Wednesday, April 7, 2010

Cairns River Tour

Today is a warm one as we suspected, but the sun is out bright and little rain in the forecast. The UV warning is a 13!!! I have never seen that number before in the states. They have had 19 straight days of rain and this is the first sunny one.  We love it. We pick up sandwiches at the local IGA store and take them on the boat  with us. There are only about 50 crocs in the immediate area in the wild.   How many will we see?  This is our tour boat.IMG_4413

The Beehler kids are convinced their Dad is not on the trip as we have had no photos of him.  Trust me, your Dad is with us. IMG_4416

We have a fabulous lesson and tour about the mangrove filtration system that protects the Great Barrier Reef from the toxic run off from the mainland.

IMG_0526 The entire Trinity Bay estuary is nothing but mangrove areas.  With the smaller boat, we are able to go up into the smaller creeks and search for the crocs.  Ultimately, we see three of the 50 that are out there.IMG_0533

These are salt water crocodiles; different from the fresh water ones we saw in Kenya along the Mara River.  The ones we say today were also much smaller than those in Africa. These were about a meter and a half long.  Dangerous regardless of their size.

IMG_0541 IMG_0551

Tomorrow is our trip out to the Great Barrier Reef and the weather is forecast for sunny skies. We are excited.

2 comments:

Cele Flanary said...

Joyce and Bob,
Love your travel blog. I feel like I am there enjoying all these wonderful sites with you...even the weather in WL is cooperating as its been in the 80's. Thanks for sharing, Cele

Charlie and Toni said...

Very nice. But how did you manage to get a piture of Jerry with nothing in his shirt pocket?