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Don't worry...
February 7, 2010 - (14.0521S, 143.6865E) -14.0521S,216.3135W
My last dispatch worried some of you, and the crocodiles were the focus of course. I am being cautious to not invite an encounter on land. So far keeping a fair distance on the water to not violate the creature's zone of safety has worked.
Yesterday I came across two more crocodiles. The first one was ahead of me as I was moving along at about 50 meters from shore. I could see its head and the last third of its tail. Its hind legs must have been on the bottom. The sawtooth profile of the tail appeared from the dinosaur era. When I made a move toward the shore turning to my starboard side, the croc slowly moved away from the shore. Seeing this, I kept an eye on it and paralleled the shore. We ended up circling each other and swapping places. It was probably 3-4 meters long, likely a female which can grow to be about 150 kg.
Second one was at the mouth of Chester River. Perhaps 80 meters away on the south banks, it just stayed there motionless like a statue, tail uphill, mouth open at about 30 degrees. Now if I had my mouth open silly daydreaming like that, gravity would help me. But this croc had to lift its head up; I wonder if it was cooling off, or posturing. This also was 3-4 meters long.
I have not yet met a majestic male crocodile -- it is better that way. The males are the territorial ones this time of the year being the mating season. The size and shape of my kayak looks oddly like that of a male crocodile, which could be mistaken for an orange colored (!) rival. Up to 7 meters long and 1000 kg, a male crocodile is to be respected.
These encounters were at the end of the day, about an hour before sunset, when crocs venture out of their estuaries. There were many tidal and stream fed estuaries and marine swamps along the shores of Princess Charlotte Bay; there is more as I progress over the next two days toward Cape Melville, now to my east. Fish habitats are marked all along this shallow coastline.
Other than crocs, my worry is time slipping away. I am hoping that I will not have to sit out any storm days. Since Restoration Island, the winds have been onshore until early afternoon, while building tall dark rain clouds overland. By the end of the day, the wind would shift to north then to northwest. Heavy downpours were the norm in the afternoon just inland from the shore.
Tonight, it is raining big time on my tent after the rain squall ripped my tent pegs out of the soft sand. While I was writing this dispatch, I had to stop in a lightning storm, put my hands in the upwind corners, lean against the tent wall and wait for the squall to blow over. I then reset the pegs in a lull, used a second peg each to reinforce them.
After leaving Restoration Island, I managed to break my paddle, snapped the carbon fiber shaft right in two. I had put my weight on it trying to step off the kayak onto a mound of crushed coral in the middle of Lloyd Bay, halfway between Cape Weymouth and Cape Direction. This 8x6 square meter mound was one of the Hazelgrove Reefs, exposed at low tide. It was full of birds on arrival, none remained of course after I stood on it to stretch my back a bit. Let's just say that I was glad to have a spare paddle!
I found water at a spot marked Stoney Creek on my chart. When I noticed the rain water bin next to a shack from a distance, I had to check. The owner was absent; I was able to wash, launder and top up my water supplies. That became a camp site on the second night after leaving Jacob Symons and Zoiey Walsh. The next supply of fresh water may be at Cape Melville.
Erden.
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From an information panel at Thursday Island.
