30 August 2011 - Mossman Riverside Leisure Park, Queensland

We had little planned for today, in fact the only activity was not scheduled until late afternoon, so the day passed in the way retired folk often pass their days; reading, walking and on line.

After morning coffee we walked the length of Mossman’s main street, popping in to the newsagent for the newspaper and to print off our e-ticket, and Woolworths to buy bread and cheese, the latter having been absent from our diet since the last block died a melting death with the lack of refrigeration after we embarked on our Cape York expedition. How I savoured a greedy helping of this wonderful treat at lunchtime, and we will continue to do so because the cheapest way to buy it was to buy a whole kilo and we have only four more days to consume it all. Heaven forbid we have to discard any of it!

See the monitor?

The strong smell of molasses hung in the air, drifting across from the sugar mill. I had noticed this when we arrived back at Mossman yesterday afternoon to book into the camp, but had not noticed it again until we ventured down the street this morning. I guess the residents are used to the smell as those in Rotorua are to the smell of volcanic sulphur. Having said that, the sweet pollution from the mill is not entirely unpleasant.

No sooner had we returned from our walk, did a huge monitor make its way across the park close to the caravan, disturbed at one point and resting up a tree, his head a metre and a half up and his tail still partly draped along the ground. Eventually he moved off down to the river. I had nearly run in to him except for the warning called by a fellow camper. I doubt these creatures would be dangerous (unless you cornered them) but they do not endear themselves by their presence.

We set off back toward the Daintree Village at 3 pm calling in to a rural fruit and vegetable store where we purchased a pineapple which disappointingly turned out to be less than acceptable once cut into.

Cruising on the Daintree River

Crocs lounging on the river banks

A couple of kilometres past the ferry turnoff, we found Bruce Belcher’s Daintree River Cruises, and at 4 pm, low tide on the river, we boarded the Mangrove Jack II with four others for an hour long cruise that turned out to be nearly an hour and a half long. We crawled downstream hugging the shore of the Daintree River, spotting Azure Kingfisher, Great Billed Herons, Great Egrets, Cattle Egrets, Little Egrets, Little Kingfisher, Sacred Kingfisher and of course crocodiles of all ages and sizes which the cruise was really all about. The captain of the boat, Ken who like us had been a grey nomad until he got waylaid by Bruce Belcher, was most informative regarding the flora and fauna of the river side area. We both enjoyed the cruise very much and would thoroughly recommend this operator as giving value for money, and a host of interesting information.