Blog 18; Close encounters with Crocs – and I don’t mean the ones you wear on your feet!

So, a couple of days to catch up on.

Before we left Townville we made a visit back to the ferry terminal – why, I hear you ask? Because Emily adored the muffins they sold in the café – the best she has had since coming here, and she wanted one for the road. The coffee was ok too, so I was ok with it. The muffins were a kind of cross between a muffin and a scone – a scoffin as it were, and as she got one for me too, I can testify to their tastiness.

The drive up from Townsville was fairly uneventful, except we were missing our old ways of seeing a sign and going to investigate, so when we saw the sign for Jourama Falls, and the sign also had the helpful information of how far they were off the highway we made a last-minute decision and we were off. I don’t know what it is about Emily driving, but yet again, without warning, the road ended, and we were on gravel. She was going carefully enough – but the locals weren’t and as we got closer there was a van cam tearing down the road so Em pulled in to let it past – thank goodness she did. We got around the next bend and the road was completely flooded. The van had stopped and they were considering their options (perhaps not locals after all) and when they started reversing, we did too. So, the first spontaneous thing that wasn’t going to take us two hours out of our way and we still did not get to see it! Ah well.

We saw a new roadsign today – it said ‘No banana plants to be taken past this point’ – oh the questions we have….

Last night we decided to stick pretty close to our hotel for dinner, but as we are in the subburbs of Cairns, there was not much on offer, so we ended up at a quirky Mexican/Italian place that was totally random and next to a bowls club – I had a gorgonzola pizza for example (what3words; golf.jobs.bedding). The jury is still out on that one, and that is from someone who loves cheese and banana toasted sandwiches!

This morning we were up and out early doors as we had a lot to cram in – time is getting short. We went to the Crystal Cascades first. We parked the car and could hear water, but could not see it, so I asked a lady of she had been here before and she said ‘about 10 years ago’ so I asked if it was far to walk and she said ‘cant remember, it was 10 years ago!’ It is so difficult to get a read on people here, especially in the North – they seem really brusque, and are not chatty, but then she turned around and gave me unsolicited advice on which waterfalls to visit in the area! We then went on to have a lovely chat about how she used to be an adventurous person until she had kids and now she is a big ‘fraidy cat – same!

We walked up the path and came to the first lagoon style pool. No-one was swimming in it, and it was in the shade so it looked a little cold…

we carried on to a second lagoon that was really deep.... hmmm, that would be cold

So we kept going on and on, eventually reaching the waterfall itself, and a beautiful pool that was actually quite treacherous to get into – there is footage of Em helping me over the rocks (yep, taken with my new toy) but there is far too much skin on show for me to share it. We did make it into the pool though, and the water was beautiful – not cold at all. It is something I have always wanted to do since I last did it Thailand 30 years ago – swim under a waterfall, and it did not disappoint. (what3words; reels.reliels.scorching)

On the way back down we looked again at the first pool – it was a shallow walk in and no jagged rocks, plus now it was in full sunlight – but no waterfall, so swings and roundabouts.

After the Cascades we went to find the Fairy Falls. To get to them, the instructions were to take the path next to the sign advising of the stinging plants…. This was the sign

Honestly, it is not just the animals that want to kill you here!

We met a cute couple in the car park – they were making hot chocolate for breakfast and offered us some. They were living out of their van and it looked very cosy. They had been on the road for 8 months and have 3 more to go – I was a little jealous until I looked at their cramped quarters.

Once we had had our fill of peace and tranquility, we headed for the main adventure for the day, and it was up in Daintree National Park, which houses the oldest tropical rainforest in the world. It has been growing for 180 million years – the Amazon has only been growing for a mere 10 million years old. I also learned that the world started with one continent called ‘Gondwana’ and bits broke off and created the other contents – Australia stayed where it was, but does move slightly

On the way to Daintree we stopped off at a little place called Mossman for lunch – I don’t know how we pick ‘em, but we sure see the real life of Australia. We ate at a little café called ‘Goodies’ (what3words; foxes.overtaking.untouched) and I had a lovely salad sandwich – just plain salad, perfect. When I asked where the loos were, we were directed out and round the back of the building to an outside toilet… enough said.

There was a local indigenous man who knew everyone sat by the café – he had a word to say to everyone who passed by – he reminded me of an aging rocker holding court. I did sneakily take his pic, but that was just for me, not to share.

We carried on to our destination, thinking we had loads of time – only to find we were at the wrong place – bloody auto correct! We had a mad dash to the right destination and that is where we had our close encounters with the Crocs. Don’t worry, we were not swimming in an infested river we were taking a solar powered river cruise looking for the wildlife, and we got really close!

We saw several crocs – the alpha male Scar face, although he was up a gully in the darkness os I did not get a pic of him.

This is Dusty – female and huge!

This is Big Nic (new male, should not really have been there, by Scarface is getting a bit old now and tends to avoid fights) I only gor a pic of his back, but you can see how big he is from that

& a little baby 18 months old – there have been no babies this year as the rains flooded all of the nests – hopefully the next breeding season will have better news.

I also caught this fella, a Sacred Kingfisher who is not a true Kingfisher as he does not catch fish!

I honestly never thought I would get to within 10 feet of a saltwater crocodile, but what handsome beasts they are.

Tonight we went into Cairns itself for dinner – much busier and vibrant – we could not stay long though as we have to be up super early tomorrow for our diving trip! Our last big adventure….