Friday 6th August, 2021
Today is my choice for activities, so off on a Crocodile Cruise on the Daintree River ($30 each for 1 hour), pretty good value if you ask me. David wasn’t that keen which surprises me as he has been on the croc lookout since we arrived in croc country. Having them served to you on a platter is not his idea of seeing a croc. He wants to see one whilst we are walking along the banks. Not me, I am happy to be in a boat.
We started our cruise at 9.30am. They are really struggling for numbers, there was only us and another couple on the cruise which can take 24. It is very sad what Covid has done to the tour businesses. Our boat driver was very information. A little information for you.
• There are about 90 crocs in 90km of the Daintree River
• There is one dominant male in an area, who fights off the other males in breeding season
• The females lay about 50 eggs but only about 2 make it to adults
• It takes about 5-6 years before they are safe from predators
• They don’t name them until after this time as they can be here one day, gone the next
* Crocodiles are nocturnal
We were lucky to see three adult crocs and four 2020 babies. The babies were only about 25-30cm long. The adults were about 3-4.5 metres long. The tour guy showed us two adults and one baby, and smarty pants animal man David spotted one adult hiding under the mangroves and three babies. I think the tour guy was surprised at eagle eye’s ability to find them and I am sure the other couple on the tour were grateful as otherwise they would have only seen three instead of seven.
We also saw a blue heron, blue kingfisher, some egrets, some unusual ducks and black kites. Unfortunately there were no snakes today.
After our cruise we went for a drive along the Daintree River, it was very beautiful countryside. Then we went on a loop drive from Mossman to Mareeba via Mt Molloy, then via Kuranda (Barron Falls) to Palm Cove and then along the coast road back to Port Douglas. The coast road is right on the water’s edge but unfortunately the winds seem to dirty the water and hopefully we will see it looking better next time we drive this way.
We had a lovely day!
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- Lipstick palms at the Ramada Resort
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- A sugar train crossesin front of us at Mossman this morning..
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- Waiting for the start of our crocodile tour..
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- The first crocodile we saw this morning..
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- The mmangroves along the Daintree River – the pointy sticks are actually the roots of the mangrove trees which grow back up so they can get oxygen for the trees
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- Blue kingfisher
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- Another crocodile
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- An egret
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- Our third adult crocodile
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- Look to the left of centre on the bank and you can see a very small 2020 baby croc
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- Car crossing the Daintree River in the Upper Daintree..
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- David still looking for crocs. He won’t be happy until he finds one on his own
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- We just had enough petrol to make it back to the petrol station today.
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- Looking out from the Mossman Mt Molloy lookout
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- The Jacques Coffee Plantation entrance, see the termite mounds on the left of the driveway. They were following the driveway all the way along
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- Budaadji Canopy walk at Kuranda – it was amazing to be high above the rainforest floor
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- Barron Falls near Kuranda – this was an amazing falls
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- This is what a cassowary chick looks like and exactly what we saw on Wednesday with their big daddy
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- Wrights lookout towards Cairns
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- Rex lookout north of Ellis Beach
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- A big drive day 313km
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- Route of our crocodile cruise with Solar Whisper cruises