After actually getting some sleep, Dave wakes up early and sneaks back to the car to get a few bits we left behind in our panic – opening the door is hit by the heat of what we imagine would have killed us – who would have guessed when your car is getting cooked in the burning sun – how do people not die in these things? Good to see the “curtains” did nothing and the huge gaps all around them would have let people see our cooked butts ????

A cheeky coffee or 2 to get us going and we set off stopping off at Mossman to get some supplies and use our “van’s” “kitchen” to make up a couple of sarnies

From here, we head up north as right next to the ferry crossing is Solar Whisper Wildlife and Crocodile Cruises on the Daintree River

We hop aboard our little boat with about 20 people on board, powered by an electric motor and captained by a dog named Peppa we head down the river in search of crocs

Not far out we have look, spotting a baby crocodile – only 2 years old but still less than a metre long, it’s adorable

Thanks to the cyclones from 2 months back, the sand banks have moved around and we almost run aground a few times, but luckily our captain knows the waters well and gets us through

We manage to catch up with a croc they call “Nate” – 4.5m long he’s big, and a stranger that passes through these waters trying not to anger “scar face”, the alpha in these waters

The rain catches up with us and we endure a bit of a storm, we turn back down the river spotting scar face in the distanced but he dives before we get close

We also spot a tiny heron and a king fisher along the route

A few things we learnt along the way:

• The “King Tide” has a 3m difference on Daintree River in a day
• Freshwater Crocs are friendly, small and not really dangerous
• Saltwater are the dangerous ones – stay at least 5m from them to stay safe
• Summer is the hardest time to spot as water is warm (where they hide to keep warm being cold blooded)
• Cyclone flood was 8m higher than where we are – totally above the ticket office and toilets
• Only 1% of crocs live to adulthood – under 1.6m they can be preyed upon, or even eaten by bigger Crocs
• Almost extinct in 1971 due to hunting – has recovered to only 20% of the original population in Queensland
• Flood wiped out all the nests this year – crocs lay eggs in December just as the flood happened, so no newborns this year
• In Queensland, they shoot any Croc that injures a human, even if the human is just being stupid and jumping in the nest or something – shoddy
• 90 crocodiles in the 100km stretch of the Daintree River – but people claim it’s infested and want to kill them all ????

We head back down south to call at Mossman Gorge – unfortunately you have to take the shuttle from the visitor centre to get to it; this also stops at half 5 so we figure we come back tomorrow

Back in Port Douglas, we head to Four Mile Beach to take a walk around the headland on Flagstaff Hill – on one side is rainforest and the other is the ocean – a lovely little walk

Post walk, it’s getting late so we head back to our hotel, but sneak in the camper stove from the car (might as well get some use out of this disaster) to cook some beef ravioli for dinner

But first, we take a dip in the nice array of pools our hotel has to offer – shallow, deep, waterfalls, all lit with some delicate blue lights whilst we watch the bats flying over head

Post swim, we head back to have dinner, Daisy heads to car to grab the gas for the stove and Dave heads back but has his path blocked by a rather large black snake having a wiggle along

The snake moves on into the bushes and we head in

Dinner sorted we survive the dodgy camper stove – that won’t even turn off or adjust the flame – blow it out and pull the canister out kinda job to turn it off!

After dinner, we go to wash bits up and have a bit of a surprise sitting in our pot…

A rather large Cane Toad seems to have enjoyed our dinner too!

Chores done, it’s a shower, snuggle up and enjoy the air-con time