Crocodile rock (Prince Frederick Harbour and Porosus Creek)

Welcome back dear reader to the easiest blog title ever. We left Vansittart Island and Gwion Gwion art in our wake to be informed at Recap that we would have an afternoon start for today. Winner. Jayne was most excited. A leisurely breakfast, some work on the belated blog posts and polishing of photos would be the order of the day. Then to Josh's lecture on crocodiles at 11am, followed by lunch and a zodiac trip up the Porosus Creek looking for the critters Josh had warned us about.

The lecture went overtime. To gauge its effectiveness, the majority of people were still there at the end and people remained behind to ask questions. It was a great mixture of information, statistics, and humour, measured by Josh's work in science, conservation and the crocodile industry. Josh is an interesting man with an amazing, eclectic knowledge, not just on crocodiles, his specialty, but of conservation, science and the environment in general. We had a most enjoyable dinner with him after the visit to Vansittart Island where we discussed indigenous art and archeology in Australia.

No, this rock doesn't look like a crocodile.

The whole area is stunning and I doubt that we would have seen it had we not come on this cruise. No, dear reader it is not a cheap and cheerful option, but it has been worth it. The experience of the Kimberley is not something I can easily describe and is certainly not something easily accessed. The ship is beautiful, the food is great, there are even activities for cruise type people, like French lessons, dancing lessons, concerts ad nauseam.



Post lecture and the long lunch we headed for the zodiacs and by pure chance we boarded the zodiac that was skippered by Josh. Winner (again). We hadn't moved too far from the ship before we spotted a sea snake. Absolutely beautiful animal just swimming around minding its own business until we turned up.

Pretty cute, eh?

The snake left us and we continued our journey to see more crocodiles. And see more crocodiles we did. The photos are testament. The statistics suggest around 6 crocodiles per 1 km stretch of river. One of the  most famous crocs of the region is Stumpy, a three legged croc. While there were tracks up and down the beach where he and his women live, they were not to be seen.

We continued on and motored up a side creek where we came across a  mud skipper. They are seriously huge up here.

Mud or mud skipper? Hard to tell where one begins and the other ends.

We followed up the mud skipper sighting with that of the Lesser Sand Plover, a migratory bird that would have only arrived this week from somewhere in Siberia or the Himalayas - according to Wikipedia. The Kimberley is a nice place to avoid the cold Siberian winter.

What is it with animals and mud?

Yeah, I'm looking at you.

So much for the warm up acts. Where is the main feature? Oh, yeah, just over there. At the mouth of a rapidly emptying creek as the tide ran out, two crocs were having a dispute over valuable territory. This was easy fishing. As the tide runs out the fish have to go with it and the crocs just sit at the end of the creek with mouth open and the fish literally swim in. Our exploration interrupted the battle and one of the crocs slipped silently away down the river. The other stayed and while he didn't challenge us, we got the feeling he would have, if we moved too close.

You might be a boat but I'll still bite you.

We did spot some other crocs but they were smaller and not in dispute, so not quite as exciting as our original sighting. It was time to head for home. Everyone on board was scanning the water looking for sightings. The tide, which runs up to around 6 metres, was almost out, the mud flats were exposed. I looked ahead and saw a croc. Or was it birds? Or a log? No it's a croc. I alert Josh. We both look, no it's a log I think. Agreed says Josh. Then the log moved. We had a found a reasonable sized croc on the mud flats eating a fish (a cat fish as it turned out). Rather unusual behaviour.

Catfish are not so easy to swallow.

Just when you thought there was nothing else to sight we came across some humpback dolphins. Sorry no photos, they are quite shy and don't wait for the cameras to be set before they disappear. That is now twice we have seen them. The Kimberley is just awesome.

Back to the ship. Drinks on the observation deck level 6 where one might play Titanic if one was immature enough. No, dear reader, we did not. Drinks with Ken and Moya and dinner on level 4 that was enhanced by a lovely little 8 year old red for Chateauneuf du Pape. This is living.

Until next time.