7-27-19 - In search of the elusive turtles and crocodiles
/Day 41. Since not everyone scuba dives, we opt for a snorkel trip to the Low Isles. The tour company guarantees that we will see turtles. So we return to the reef on a 15 person ultra-speedboat that goes over 70 km per hour. The boat is skipping and flying over the waves and I’m convinced we are one good gust of wind from the tiny boat flipping over and scattering us all over the reef.
We arrive safely and off snorkeling in the water. I decide the best strategy to find the turtles is to break off from the group commotion and explore on my own. Snorkeling gives the legs a good workout and I cover a lot of ground. There are numerous fishes but no turtles yet. My legs are getting tired and I’m a good long way from the group. I’ve now convinced myself that the group has discovered more turtles than one can count and that I’m completely missing it by wasting my time off on my own.
So I turn around and motor back to the group. “Justin & Corey, any turtle sightings yet?” “Nope, dad, nada.” On the one hand, I’m glad I didn’t miss all the turtle action, but on the other, we are an hour into the 1.5 hour snorkel and I’m becoming more skeptical of this “turtle guarantee.” So I go back to the boat to ask the captain exactly where to find the turtles. “They’re out there on the reef, mate” he says in response. “But exactly where can I find them on the reef? I figure if you’re guaranteeing we see turtles, there would be a specific location you could direct us to” I ask him. He looks at me like I’m from another planet talking about a turtle guarantee. I’m now convinced he’s going to fulfill the turtle guarantee that apparently doesn’t exist by blowing up an inflatable turtle and tossing it in the water at me.
When it’s all over and everyone is back on board, it turns out Justin & Corey ended up seeing a turtle. This raises an interesting question about the turtle guarantee that isn’t really a guarantee - is everyone guaranteed to see a turtle or just one person in the group? Am I relying on telepathic visions of turtles through Justin’s eyes to fulfill my turtle quest? I decide it will be entirely too complicated to actually pursue remuneration under the turtle guarantee.
After arriving back at the marina, we go out for a river boat ride at sunset to look for crocodiles. This tour falls short of an outright guarantee of seeing crocodiles but markets it as highly likely. As the boat starts off, the captain tells us that the daytime cruises are much better for spotting crocodiles because it’s low tide and the crocodiles climb up on the banks of river to absorb sunlight. Since our cruise is late in the day, it’s high tide and the crocs have no land to climb up on so we’ll have to spot them in the water which is a lot harder. The marketing brochure failed to mention this.
Towards the end of the cruise, the captain mentions that there are 25 crocodiles in the river and they can hold their breath for 4 hours at a time. You don’t have to be a math major to figure out that if 25 crocodiles are coming up once every four hours along a 3 km river, the chances of us seeing one in a 1 hour boat ride are slim to none. Turns out it was none. I’m going to have to advise the tour’s marketing person on the proper way to calculate the probability of seeing a crocodile on the evening cruise although I suppose they wouldn’t sell as many tickets if they actually said that your chances of seeing a crocodile on the evening cruise are slim to none. Even though we don’t see a crocodile, the captain was actually very informative and funny so we are still glad we did it.
