Thursday 24th July Exciting, Exploring Excursions

Following a more leisurely breakfast on the ship, we boarded our Explorer to cruise to a place called Careening Bay. It must have taken all of 5 minutes to cruise to this destination. We had another “wet landing” on the beach and were once again reminded to stay well away from the water’s edge as a large crocodile had been seen here during previous excursions. I was in my element here as this was quite the historical site. Careening means fixing a ship on a super high tide, hence the name of the bay! In 1820, Phillip Parker King, who was a great navigator and hydrographer, brought his ship called The Mermaid, ashore to work on it as it was in desperate need of repairs. While completing this task, King’s crew inscribed a large boab tree with “HMC (His Majesty” Cutter) Mermaid 1820”. One of our expedition team spoke extremely highly of Phillip Parker King and all the exploring he did and commented that many Australians had not heard of him as a famous Australian explorer. King’s Cascade where we visited yesterday, was named after him. The actual boab tree was estimated to be over 800 years old. After viewing the tree, we enjoyed a walk through the nearby bush. Here we observed wild-life and a couple of huge bower bird nests. Returning to the ship, we had another entertaining and extremely interesting lecture by Greg, a passionate expedition team lecturer who just loves crocodiles! We have all learnt never to use the term “saltwater” crocodiles. They are apparently “Indo-pacific Estuarine” crocodiles but freshwater crocodiles are freshwater crocodiles! In the afternoon we took at scenic cruise through Creek 99, a winding tidal waterway with mangroves lining the edges. On the muddy banks and in the shallows, we were able to observe the many animals that live in this ecosystem. The mudskippers were fun to watch with their “googly” eyes, darting in and out of the water. Another small creature which was quite prolific on the muddy banks, was the small, bright red Fiddler crabs. These crabs have one huge claw to attract a mate and ward off predators, and the other claw is a normal size for its body. The area was also haven for birdlife. Of course, we were all hoping to spot some estuarine crocodiles and we did. We saw a few in the water and then later saw some basking on the mudflats. Our return journey to the ship was a bit rocky as once we had left the shelter of the creek the wind had picked up and we had an exciting 40-minute journey, thumping through the waves back to the safety of the ship.