Animalia Chordata Repitlia Crocodyli Crocodylidae Crocodylus Porosus
The saltwater crocodile grows to be one of the largest carnivores in Australia. Salties eat fish, birds, snakes and anything that walks on two or four legs. This is why salties are at the top of a couple countries food chains.
Salties live in and around the rainforest, in the swampy areas. These salties can live salt or fresh water, it doesn’t matter. During the summer salties stay in the water or cover themselves in mud to keep cool. I think they’re rather lazy animals.
Salties mate in August or September during this time the parents become even more territorial. Salties nests are made out of grass and stuff the nest has to be partially submerged or else the eggs will dry out but if it is too deep the babies will drown. The female will lay 40-60 eggs at one time. The eggs will hatch on an average of 80 days. Gender is determined by the temperature of the egg.
image from http://www.verhanneman.be/australia.html
Salties have extremely slimy skin; just kidding, salties skin is really soft and smooth. Salties tails and back have (scoots), salties use these to slip into the water with not one sound or ripple which makes it possible for salties to sneak up on prey.
Crocodiles have an amazing gift; salties can feel the vibrations of the ground around them so it’s really hard sneak up on salties, so salties can know where salties prey is. The ways that salties catch prey, is by jumping out of the water and grabbing them. Once the salties catch its prey, and rip the victim apart by shaking its head vigorously side to side. This rips the victimps to pieces. This makes digestion easier even though crocs stomach is specially made to digest almost anything.
Fun Fact; the world’s largest salt water crocodile was 20.24 feet long and weighted over a ton
Yep, Dad wanted to make sure that we saw saltwater crocs while we were in Australia. And they seem to be prolific in the Daintree area (North of Cairns)... So we found this;
So we got in our little ferry and boated down the river. The first thing we saw was a bird (croc food). It was some kind of egret or crane, the guide named everything, birds, trees, specific crocs. It was pretty awesome.
Then we saw this little guy: a little kingfisher. The smallest kingfisher in the world. These little guys would shoot right across the river, they were ridiculously hard to shoot... with a camera I mean.
I think this is a Brahminy Kite (it may have been a osprey) he followed us around, and near the end two others (not the two at the bottom of the picture) joined him.
Another Crane of sorts....
And the first croc we saw; For some reason I can't remeber her name, but she was a Mom, she had several little crocs around her as well.
This little one was from last year's litter, he hing around next to mom for a while.
I think this is Schute. He apparently lost a schute at one point. He is covered in mud to keep him from getting sunburned.
And the last croc we saw this was a big one, bigger than either of the other two we saw that day
When I put this one on my bucket list a few years back, I never would have thought it would be possible to do this so soon!
It all started when dad said there was a chance we might get to go to Australia, of course, I immediately said "Can we Scuba if we go?" Now, I didn't know a thing about Scuba, how much it cost, what training you needed...
Not Anything.
After it was decided however, mom and I found a Dive Center. Initially, just myself and my bro were going to dive, but after experiencing what it was like in a "Demo" class, dad and my other bro joined in.
Two weeks and a lot of training later.
We became Certified Open Water Divers. :)
Once in Australia, we spent a lot of time discussing where exactly we were going to dive. Turns out, The best Great Barrier Reef Locations are north. About 20 hours drive time from where we were. We finally decided as a family though, that since a plane ride was much cheaper from Surfer's Paradise to Cairns... Than from USA to Cairns.... We would go there. ;)
Honestly, I would have been happy diving anywhere, but the fact we actually flew up to the reef... takes the cake.
The day of the dive had excellent weather. A little breeze, 75 degrees, and not a cloud in the sky. We rode out for about an hour on a dive charter we selected. It was TUSAdive. The staff were Excellent, boat very nice, and the equipment very nice. I had rented a camera the day before, and was allowed to use that instead of their more expensive ones on board.
We dove in two places, for a total of three dives. "Hasting's Reef", and then "The Fish Bowl". Each dive lasted about 20-30 minutes, depending on how much air we had left in our tank. I always had the most air left, and dad was always the first to run out. ;)
If you think God's Creation is cool on the surface... it is even moreso underwater. It amazed me to see the depth of design and intricacies in every piece of coral, fish, and shells. The colors, the textures, the size... all so vast and unique....
We truly have an awesome Creator.
I am guessing now you'd like to see some pics... I did take all of these, and it was fun to do so. :)
One of the first things we saw... Nemo! :)
Branch Coral
Lettuce Coral
Toadstool Coral
Brain Coral
A mix of corals.
Tree Coral
Great Star Coral (The Tan one) And Toadstool Coral on top of that.
A Giant Clam, and a mix of Various corals.
Some Yellow Damselfish in Stag coral.
A Butterfly Fish
A fleeing Parrotfish
A photogenic Parrotfish. ;)
Another Butterfly fish.
Parrotfish and some Table Coral.
A Giant Clam. It was over 2 feet long.
A "Reefscape"
Clownfish.
More Clownfish...
And another... Clownfish! ;)
A Triggerfish.
My favorite Butterfly fish
A Miniature Grouper fish. Excellent Camo.
Coral and a Butterfly fish.
Another Reefscape.
A Sea Turtle. :)
Aaaaand, if the pictures weren't enough, here is a video I also made while diving:
Mom and Beth didn't miss out on the awesome views either. They got to snorkel on the top of the reef and saw a lot of the same thing we did.
They just had to fight waves and current... and were colder. ;)
Diving is an amazing experience. If you ever have a chance, definitely get certified and take a dive.
We stayed at a beautiful apartment called the Focus. The apartments (versus hotel rooms) we have been able to stay in have been an amazing blessing. Since they have kitchens we have been able to cook so many of our own meals. With some of us having mild food issues and the price of food here in Australia being much higher than in America, it was an incredible blessing! So here is our ‘place’
… and here are a few shots of our view!! CRAZY!
Each room had it's own balcony!
The beach- Surfer’s Paradise seems to be like the “Orlando” or “Daytona” ,or maybe a cross between the two, of Australia. There are lots of theme parks, sea world, and a happening night life! But, since it was winter and very chilly here most days, we pretty much had the beach to ourselves. The beaches are eroding away because the tides have been high and the waves pretty intense.
We walked on the beach almost every day, and built sandcastles (or sand 'things') and looked for shells and rocks. And then went to swim in the heated pool and hang out in the whirlpool and lay in the sunshine. It was a rough couple of weeks, but we made it through.
