Daintree Rainforest Tour: River Cruise

Jack enjoying ice cream in paradise.

After lunch at a Rainforest Cafe, we headed to an ice cream stand that creates its own ice cream from the tropical fruits they pick fresh from their trees and bushes. We sampled 4 flavours of ice cream: pineapple, banana, blueberry and black sesame. All were unique and full of flavour. As we ate our ice cream, we took in the gorgeous surroundings of the tropical gardens. We saw plants that we couldn't believe were real. They were gigantic and the blooms so were vibrant and unusual. See for yourself in these photos.

After our ice cream treat, we went to the Daintree river for a Crocodile Cruise. Our boat Captain's name was "Captain Crash" and he was your typical barefooted, scruffy, funny eyed riverboat captain (picture Captain Ron aka Kurt Russell) and he was cracking corny jokes all the way. He had only one rule for us in the boat - don't lean over or place any body parts over the edge. Apparently a Norweigian woman was attacked once leaning over the water and the outcome wasn't very good.

Dad trying to provide croc bait.

The Daintree River is about 150 metres wide and home to about 120 freshwater crocs. The crocodile population took a severe hit in the 1970's when a an Elder member of a nearby community was taken by one and the community retaliated by going along the river and shooting all the crocs they could find.

Now, 40 years later, the crocodiles are making a slow recovery. Part of the problem is nature as crocs are not very parental. Mother crocs can lay 100 eggs at a time. After the eggs hatch, the mother cares for her young for a week and then they are on their own for survival. A mother croc does not recognize her own young and so in the fight for survival, 99 of 100 will be eaten by other crocs, barrimundi or other species and 1 will survive. It's a "croc eat croc world".

It was overcast as we took our cruise making it particularly difficult to spot the crocs as they sit in the mangroves along the shore. We managed to spot one year old croc before he swam away but I was not quick enough to catch a photo. Some of the crocs in the area that we didn't see are 3 metres in length. Captain Crash told us a story of a recent cruise he did that had a 3 month baby and mom on board. The baby cried the whole cruise and so the tourists on board had the luck of having a 2 metre croc following the boat the entire way. He said that all the croc could hear was an animal in distress and so it was planning an easy lunch if only it could catch it. I doubt the mother was very happy about this news.

It was an enjoyable cruise never the less and the hour flew by very quickly. Before we knew it we were back with Greg for the ride back to the hotel. We were all pretty tuckered out and just sat back and enjoyed the ride "home". I have to give a lot of credit to Greg and to Australia Wild Escapes Tours for this fantastic day trip. We learned so much and enjoyed many beautiful sites along the way. It was an early to bed night for all and we slept like stones. Tomorrow we have our rental car for the day and will relax at the beach before our trip out to the Reef on Friday.