Sunday 12th
November
Wow! Crocodile Dundee
eat your heart out! We sauntered down to the jetty this morning for
8.30 am and went on a cruise up the Daintree River.
Although the
river is quite wide, at high tide it is only 2ft deep at this point
and can go down to 1ft at low tide. This part of the river is
freshwater and therefore with the recent rain is quite cool so the
crocodiles like to rest on the banks and warm themselves in the sun.
It wasn't long before
we were rewarded by seeing a 5 metre crocodile in amongst the
mangroves. It had caught a wild pig and was thrashing around with it,
beating it against a tree stump. The locals have names for their
crocs and this one was called Bowman. As well as crocodiles we saw an
orange and blue bird, a relative of the kingfisher and lots of
swallows; also red kites and magpie geese.
After leaving Daintree
Village, we drove down river towards Cape Tribulation where we
boarded a second cruise (free this time) and here we were nearer the
sea so the crocodiles that we saw were estuarine/ salt water.
We were lucky enough
to see more; there was Scooter who had a shortened tail; Elizabeth
(named after the Queen). She was a black crocodile. Apparently,
crocodiles can live to over 100 years and they are not green, despite
how storybooks depict them. In fact, they were almost
indistinguishable from the logs and the river bank.
One was carefully
draped over a log out of the water with a big smile on its face,
casually posing it seemed. To complete the excitement, we even saw a
baby one on the bank 30 cms long! Aah!
Moving back towards
Port Douglas, we called in at Mossman Gorge and walked up through the
rainforest to the swimming holes. No, Karen, we did not swim there!
We got as far as Rex's Creek and crossed the swing bridge.
Back at Port Douglas,
we parked the van and wandered through the town again to the sweet
little white church. Then headed back to camp in time for Happy Hour.
Highlight of the day:
definitely the Crocodile Dundee adventure.
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