Despite having been woken at some point in the night, I managed to make it to the tour pick up spot for the 7am pick up that I thought it was. After it got to about 10 past 7 I started wondering if I had gotten the time wrong, and checked it up. I dscovered it should have been 7.30am instead, which gave me time to grab the breakfast I had skipped to make it to the bus stop.
The bus picked me up, then we headed to Proserpine. A family of 5 from Brisbane were there, and the ittle girl noticed a lot of steam coming out of team coming out of a chimney for a cane sugar processing plant. Her observation made me smile - "Mummy! I know why it's so cloudy! That machine is making all the clouds!"
We reached the main camp which was the base for the tour, and met the two guys who ran the tours - Dean and Mark. I have to admit I can't recall who was who, and didn't think to ask at any point.
We were given a synopsis of the plan - go on the river up and down to where the crocodiles were known to be - the crocodiles were salt water crocodiles - those being the ones that are not very timid and have been known to attack humans - though later the guide advised that 80% of crocodile attacks involved alcohol and therefore lower capability at making well judged risk assessments.
We got to introduce ourselves. 9 of our group of 14 were Australian, 4 being from Melbourne, and 5 being the aforementioned family from Brisbane. Another 2 people were from Texas, but living in Sydney now. The other 2 apart from me were from Scotland.
As a matter of principle, I introduced myself to the other two Scots, who were own under visitting family for christmas, and had decided to do a small tour while they were at it.
We boarded the boat, and headed upstream to start with. On the riverbank, which were very muddy, there were hundreds of tiny one armed crabs, waving their pincers about, or running away from the sound of the boat. The main trees that grew along the riverside were mangroves, which helped to prevent it from eroding too fast.
To start with, we saw lots of baby crocodiles, only a few 10s of centimetres long each, but very well camoflagued against the backdrop of the river banks.
There was one large female that the guide spotted, but she was too far up the bank to be able to even see unless you knew what you were looking for, so we continued upstream.
There was one female croc that we saw on the way up, who was part out of the water, but she slid back in when the boat came alongthe guide advising that if she had been on the bank outright, she would have stayed there, but as it was just her head, she had slid back in.
On way back, there was mention of the same croc being there, but I found myself looking at and taking photographs of a stick - they are very hard to stpo even if you know they're there!
At this point, the youngest kid (Zach) from the 5 strong family wsa upset about something, and his screaming almost certainly kept the crocs under water. He did calm down before we made it back to the boat tie up, so we had another go at trying to see the first croc that had been mentioned. This didn't prove to be very productive though as only the guide was able to see her.
We proceeded downstream of camp, passing by some people fishing for mud crabs. The Scottish couple spotted a croc where a tributary stream met the river, and it was classical eyes + forehead above the water style, before slinking back underwater to hide.
The guide had just been aboiut to turn back before this, so decided to keep on going, though we saw nothing until he turned back. Going back up the river a bit, we discovered Dorothy, who had surfaced and made her way to the bank. She didn't seem to react at all to the boat approaching, and we got a lot of viewing time watching her just basking in the warmth.
We headed back to the camp, where we were treated to Billy tea and Dampers, a sort of sponge flour cake thing. They were elicious, the billy tea being made in the traditional (!?) way of carefully measuring the tea leaves in to the billy can (resulting in lots being wasted outside the can itself!). This was mixed using both centrifugal force swinging of the billy can and using a stick by the other guy (whose job was to help with landing the boat and cooking the BBQ from what I could tell!)
By this time, the tide had risen enough on the river that it was worth trying to go back to see Gloria, the croc who nobody but the guide could see earlier. As we got on the boat, the chain on the horse charm, that Bobbi had given me, snapped, so I became aware of the little girl who had come up with the cloud theory saying "Excuse me sir! Excuse me sir!" and handing me the horse.
We did manage to see Gloria, she was well hidden, and we could only see her because the river level had risen by about a meter e to the tide. We headed back to the camp to get in to the trailers for the second part of the tour.
While we waited for the boat to be taken out of the water and the tractor to be moved to the trailers themselves, I made sure to introduce myself to the Asian family whose girl had rescued my horse. I made sure to find out the girl's name, Erica, so that I could thank her properly, and learned that both her and her brother, Zach, who had been upset earlier, loved horses, so it was natural of them to notice mine.
The trailer part of the tour took us through swamp forest, which is often flooded during rainy season, which was just about starting in the area. A lot of the trees had burn marks on them, which was due to deliberate burning of the land to maintain it - the trees themselves have very wet insides and just the outer bark gets burned during this process.
Our guide showed us the joys of the red ash tree, which is also known as the oap tree, due to the properties of the leaves to produce a foamy lather when water is applied the leaves are rubbed between the hands.
We headed on to the next spot in the forest, and on the way, a wedge tailed eagle was seen flying above the canopy of the forest. The next stop was a location where there were green weaver ants nests. The guide sacrificed himself in the goal of showing off how the aboriginal people sed to eat the ants for nutrition, offering us all the chance to lick them, but we all declined for some reason!
Another bird of prey that we saw during this time was a black kite. There are no photos of either of these two birds, since they were not sitting still, but instead soaring through the skies, like eagles!
We made it to a water hole, where we were recounted a story about a nearby resident called Sydney Cotton, who was apparently the inspiration for Mr Felming to write James Bond, being one of the inventers of the spy camera that ended up being used a lot in that era.
As we headed back to the camp, we were taught about the etymological reasons for the Proserpine name - that being the Roman god of fertility.
The last thing on order was the BBQ at the camp, where I enjoyed some Barramundi steak and other BBQ'd delicious morsels, along with salads and pastas. The topping of dessert was some Lamingtons cakes, soft sponges with chocolate and coconut outer shells.
While we were heading back to the BBQ, I was given some recommendations by the texan couple that when I was in Cairns I should go to the Kuranda rainforest town if I wanted to see any Koalas. This can be achieved by taking the train there and the skyrail back, and you get an opportunity to be photographed holding a Koala in the gardens there.
I made it back to Airlie Beach, and having nothing else to do, I decided to rlax with a cool beer at the hostel bar, where I met an Australian family from Mackay. They were there on a one day trip to the area to visit the Whitsundays, and we managed to get a good rapport, so ended up spending the evening chatting with each other about things, including getting a game of doubles pool in.
I am pleased to report that I was on the winning side, having decided to play a tactical game, so all those years of playing pool for free at work have paid off, as the son of the family with me, bet the Dad and Grand-dad.
The family were great fun to chat with, the oldest couple being Debbie, who has the same birthday as me, and her husband Neil. The Mum and Dad on holiday were Pete and Nicola. I'm not sure which of the two had their parents there. Pete is from Samoa, and Nicola from Australia. Their son Jacob was also there, and we ended up teaming up for a game of doubles pool, Pete and Neil vs. Jacob and myself. My team won, then I confessed that I played pool a lot at work due to having free tables.
I got back to the chalet room, and found out that Paul had decided that my name was Scotty, as easier to remember, since I was from Scotland. We played cards on the front porch, and then they left to go out, while I went in to sort out my stuff and relax a bit. I introduced myself to another new room mat, Anne from Germany, and then once I had finished organising, went out to the club, having decided that I was only there once, and the existence of the place seemed to be about club nights!
I got back to the room around 1am, along with some others from the room, and since I had an early start, hit the sack.