Wednesday, 25th August 2010
06.00hrs We all scrambled out of the scratchers, and got ready to go on our trip to see the jumping Crocodiles on the Adelaide river.
07.00hrs We got the bus to town and went looking for a tour operator for this Crock trip & that took an awful lot longer than expected. Once that was complete, we had large Irish breakfast with red beans and loads of toast.. all lovely heart attack stuff.
The tour of the jumping crocks was not until 12.50, so Aileen and Stephen toddled off to book a trip to Kakadu at the weekend and returned to meet Niall and Mary at midday and subsequently hopped onto the coach and headed inland to do this exciting trip. We stopped at the flood plains on the way to observe the wild life, the amount of wild life, including all the waders, ducks, geese, warblers, snakes, wild pigs, buffalos, etc, etc, wondering around the wet lands and flooded area's as far as the eye could see, was truly amazing. As the guide said about the creatures in Australia, "If their sting does not kill you, then they will just eat you". The road was like a dirt track raised about 3m above the wet area, it was built originally as a sort of dam to control the floods on the river Adelaide, but really never worked, so is used now by tourists and birdwatchers.
15.00hrs We arrived at our destination. First we had to play with the snakes, Skipper and Niall had this Python called Nelly wrapped around their necks for a while, so lots of photos and that stuff before we got aboard the river craft to do the crock watching. The craft was driven by two girls, one who had all the steaks on the end of lines for feeding the Crock's. It was terrific! As soon as we stopped, the girls hung the meat over the side and before long, we had big Crocodiles jumping out of the water to grab the meat. We got some fab photos and this was followed by feeding Hawks and eagles. All very, very spectacular!
We returned to the Yacht Club later, and had dinner there with some of the other crews and listened to the live music, which was excellent. Niall related to their trip on the way out to join us, and in particular, Hong Kong. They passed a message Parlour with the following sign :- Regular massage.........$20; massage with a happy ending ..........$30. Niall still has a big smile on his face, and we are still wondering!
That's all for now.
Signed :- Stephen Hyde (Skipper)