Croc Bothering

Wed 15 April…….It tipped down in the middle of the night waking us up but it didn’t make any difference to the temp or humidity! Dropped the van off at the Auto electricians and spent the morning by he main pool until they phoned us to say it was ready. It was the auxiliary battery after all and now we can trust the fridge and do not have to rely on mains supply all the time. As the day was buggered we had lunch and spent the rest of the day in the pool until everything turned wrinkly!
Thurs 16 April……Woke up to a torrential downpour , just in time for us to paddle to the amenities! We have a sun umbrella which immediately gave up the ghost and is now in the bin. It was good fun watching the navigator returning from her shower she may just have well stood in the rain with her loofah! We had to get a move on as we were being picked up to go Croc Bothering at 7 20. On the bus on time to join 11 others, 3 Dutch, 3 Brits and the rest Oz to tour the Adelaide River and Lichfield National Park. On the way we stop off at a holding cage to look at and hold Snappy, a young croc. He is a metre long and is as heavy as a medium spaniel. Once his snout is tied up we get chance to handle it. At the river we all clamber into a very small tinny with Barry our guide/driver/skipper to go and play with some crocs. Barry knows a lot about crocs and so do we now. The first croc we see is a monster, male and he is swimming alongside our little boat. Barry wafts a lump of meat on the end of a pole over his nose and he jumps out of the water on his tail to try and snaffle it. This croc is 4.5 metres long and extremely ugly. We all sit in our tiny boat taking photos thinking of the futility of the lifejackets! There is a bigger boat that does this trip and you can sit behind thick glass screens or be on the upper deck and take snaps. Barry gets the croc to perform another double axels ( without pike, he ate that) before we move off to look at some girlie crocs. Not quite so big but nearly as ugly. Fed up with this our leader goes in search of the dominant male on this stretch of the river, a 6 metre albino. Fortunately we can’t find him and thankfully our hour is nearly up. On the way back upstream we come across George again (the big ugly male we met first off) He seems to have taken a dislike to us and wants to play chicken, he is head on swimming straight towards us, and one of us has to take evasive action. Don’t know who as we had our eyes closed at the time and there was no collision. These beasts are enormous and very fast, with enormous power in their jaws and a small aluminium boat is absolute minimum protection Excitement over it’s back on the bus to travel to Lichfield and it’s only 9 30.
Off the bus to look at termites……their mounds to be exact. Barry knows a lot about termites and so do we now! Photos to follow. On the bus to Wangi Falls A spectacular waterfall which you usually swim in but not today because of crocs. After this mornings experience there are no arguments and we are assured that we will be able to swim at the next 2 locations. By now it’s raining very hard but it’s warm rain and very humid very jungly! At Florence Falls, the next stop, it’s still raining but we strip off anyway and go down the 150 steps to the pool under the Falls. The water is 25 degrees, and the navigator thinks she’s in heaven! It’s a little tricky getting in and out of the pool over the rocks but once in we are quickly out of our depth and swimming for the Fall, but it was difficult because of the strength of the current. A good work out, then 150 steps up again. A magical place.
On the bus to Buley Rock Holes a series of small waterfalls and rapids. Once again tricky keeping your feet but great fun. The force of the water acted like a spa and massaged your limbs. There were just too many people there.
The final stop of the day is in Darwin at East Point to drink champagne and eat prawns whilst watching the sunset over the bay. A disappointing sunset but what a lovely end to a fantastic day! Dropped off at base for a beer in the bar and then back to the van. Somehow we have to try to dry everything out but in these tropical conditions it’s only going to get wet again ……who cares!