We rocked up to the Spectacular Croc Jumping tour mid morning just as a football team of teenage boys headed out on their cruise. We decided to give that boat a miss and wait til the next one so we occupied ourselves by playing with the beautiful pythons that Craig (the boat driver and tour guide) draped over our shoulders. When it came time to hit the river we were stoked to find out that we would be taking the small boat out and our group was only about 12 people strong. Craig started up the engine and gave us the obligatory safety warnings which basically left us with the understanding that if we did have to abandon the boat, or ended up in the water for any reason then that would probably be it for us – over, done, kaput, no more…
We quickly realised why. Within 5 minutes of leaving the dock the first croc approached the boat. It seems these creatures have become accustomed to this feeding for tourism caper and can differentiate the boats that provide them with fresh meat from the ones that don’t, so they’re not shy in making themselves known to the meat providing boats. The first croc was what Craig called a nice little lady – a 2 to 3 metre female that was quite happy to put on a show of jumping most of her body out of the river to chow down on s big chunk of meat.
Now if you’ve never seen it, a crocodile thrusting itself vertically out of the water with its razor sharp teeth poised to snap down on its prey is really something to behold. Even this “little” croc was indeed spectacular. And as more and more crocs approached the boat you became very aware that we were in the domain of something much bigger than ourselves. It really wasn’t just a story… the waters of the Adelaide River are, in fact, crocodile infested. We had a chat to Craig and gave him the run down of what we’d been up to with the van and the gigs and the ten thousand and something kilometres and suggested that maybe Sanchez would like to get acquainted with the crocs. So Sanchez dangled himself over the side of the boat to try his luck with a 4 metre jumping croc. Now for those of you who aren’t aware, now is the time to let you know that Sanchez isn’t actually a person, but the little World Nomads logo and we’ve been snapping off photos of him on our travels. This particular incantation of Sanchez was a piece of cardboard with the logo printed on it which didn’t last long at all in the jaws of a spectacular jumping croc.
We were even lucky enough to have a croc known as Hannibal jump for us. Hannibal is the most famous croc in this part of the river purely for its size and ferocity. He is clearly the king of the castle at 6 metres long and estimated to be around 100 years old.
Anyway, as much as I rave about the intensity of this experience I’m not convinced that I can paint a complete picture with words so please have a look at the photos and see for yourself how amazing the tour is.
Definitely right up there amongst the highlights of the whole trip!
