Saturday, November 17 Daintree River Campground – Lake Eacham Campground – Croc hunting

     The roadhouse campground has a beautiful setting in the rainforest, the open grassy spaces affording great views of the coastal range.

Campground in the jungle

Lovely tropical flowers

We've wanna see a croc!

     Nearly every body of water in Queensland is marked by signs warning of the presence of crocodiles, even small drainage ditches along the side of the road, so we thought the probability of spotting one during our driving and hiking was fairly high. Certainly in alligator country in Florida it's not hard to see gators floating along or sunning themselves on the bank. But so far we hadn't seen one croc. We had agreed that if we didn't see a saltie, as they are also called here after the proper name 'saltwater crocodile', although the even more correct term is estuarine crocodile, before leaving the area we would take one of the hour long, $25 cruises on the Daintree River which promised a sighting or a second free trip.

     We took the ferry back across the Daintree River and chose a boat from the four small riverside outfits. Ours was a small solar powered craft not much bigger than Khrys, the big concrete croc in Normanton. Hopefully big enough to keep us from being snacks for the fearsome Indo-Pacific crocodiles.

     Croc hunting was outlawed in the 1970's. Big mistake – at least for man. Before that time we were at the top of the food chain, and the scaly beasts were extremely wary of human contact. People swam, canoed and water skied on the Daintree and other tropical rivers in Queensland and the Northern Territories. But after the ban, the 1% of baby crocs that survived the hazards of their 'eat or be eaten' childhood grew to be the masters of their realm. Humans were no longer feared, but seen as just one more tasty choice on the riverine  buffet table.

     Crocs can live for 80 years or more, so the 70's baby boomers are just reaching middle age. But they can be pretty big, up to 20 feet and nearly 1500 pounds, and with their powerful tails can launch themselves almost completely out of the murky water onto the shore, or your little boat. And unlike our Florida alligators who have to stop eating for the cool winter months because their body temperatures are too low to allow for digestion and therefore not interested in eating human flesh (makes you feel a little better about canoeing in their waters), Aussie crocs like to eat all year long.

     Our guide told us the story of a Canadian guy who had been warned about canoeing in tropical waters after a ranger saw his maple-leaved emblazoned craft on top of his car. Later, evidence suggests that the guy had trailed a dead fish on a line behind his canoe, trying to film a crocodile. The canoe was later found, fish still tied to it, the Canuck gone.

     We were luckier than that. About five minutes after leaving the dock I spotted an adult croc floating near the mangroves. He submerged after only a few seconds, but the sighting relieved the boat captain of fulfilling the guarantee of a second free trip if no croc was spotted. A few minutes later he took us close to a branch emerging from the water holding a resting baby crocodile, a much rarer sighting, he assured us, since the babies serve as food for so many other creatures. The girls thought he was cute. I figured he took a good look at us and thought, 'when I get bigger, you're mine'.

I know it doesn't look like much, but that's a 'saltie'

Baby croc sunning himself

     We also saw a nesting Tawny Frogmouth with chick, which was nearly as rewarding as our five second croc viewing, as well as other birds. [Diana: Some of us were even lucky enough to see the Tawny do a little yawn, which quickly made its name apparent.]

Tawny Frogmouth with chick

     After our river cruise we drove to Mossman and had lunch in a shady park. Several people were swimming in the shallow river there, an appealing way to cool off, until I saw the 'beware of crocodiles' sign. I wasn't ready to be lunch, so I passed on dipping in the water.

     In Atherton we did a little grocery shopping, and saw our first platypus in a small pond at a town park. It would surface to nibble at the duckweed floating on the surface, then submerge to chew and swallow. The cycle was repeated every minute or so, but as it was approaching dusk we didn't get the best views. It did count as a platypus sighting however, and I could scratch one more Australian critter off my list.

View over Atherton Tablelands

Funky little train

Crocodile and platypus, all in one day.  Not bad.

Roo burgers and Rastafarians

     We spent the night at a small caravan park run by very friendly people near the Craters Lake National Park. I threw some 'roo burgers on the barbie in the camp kitchen, which was also being used by a group of dread-locked young people heading back from the big week long eclipse festival that was held in the outback west of Cairns. Never saw so much tangled hair and tattoos in my life. We talked with a few of them before bed time, and costumes notwithstanding, as fellow travelers they weren't all that different than us.