Thursday 1st July
Karumba, bird and croc cruises

Red headed honey Eater, teeny, tiny, quick birds

We started with a repeat of yesterday morning, hopefully in prep for the bird watching cruise.

We arrived at the wharf around 8:30 for a 9am cruise and this time there was a boat and people at the wharf. Much more promising!

Nice calm river and keen birders

We cruised along the bank of the river by the mangroves and were regaled with an interesting history on the area as well.

We passed the prawn fleet and mackerel boats. 

A very active port

Abandoned wharf and boat wrecks rising in the mangroves. Old tales of wrecking boats and insurance battles.

local wreck of dubious history

The ferryman pulled the boat into the mangroves a few times and played bird calls over the loud speaker to bring in the birds.

We saw lots of tiny birds that were so quick and liked to hide in the leaves.

• Red headed honey Eater
• Yellow white eye
• Bronze cuckoo
• Golden Whistler
• Night heron
• Mangrove grey fantail
• Loads of locusts and of course the black and whistling kites.

Bronze cuckoo

Whistling Kite

Where you end up if you choose to swim

It was a cooler morning today but warmed up quickly into the high twenties before lunch. The wind picked up though and the birds didn’t really like that. Even though we crossed the river to look for them on the other side they had disappeared and we returned to the wharf.

Places on the croc cruise had opened up for tonight so we grabbed them and will be back on the boat around 3pm. We will need to cancel our table booking at the pub as the cruise doesn’t return until 7pm.

We plan on leaving Karumba early tomorrow so we will have to be packed and ready to go early today before the croc cruise !

Turned up for the croc cruise good and early about 2.30 for a 3 pm load . They were already on the beach with a steady stream of customers loading up on the ramp. Quite a full boat off around 40 people by the time we picked up more at the main Karumba wharf. 

A tree full of corellas watching us load up extra passengers at the Karumba wharf.

Terrific cruise, we did see a couple of crocs but really enjoyed seeing the “pet” jabiru Mr. and Mrs. red legs and a third further down river .

Small salty on the bank

Jabiru following the boat in for a feed

Crackers, dip and crudités followed by prawns and accompanied by bubbly, wine, beer or soft drink and a glorious sunset over the ocean.

Enjoying the bubbly and nibbles on board

Another beautiful ocean sunset

A happy crowd headed back to port

Back on the beach at dark and back to the cabin to drop off cameras etc and wait 'til 7:30 to go to the sunset pub for dinner, so we would get a table, even though it was now dark.

A dish of calamari and fish and chips finished the day perfectly .