Today we are in Darwin, Australia, home of the world’s oldest living culture (the Aborigines have lived here for 60,000 – 70,000 years) and jumping crocodiles! The day greeted us with an amazing sunrise, warm temperatures and EXREME humidity!
Saltwater crocodiles are among the largest and most dangerous crocodiles on the planet. Females generally grow to a maximum of 10 feet and 180-220 lbs., but males will continue to grow their entire lives. They’ve been known to grow as large as 20’ and weigh in at nearly 2,400 lbs.! These are some big guys – and we are part of their food chain. Yikes!!!
We travelled a little over an hour away from our ship, passing wetlands, orchards and fields as we went. Darwin is only 121 feet above sea level, and tides in the area reach 20-30 feet, so much of the land we passed becomes flooded during high tide, with water coming right up to the roadway. We saw Brahman cattle grazing in fields, geese with their baby ducks and we even saw a Wallaby, but he was quickly spooked by the bus, so we weren’t able to get a picture of him.
One of the most distinguishing characteristics of the saltwater croc is that it lives in saltwater. It especially likes the brackish waters of the Australian rivers that combine river and sea waters, like the Adelaide River we visited. They live in the waters, coming to land only to hunt and lay eggs. They will eat literally anything, frequently taking down cows and buffalo in the area, and can jump up to 6’ in the air to catch bats and birds. A female will lay about 70 eggs at a time, but only 6 or so will make it to maturity and it is the temperature of the nest that will determine the gender of the baby – 86° for females; 89° for males.
There are about 200,000 saltwater crocodiles in Australia these days, 50 of which live along the stretch of the Adelaide River we visited. Our guides claim to know all 50 crocodiles, differentiating them by their color, missing limbs (they will eat each other – ugh!), scars, etc. As we boarded our boat there was a huge croc – probably 6-8 feet – loitering by the boat. “Trolling” might be a better word! The skipper said this was a “rogue” croc, one they do not recognize who only showed up a couple of days before. He certainly looked like he was waiting for one of us to become crocodile bait, and the skipper was extremely nervous, advising us to keep all body parts and possessions inside the boat and to remain seated in the front row.
It was a short excursion, but we were able to get some decent shots of the crocs jumping.
Enjoy!
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