman is what happens when Asian food meets Indian food, I am sold.  It was amazing; I would recommend it to any fellow traveler to Darwin.

We started day 2 of our 2 day adventure in Darwin by going in search of the WWII Oil Storage Tunnels, which were supposed to be near the waterfront, and we’d seen signs for the day prior but hadn’t actually found yet.  All we had to do was open our eyes to see this sign:

We made our way down these stairs and found a chatty veteran who directed us inside.  400 men dug these tunnels out by hand after the Japanese attacked Darwin during WWII to do just as the name suggests, store oil for Naval use.  The tunnels were never actually commissioned by the Navy for storage during WWII, however 2 of them were used during the Korean War to store Jet Fuel.  2 of the Oil Storage Tunnels are open for tour, and you can see into a 3rd along the way.  The primary tunnel viewed along this tour is #10, which features a photographic display of Darwin during WWII.  As an American, I was fascinated to learn that the USAAF was stationed in Darwin during WWII.  This is not something I ever remember learning about in school.  I also never knew that the Japanese attacked Australia, so this was a whole new exploration of WWII for me.

[See image gallery at bohopunk.com]

After touring the tunnels, we decide to take the 4km hike to the Darwin Botanical Garden.  It was a HOT day, so as soon as we arrived we stopped in the cafe for a cold beverage and to cool off.  Feeling refreshed, we headed into the gardens in search of pretty flowers and local plant life.  Ben and I both love botanical gardens usually, so we were pretty excited.  Maybe its the time of year, but we were a bit disappointed in the Darwin Botanical Gardens.  It was mostly just a big grassy park with a manmade waterfall at one end.  The plumeria were blooming, however, so the park smelled amazing!

After wondering around the Darwin Botanic Gardens for a while, we decided to make our way to Mindil Beach, which is supposed to be beautiful and have spectacular sunsets.  To get there we passed through this beautiful section of the garden:

We found Mindil Beach, and thought it might be nice to put our feet in the water, until we saw huge signs that said, “Do not enter the water October – May.  Box Jellyfish are deadly.”  Personally, I like to be alive, so we decided not to enter the water.  The sky was looking dark, with lots of thunderbolts and lightening, so we decided to head back toward town.

As we made our way down the street back toward the hotel that we were checked out of, the thunderbolts got louder, the lightening got closer and the sky got darker.  We started watching for a taxi, because we were 2km away from where we wanted to be.  We walked up to the casino and grabbed a taxi from their cue to take us back into the town.  The driver dropped us at The Tap Room just as the rain began.  It was perfect timing, because just as we sat down at our table with our beers the rain came in monsoon force and poured for probably an hour and a half.

Realistically, we ran out of things to do about 5 hours before we needed to head to the airport.  Had we done more research in advance, we probably would’ve rented a car for the second day and gone out to the national parks, hot springs, or something like that.  We’d like to go back and see these things, which we’ll probably do if we take the Gahn Train.

Our friends had gone the year prior and suggested that we arrive early and catch the first bus, because last year had been chaos. When we arrived at the Geelong Train Station to catch the bus, it was, again, chaos.  There was a line to get wristbands and glasses, so we got in it and it never moved.  The problem was the location in which glass and wristband distribution was happening – right where you catch the bus.  This meant, people would get their glass and wristband and then never get out of the way, because they worried about losing their place in line for the bus.  First busses came and went, we pushed our way forward and finally got our stuff.  Then we realized the guy managing the line, was not maintaining order – when the busses came, people just shoved and pushed their way forward.  Chaos.

We did, finally, catch a bus headed for the Ballerine Peninsula.  Our strategy was to hit the wineries that had fantastic views of the water, so we very quickly tasted wine at the first winery (Leura Parke Estate) and then immediately changed busses to go to Baie Winery, which is directly on the coast with beautiful sweeping views of the sea across a field.  I’m so used to the coast being build up with expensive homes and resorts, that I stood in awe of the open coast line for quite a while.

As we headed back for another round of tastings, I spotted a vintage tractor that I NEEDED my photo taken on, so I had a little iPhone photo session, which then started a photo session trend.  Several other groups followed suit!

After admiring the vineyard, view and entering the photo competition (we did not win), we reviewed the map for a vineyard that was serving food.  Pizza sounded good so we headed for Ballerine Estate Winery & Brewery.  As we rode the bus, an extremely intoxicated Aussie bloke told me he hated my accent.  Too bad for him, we were on the same tour and he’d have to see me at the next two wineries, where I would go out of my way to talk to his friends so he’d have to hear my accent.  (Even in Australia, I still have that Tacheny attitude running through my veins.)

As we arrived at the Ballerine Estate, the wind kicked up and it started to rain.  We headed inside to obtain our free tastings and order pizzas, but were unable to find table.  There was decent live music outside, so we decided to give one of the tents a try.  This quickly became a devastating mess, with one of our pizzas attempting to fly away, so we decided it was to buy a bottle and wait in line for the bus.  Really, we wanted to be at the wineries along the coast anyway.

Our last stop of the day was Terindah Estate, which was beautiful!  With this as our view getting off of the bus, I knew that the view from the balcony would be epic.

I headed up to the balcony to secure seats.

The rest of the crew split up for baked potatoes and wine tastings.  It was decided that at this point in the day, we were over waiting in line for a sip of wine and bottles were purchased to be enjoyed with this view.  Smart.  We wouldn’t want to risk losing these seats.

We stayed here until one of the very last busses came and we had to leave or risk not having a way back into Geelong.

I will definitely participate in Toast to the Coast again next year, but I think it would be worthwhile to hire a driver.  The biggest wastes of time were waiting for an hour and a half at the start of the day for a bus and waiting for busses between wineries.  For the money we each spent on the bus ticket, I’m sure we could hire a nice car and driver.  I also discovered that Geelong wines are quite good; honestly, I’d been a little prejudice against them to that point.  Now, I will look for them on a menu.  Salut!

We arrived in Brisbane around lunch time on Friday, and realized that none of us had pre-researched this city.  First thing after lunch, we headed for the visitor center to get some literature and maps.  Because of the rain, we decided that perhaps a riverfront bar crawl might be the best way to spend Friday afternoon, so we started our adventure across the river, coming across artwork, a ferris wheel, gardens and a great view!

[See image gallery at bohopunk.com]

Saturday morning we went looking for breakfast and stumbled upon this little gem in the alley.

My first thought was, this seems a little shady; I hope the food isn’t super greasy and nasty.  When we sat down, the menu was full of vegetarian options and Bloody Marys.  When the food came, it was AMAZING!  Yes, I ate the flowers (off of Ben’s French Toast).

Also, this creeper showed up at our table.

After breakfast and a quick trip to Target for rainboots, we headed for the Botanical Gardens.

[See image gallery at bohopunk.com]

Since the Botanical Garden runs along the river, we took a stroll to see the Story Bridge better (and find a beer).

[See image gallery at bohopunk.com]

After a couple of beers, we grabbed the water taxi and headed for the night market.  Apparently, it was closed due to the rain, but they never bothered to update their website or take down the signs.  We walked forever from the water taxi drop off, only to have the last person we asked for direction, within 100 yards of the market, tell us that it was closed due to rain.  Seriously.  So we found a festival, watched a dragon dance and proceeded to dance the night away!

Sunday morning we woke up to the sun!  Ben and I had breakfast at the Pancake Manor, which was OK, and then headed for the markets on the opposite side of the river.

[See image gallery at bohopunk.com]

Brisbane is a very pretty city, but I’m not sure why they call it Bris-vegas.  Anyone?