Man Eating Crocodiles Oh My

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Trip Start Jul 29, 2005 Previous
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  Cairns, Australia
Tuesday, August 9, 2005

Visit Klenske, Ink.

We had a long and early day today. With a 6:45am pick up, we were off to explore tropical Queensland's wet tropics World Heritage Site. This rainforest is the oldest in the world, with numerous pre-historic trees still surviving. Those ferns we find imprinted as fossils in Iowa still live here. In fact, the Daintree Rainforest was thousands of years old when the amazon and rainforest of central Africa were just starting to sprout. It's amazing what the local government has been able to do to save these forest. They were on their way to being wiped out by logging and private development until the late 1980's, when a green mayor took over and put a stop to the destruction.

Our tour was one of the best we have ever taken

A Great Australian Caution Sign

. We started with a beautiful coastal drive and then stopped for morning tea at a rainforest cafe. After that we floated down a crocodile infested river (in a boat) and found one laying on the shore. These salt water crocs are huge and actually hunt (and kill) humans (one person was even taken from their tent in the middle of the night. They can grow well over 20 feet long, can jump over a boat, and live for between 100 and 200 years. Anyways, we got the hint to shove on when it looked at us and opened its jaw wide.

Next we spent several hours at a camp in the middle of the forest, along a creek. Here our guide cooked up a delicious lunch while we hiked and went canoeing (the waters were croc free, so they said). After that we drove north to Cape Tribulation, where the mountain covered rainforest meets the South Pacific Ocean. We ended the day with a short stroll into the canopy. In terms of wildlife, besides the croc we saw some wallabies, several kookaburras, a bandicoot, some flying foxes (very large fruit bats) and a pack of wild pigs

Interesting fact: there are more wild pigs in Australia then people.

Off to the red center in the morning.

Visit Klenske, Ink.

Post your own travel photos for friends and family More Pictures

Ancient Rainforest and Ocean	By a Croc Free Jungle River	Canoeing in Daintree National Park	Canoes in the Jungle
Cape Tribulation	Did the Crocs Eat the Owner?	Flying Foxes (aka, very large bats)	Get in My Belly!
Jungle Snapping Turtle	Let's Hike Here!	Looking Over the Queensland Wet Tropics	Lyle the Man-Eating Killer Croc
Nick on a Hike in Daintree	Scared, There's Only 25 Foot Crocs in those Woods	Tea Time in the Jungle	Walking Down the Cape

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