Mangroves, Crocs and Mudskippers—Hunter River

Hunter River and Porosus Creek

Today’s zodiac excursion was a trip up Hunter River and its tributary, Porosus Creek. River and creek are misnomers, actually, as these, in reality, are inlets from the ocean. They are salt water from the ocean to where the upland rivers fall into the sea-level channels.

The cliffs at the entrance of Hunter River

Porosus Creek is well known for the number of saltwater crocodiles what reside along its banks. We were not disappointed, although we were told the ones we saw were small. So were the unusual mudskipper fish, which skitter along the mudbanks, much of their time out of the water. They can grow up to a foot long, but the ones we saw were closer to two to three inches.

We did see crocodiles close enough to not use telephoto, but they were too low in the water to capture a good photo. These shots were from farther off.

Mudskippers don’t have lungs. Rather, they absorb oxygen through their skin, mouths and gills. They also carry oxygenated water in gill sacs.

Porosus Creek is also known for its mangrove forests featuring both types of Australian mangroves. One type has multiple spindly roots reaching down to the soil. The other has more conventional looking trunks. The tides in this area are are typically 17 or 18 feet low to high, but at times can be double that. Our excursion was at low tide. This was good news for viewing crocodiles but we could not get close to the mangroves. The afternoon zodiac cruisers had a high tide, hence were close to the forest but viewed few crocodiles. 

These photos show mangroves of both indigenous types. The high tide line on the mangrove trees was obvious.

We were not alone on the river. Where Porosus Creek enters Hunter River was anchored an expedition ship (smaller than ours), and even up the Porosus they was a yet smaller ship. Hence our zodiac fleet was in competition with others. Fortunately, there were enough room and crocodiles for us all.

One problem with keeping crocodile density high is that less scrupulous visitors often throw fish and other food to the crocs in order to attract them. This causes the crocs to associate food with boats of people, making them very dangerous. The rangers have to shoot the more aggressive ones as the food-people association cannot be unlearned.

One event we did not participate in was the helicopter flight to Mitchell Falls. By pictures, this would have been a wonderful excursion. At nearly $800 per person, we thought we’d make do with other’s pictures.

For our afternoon, we enjoyed a tour of the galley of the main restaurant, called, uh, The Restaurant. There is a second restaurant one deck up of almost equal size that maintains a separate galley.

The galley operation is small compared to those in the larger cruise ships but still occupies a considerable space over three decks on the Pursuit. Meals are prepared individually as they are ordered. For this cruise, with two-thirds of the passengers being Australian and New Zealanders, there is an extra supply of lamb chops on board. That is what we had that evening.

I thought I’d end with this morning’s sunrise, just to prove we were up and about.