| Slowly learning the difference between crocs and gators. During my time in Darwin, there have been signs and warnings everywhere about crocs: Don't swim here--dangerous! Crocs! Beware of crocs! Come see croc feedings! Jumping crocs this way! Last weekend I had the opportunity to see some crocs being fed in the Crocodylus Park. However, this weekend, I had the opportunity to see some crocs being fed in their natural habitat. One of Kaye and Roger's family friends Warwick took me about an hour out of Darwin into the outback on Saturday. We arrived at nothing more than a small shack in the middle of no where, where there was a Jumping Crocs Boat Cruise awaiting us. The cruise was on the Adelaide River, where many salt water crocodiles call home. The "best seat in the house" was next to one of the two open windows on the bottom floor of the boat, and yours truly was front and center. As the tour took off, the guides shot fact after fact about the crocs to us. For every 1 croc you see, there are 5 more you do not see. And if that's not terrifying I don't know what is. I'm learning more and more how massive these creatures are, and how terribly dangerous they can be to come into contact with. Even sitting at the open window of the boat did not feel like the safest decision. The crocs even eat each other for crying out loud (they actually do tear each others' arms and legs off), so I'm not sure the croc would bat an eye and biting my head off. Once we spotted the eyes of a croc swimming towards the boat, the guide would take a piece of buffalo meat and dangle it into the water. The guide did this right above the window I was sitting next to, so the piece of meat was dangling right next to my head--one leap too far and the croc would have easily taken off my big nose, or even an arm. The guides made the croc jump four times before eating the meat. Unfortunately, there were only about 3 crocs that we spotted during the hour-long cruise. But it was still amazing to see those massive creatures in their natural habitat. And the information that the cruise passed along as we went was really interesting. I cannot forget to mention the child that was on board: He was probably about 6 and was absolutely adorable. His parents did not seem to care where he went, but he seemed to take great interest in Warwick and I. He found us everywhere we went on the boat, and then even after we departed from the cruise he found us once more, constantly telling us about the animals he was seeing. After leaving the Jumping Crocs Cruise, we took a stroll up to the Visitor's Center, where there were amazing views of the outback from above. Our small friend even tried to leave the Center with us, but reluctantly his mother decided she should probably take him back home with her. From there, we drove to Fogg Dam, which was on the way home. This was an area of the outback that you could drive to. There were wetlands on one side, where crocs live. And on the other side of the road was the long expanse of outback lands. As we drove, Warwick spotted two different carcasses that he wanted to explore. When we saw the first one, he had just finished explaining that the small lake we were looking at was once home to a croc. The carcass was directly next to the lake, but he ensured me that the croc "probably doesn't live there anymore." So we went out to take a look at what type of animal had been killed. After discovering that the carcass was indeed a pig, we looked back to our path to the car and noticed something in the lake. I actually thought right there I may come back from Darwin without a leg, but luckily the moment of sheer panic was all for nothing, and what we saw was just a stick poking out of the water. Nevertheless, my heart has not raced so fast since I've been here. We continued to explore the area a bit before heading home, where we stopped at the fire station Warwick works at to grab some (free) drinks from the fridge. Fun fact: Lemonade in Australia is not actually lemonade at all; it's Sprite. And as if we hadn't seen enough dead animals on our journey, we came across a dead snake in the middle of the road on our way back. Then to end our adventure to the outback for the day, as we came back into Darwin we headed into Charles Darwin National Park to take a drive to the top, where the view of the city over the water was breathtaking as the sun was on its decent for the night. At the end of the night, it may have been a fair choice what our dinner should have consisted of. Instead of crocodile, however, Warwick took me to a Mexican restaurant. And though it could certainly compete with El Charros, it comes in at a close second place. |