Darwin Day 2 - Pre Contiki

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Next day 9 October 07 was another free day before the tour started. Most people decided to stay by the hotel pool but Sarah and myself decided to see if we could go out and explore some more of Darwin. We were both interested in getting onto one of the crocodile jumping tours but were unable to get on any tours so we decided to challenge ourselves to the local transport and go to Crocodylus Park.

The park was pretty good. Worth a visit if you have a spare day and time. You get really really close to some crocs. The breeding pens - the crocs were huge. You learn so much on the walk around guided tours. I was standing next to the guy feeding the crocs so they got pretty close leaping out of the water. The guy demonstrated how high they could jump vertically out of the water but also over a concrete divide in the pen which would be higher then most boats out on the water - hence a croc could quite easily jump into a boat if they really tried and wanted to.

The amazing thing I found about them was the sound. The crash of their teeth together when they snap at the food. It is so loud, so powerful. You cant explain it. We were there pre wet season so the crocs were not overly active. After wet season and summer they will move a lot faster and jump a lot higher so it would be good to see then. There was lots of different pens of saltwater crocs also freshwater and some American alligators. Its cute they come running to the fence when the guy is there cause they get thrown some food but they also much calmer then the crocs and he pats them with a broom which they apparently like.

After the walk around we got to hold a 2 year old baby croc. Very cute. Very soft. His mouth was taped, and you are not supposed to hold the croc near your face because they can headbutt to fight when young and can do some damage.

After the walk around with the guide we continued to explore ourselves. Besides crocs they also had lions, tigers, monkey, reptiles and then the other normal Aussie Wildlife.

Coming home was much more annoying. We had to wait about 2 hours for a bus. Not fun in the Darwin heat under a tin bus shelter. But still it was worth the trip out.

Around 5:00 pm we had a meeting in the hotel lobby where we got to meet our guide Nick and co-travelers. Most people were there but others were arriving the next day. We showed our passports and went through all the required paper work and then head out to dinner for Italian and then a few drinks.

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