Daintree River Crocodiles

 Rex Lookout

 Crocodile Express

 Daintree River

 Barratt

 Rusty

Water Dragon

Barratt with a grass hat

 Hibiscus snack

 Lunch

 Lunch?

 Crocodile Wrestling

 Unnamed Crocdile

Baby Crocodiles

Mangrove

Saturday, 25th August, 2012

It’s official – snake season has arrived! Not sure what those dead things on the road/footpath have been, figments of our imagination? It’s also official – winter has ended (as if we hadn’t worked that one out, too).

Saturday dawned clear and hot – just the right conditions for a day in the Daintree. The drive along the coast between Cairns and Port Douglas was just beautiful, being early in the day and the air still being very clear. We had a brief stop at Rex Lookout (a good chance for a photo opportunity) before continuing towards Mossman. As we crossed the Mowbray River, just south of the Port Douglas turn-off, we spotted a large crocodile sunning itself on a mud bank in the middle of the river!

We didn’t stop at Mossman but continued straight on to Daintree Village (or Town). We decided to do a cruise on the Daintree River (and maybe see another crocodile) and were pleased to discover that Crocodile Express have a 12 month pass for free cruises with the purchase of one trip (cost us $20 each). Naturally, we opted for both the Upper Daintree and Lower Daintree cruises in the one day, instead of continuing the drive to Cape Tribulation. The Upper Daintree cruise left from the village and we headed down river (or was it up river?) and hadn’t gone very far before we met Barratt – he was definitely a big crocodile and had a fondness for eating calves if they came too close. Just round the next bend was Rusty, named because of the colour of her tail. We also saw another small crocodile – just a juvenile with a lot of growing to do. We returned to the landing along the opposite bank, keeping an eye out for snakes, but came across a water dragon instead, as well as the odd Ulysses butterfly. We were even offered a snack of native hibiscus – Cat wasn’t very impressed.

After a barramundi lunch, we drove to the ferry crossing to board the Lower Daintree cruise and search for more crocodiles. The boat driver (tour guide) this time informed us he was actually a botanist at James Cook University and he would much prefer to talk about the mangroves than look for crocs – he made the hour cruise last an hour and a half and was so interesting (he knew a lot about crocodiles, too, as well as many, many jokes!). Evidently, JCU (on the edge of world heritage rain forest) doesn’t offer a full botany course, merely subjects associated with the marine biology course. Apart from seeing three crocodiles, the highlight of this cruise was probably the nest of young crocodiles, about eight or nine of them.

Although it was after 4.00 pm when we departed from Daintree, we decided to have a quick drive through Port Douglas on our return to Cairns and can report that Port Douglas hasn’t changed – just as many resorts, coffee shops, bars and boutiques.