Cairns, Great Barrier Reef, and Adventure in Nothern Queensland

The following is a very exaggerated story of my last adventure in Cairns....

What would an adventure in Northern Queensland be without crocodiles? Such was my thinking as my new friend Thomas and I boarded our rented 6 horsepower tin dingy. Like Stever Irwin and other crocodile hunters before us, we were ready to go nose to nose with the beasts. Leaving port, we felt good about our chances. As we scooted alongside the mangroves looking for the beasts, my confidence held strong. When Thomas started guiding us down a narrow mangrove, the branches clawing at our boat trying to devour of us, my once strong confidence began to wain and thoughts of stupid tourists getting stuck in the wild came creeping in. We made it out of our first tight canal unscathed. And the next. An hour in, we had seen no crocs... but how many crocs had seen us?

An hour and a half in, zero crocs had been seen but we were sure to see one soon. We were making our way through our tightest spot yet. Branches swept at us, our boat filling with leaves and branches broken off as we scrapped through. I don't think we will make it though I said to my crazy German crew mate who at this point had resumed driving. "You only live once," he kept saying. What had I got myself into? Surely this would be the sight we would see a croc, the one that would have us for dinner. More leaves filling the boat. Ants, spiders, and the almost invisible insects that enjoyed the flesh on my legs joined the crew. We made it out of the really tight spot... still up an offshoot of the main inlet, almost out of the clear, our engine died. For about 5 minutes we tried, unsuccessfully, to start it. Nothing. The oars were out... I would miss my flight for sure, but would we ever make it out? One last attempt and the bad boy started up... SAVED!

I quickly forgot about what a night in the croc infested water would be like and went back to trying to spot the beasts. After two and a half hours, we were still shutout and decided to head back in. Sad not to have seen a croc, but happy to be out of the boat we made it back in. Maybe all adventures don't need a croc, we sure had one without it and I have the bug bites to prove it.