Prince Regent River - Hiking, Waterfall, Swimming and a Crocodile

 After departing Sampson Inlet, it took us two days to arrive at a good anchorage in the Prince Regent River.  The passage was slow because we needed to have enough depth from the tide to get over many shallow areas.  The large tides create strong currents and it seemed we were fighting currents for much of the passage, slowing our progress to less than minor at times.

We anchored the first night at Rothesay Waters just for a stopover spot.  The next day we continued to the anchorage in the Prince Regent River just by Camp Creek.The next morning we took the dinghy up Camp Creek to investigate the waterfall at the head of the creek.

Camp Creek waterfall

The cruising guide said there is a crocodile safe swimming hole in the pool at the top of the waterfall so off we set to hike up to the top.  The initial climb was fairly easy.  At the top we found a large stream to follow to discover the swimming hole.


After a bit of scrambling over the rocks we finally saw a second waterfall with a pool at its base and another above it.

The upper waterfall 

Glen about to cool off with a refreshing swim in the pool at the top of the second waterfall

After cooling off with a delightful swim we hiked back to the dinghy to find that the tide had dropped more than I calculated and the dinghy was sitting on rocks in a set of rapids in the creek.

The dinghy high and dry after our hike

We got into the fast flowing water and lifted the dinghy over into the flow.  With a little manpower we were able to get the dinghy back into the deeper water of the creek.  On the way out of the creek we saw this little guy (about 5 feet long) sunning himself on the bank.

A smaller crocodile 

In the afternoon with the tide coming up we headed up the river to another anchorage near Kings Cascade Falls where we will explore tomorrow.

We had a stunning sunset as we set anchor 3/4 mile downstream of Kings Cascade Falls


Our anchorage near Kings Cascade Falls in a deeper hole near the cliff face



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