Sunday, May 28, 2006

A Run Through the Jungle

Today we cheated death several times in the greater Cape Tribulation National Parklands area. Along a casual rain forest drive, Thad spotted some ruckus going on in the bushes, we popped the car in reverse and discovered a pair of wild pigs foraging in the forest. Then, when on a elevated boardwalk walk, Peggy sensed a distubance in the bushes to our left, to uncover a common tree snake. Peggy, although quite adept in her animal knowledge (smartest person she knows, in her words) did not recognize this snake as harmless. She took a 20 meter detour around the little guy and was visibly shaken the rest of the walk.

To push our luck even further, the gang did an evening river cruise where we went hunting for crocodiles. These prehistoric creatures were found languidly basking in the fading sunlight by the banks of the river. We saw two crokkies in total, having spotted a small youth, as well as an elderly male that had only two teeth and a few chunks missing from his snout. The guide was certainly a wise sort, having known quite a bit about the local birdlife. He spotted three different types of kingfisher and a python thrown in to boot. Although the croc number was low, he made up for it by the garden variety of sightings.

A quiet night in for the Kousser / Cawthon contigency, altough there may be some cane toad racing on the bill.

posted by ncawthon at 5:58 PM