Cairns & Port Douglas Day Five - Croc Spotting

Emma

Dec 27, 20202 min read

Today was a big day of driving - we were heading north into the Daintree Rainforest!

Our first stop was (meant to be) Mossman Gorge. However, upon arriving in the town of Mossman we discovered that the Gorge was closed to tourists due to protect its large indigenous population from COVID. Of course, we understood but it was pretty annoying to get most of the way there before there being any signage to tell you it was closed.

We headed further north and stopped at Bruce Belchers Daintree River Cruises as the sign said there was a tour departing in 10 minutes, which was perfect. We bought our tickets which were only $20 each and got our free Slurpee and headed down to the boat. The aim of this tour being of course to see crocodiles.

Our tour was lead by Bruce Belcher himself and his adorable doggo friend. It only took about 10 seconds after the boat pulled out to spot our first crocodile. Over the next hour or so we saw about 8 different crocodiles, from quite small juveniles to a huge big monster daddy that would eat you in one bite. Bruce gave some entertaining commentary about the crocs and other local stories along the way.

We continued north into the Daintree but again discovered extra travel restrictions due to the need to protect indigenous populations and couldn’t continue due to these, so we turned around and headed back to Port Douglas.

We spent the afternoon in the pool and then headed to “The Tin Shed” for an early dinner. We had a prime position on the deck and got to watch the boats coming in/out of the marina and a great sunset. It made for a memorable last night in Port Douglas.

After dinner, we headed back to the hotel via Wicked Ice Creams where we both ordered far too much ice cream for dessert.