Top End Crocodile Hunting

My tour of The Kimberley finished in the northernmost city of Australia: Darwin, the capital of Nothern Territory. The tropical top end of Australia is literally the last frontier, Darwin being the biggest town with only 85 000 people. I had expected to see a rustic, dusty town resembling the Darwin we saw in the movie Australia but, having been wiped out by a cyclone in the seventies, Darwin had turned to a modern, clean city. There were all the services I could hope for. I especially liked the newly-built shorefront with neat lawns and clear lines on the buildings - funnily, it reminded me of some seaside areas of Helsinki, minus the palm trees obviously.

I actually liked Darwin quite a lot. I enjoyed walking around in the heat, checking out the botanical gardens (which I always seem to like, no matter where I go) and the sunset markets on Mindil Beach. My food budget was kept almost intact, as I had collected so much leftover food from the last tour that I was well fed for my whole stay. All in all, Darwin was a very pleasant place to stay.

The main reason, next to checking out the fabulous Kakadu national park, to come to Darwin had been my wish to see some reptiles closely related to dinosaurs: crocodiles, those scarily fascinating killer machines whom the evolution has found so perfect that they haven't changed in 200 million years. Specifically, I wanted to get to know the Australian saltwater crocs. They often grow to be 4-6 m long. Crocodiles are one of the most capable killers in the world, thanks to their enormous strength. A large crocodile can bite with a force equivalent to 7600 kg, which is almost twice as hard as tyrannosaurus rex, and several times harder than the great white shark.
I started by going to one of Darwin's crocodile zoos. I picked Crocosaurus Cove because it was conveniently located across the street from my hostel, and couldn't have made a better choice: I ended up staying there for three hours, too fascinated by these amazing creatures to leave. The zoo was very interactive. I got some hands-on activity as I got to go "fishing", that is, make juvenile crocs jump out of the water by hanging a piece of meat in the end of a rod. They had a show where they fed the big, 5-m crocs in the same way. They also had an activity called Cage of Death where they lower you into the pool in a glass box to swim with the crocs (would've loved to do that, but it was too expensive) - the crocs were too busy resting to pay much attention, though. Or well, actually one croc couple was getting busy mating... Quite a thing to see, looked like the smaller female croc would be crushed under the 700 kg male!

I made friends with another huge crocodile called Harry, who kept following me behind the glass wall, touching its face to the glass where my hand was. He looked me straight to the eye, and I got a strange, not too pleasant feeling that he would love to eat me.
After two days' resting in Darwin, it was time to embark on my last tour in Australia, a three-day camping trip in Kakadu national park. Kakadu is World Heritage listed for its nature and its Aboriginal culture. And what a gorgeous place it was! On the other hand, Kakadu is also known as the most risky or dangerous tourist destination in Australia - not because of the crocodile attacks though, but other accidents caused when you're not being careful enough: driving accidents, falling off cliffs, dehydration. I suffered from dehydration too, but otherwise I got out happy and unscathed.

We were nine people and a guide stuck in a horrible little car, but it didn't matter because we got on so well. Some of us very well actually - I ended up sleeping alone because the girl who was supposed to share the tent with me hooked up with the guide. I didn't mind having the see-through tent to myself though, but enjoyed many hour lying awake looking at the sky, because the full moon made me unable to sleep. The guide taught us how to find the Southern Cross and the Little Scorpion star formations. Evenings were spent around the campfire - Strongbow has never tasted so good as those evenings after long, hot days. I also learnt to play the Aboriginal instrument didgeridoo, and was actually pretty good at it.

The first day of the tour was full of highlights. We took a cruise on the Adelaide river and saw crocodiles jumping out of the water. Earlier I had put my sunglasses on top of my hat when having my picture taken with a python, and had completely forgotten about it. So when I gazed down from the cruise boat at the crocs, my shades fell into the water. I looked from a croc to my glasses, and decided that I valued keeping my arm more than the shades, so I didn't try to fetch them back.
In the afternoon we hiked up Barramundi Gorge and had a fabulous swim on the top of the big waterfall. We spent a long time there, swimming between the cliffs, jumping from the 3-m vantage point, climbing over the rocks to go higher upstream to the pools warmed by hot springs. For me the scary part was diving through some tunnels inside the cliffs. Some of the holes were pretty narrow, and one was almost two metres below the surface. I was proud of myself for daring to do it even though I was scared of being under water.

On the second day we visited Yellow Waters wetlands, which were gorgeous. There were a lot of birds, and I made some nice shots of them. Later, we hiked to see the Jim Jim falls and the Twin falls, and of course welcomed a swim in the rock pool to cool off in the heat of the day (about +32 degrees celcius - quite a winter they have there).

The third day was devoted to Aboriginal culture. We visited numerous rock art sites, and I was amazed how well the several-thousand-year-old paintings were preserved. I usually don't think much of visitor centres, but the displays in Bowali Visitor Centre were well made and very interesting. I truly respect Aborigines for how well they know their land and take care of it, knowing when to clean it by burning, finding all kinds of edible plants of animals, never overhunting. Everywhere in the world white people have lost that understanding of and connection to the nature.
We finished off the day in the middle of Aboriginal land in Ubirr, which is a place with fabulous rock art and even more stunning 360-degree views over the surrounding wetlands.

On the drive back to Darwin we spotted a massive, perhaps 6-metre-long crocodile sunbathing on a riverbed. It has become clear to me that the rivers in Kakadu are teeming with crocs. It is for a good reason that all the waterways are marked with croc warning signs, as accidents do occur, mostly when people are behaving stupidly. To illustrate this, I'll share three stories that all took place at the same sport along the East Alligator River where also we had lunch on our final day.

1. A few men are fishing at the river. After the long day they relax with some drinks. They get drunk, and decide it would be fun to swim across the river. They do that... and get to the other side without a scratch. It is deemed such a miracle that nothing happened, that they end up in newspaper headlines the next day: two men swam across the river and did NOT get eaten by crocodiles.

2. A married couple is on a fishing holiday. A holiday snapshot is taken, picturing the man standing ankle-deep in the river fishing, the woman on his left side, and an Aboriginal guide on far left. One minute after the photo was taken, a crocodile jumps out of the river and snaps the husband's head off.

3. A woman is on her way to Arnhemland. To get there, you have to cross the East Alligator River. The woman mistakes the boatramp for the river crossing (it's very common in Kakadu that you cross rivers by driving straight through them in a car), drives to the middle of the river, and gets stuck. She quickly climbs onto the roof of the car, jumps to the back of the car, and on to the shore. She turns around, and sees five crocodiles surrounding the car. She's damn lucky to be alive.Crocodiles are bloody terrifying.