Daintree River Cruise

We signed up for the 6:40 AM river cruise.  It was raining when it started.  We were joined by another couple of birders from England, they were late as they had been forced off the road by heavy rain as they drove in from Port Douglas.

It was raining at the start but it cleared up.  Our guide was concerned that the birding would be poor, but it turned out to be quite active in the end.

Staghorn fern growing in the trees along the river

The bird of the day was this Papuan Frogmouth with its chicken sitting on a branch:

This is the Leichardt tree, native to Southeast Asia, Papua New Guinea and northern Australia.  They are usually full of birds, especially honeyeaters.

We were lucky to get a glimpse of Thornton Peak which is supposedly hidden by clouds for 300 days a year.

We finished off the tour with a view of this crocodile:

You can't tell from this piicture, but this crocodile was enormous, 4 meters long, and the biggest crocodile I've ever seen.

Our guide is a kayaker so Leo asked him if he'd ever paddled the Daintree.  He said you would never ever paddle on the river.  The crocodiles would kill you!

In fact at every river crossing in the Daintree you see this sign: