A stroll on the beach

There are a couple of board walks running down to the sea passing through mangroves and fan palm forest. The seascape looks perfect – miles of white sand beach, overhung by palms and shea oaks and green waves breaking with just the right amount of foam. With the temperature in the 30’s the urge to dash in swimming is enormous. However, the urge to refrain from doing this is checked slightly more strongly by what lurks in the waters. This is the home of the salt water crocodile, an endangered species, which has recently re-colonised the area as hunting has been curbed. They are now inhabiting all the creeks and small estuaries and up the rivers. They jog along underwater parallel with the beach with just their scutes and eyes showing or more worryingly haul out in the undergrowth behind the beach, so a walk along the strand is a rather tense experience. A local kayaking firm has just moved its operations further South not wanting the bad publicity of having clients mauled or eaten.

If you can run the gauntlet of the crocs then there is the question of whether you may bump into one of the stinging jellyfish, on the rise this month as the hot rainy season has begun. The little ‘blue bottle’ gives a jolt similar to a bee sting, a drape of tentacle from the small ‘irukandi’ may not kill you but causes agonising pain and has a psychosomatic effect that makes you wish you were dead. Box jelly fish give the pain, laceration and added bonus, actual death. By the life-rings at all the beach entrances are large bottles of vinegar to pour on as first aid, and also second and third aid as it is a 4 hour drive to Cairns Hospital.

The natural predator of the jellyfish are turtles – and numbers of these continue to fall, so jelly fish  numbers rise. A particular advantage for the jellyfish is that they look just like the plastic bags that are bobbing around all over the oceans and  these are readily munched up by the turtles. A mistake they often do not make twice.

So, sea-bathing only for those who never want to leave. Creeks further inland and up hill, above the croc swim line, are safer….. if you can avoid the taipans.