Day 56 18052011 Jabiru to Darwin (Howard Springs)

Day 56 18052011 Jabiru to Darwin (Howard Springs)

We were up and away early as today we were headed to the Jumping Crocodile’s and my the children were excited.  Me I’m just excited to be leaving the mozzies hopefully!!



Friendly buffalo



We stopped for a quick break at the Bark Hut Inn but could not check out any of the local billabong’s as they were still closed due to the presence of either flooding or saltwater crocodiles!!. We also had a walk through Windows to the Wetlands.  This is an interactive tourist information centre that taught the children all about the wetlands and the animals and plants that live there.  Excellent schooling done for the day.

Then onto the Jumping Crocodiles, but before we got on the boat the kids got a chance to hold another green python and true to form, Claudia was in line to have the snake put on her and the boys were just content to give it a pat. I would have held it honest but someone has to take the photos of the brave daughter!!



honest this croc was over 6m long and
approx 104yrs old



Onto the boat we got with 15 other kids and a few more adults and off we headed up the Adelaide River, we didn’t have to go far before we saw lots, and I’m not exaggerating, lots of salt water crocodile’s.  I was really interested in how they “taught” them to jump but we were informed that jumping is a natural activity especially for the younger crocodiles that jump up into the trees to catch unsuspecting bats.  We were also told that the crocodiles that we were visiting today know the sound of this tour boat, so will come for the meat that they know they will get but if a different boat comes into this area then they will swim away.  I guess I harboured fears that if they taught the crocodiles to jump they would jump at any boat, but it appears my fears were unfounded. 

The crocodiles willingly swam to the boat although the operators were careful to only have one crocodile at any time as salt water crocodiles will attack each other and kill.  It was an awesome experience seeing these amazing creatures in their natural habitat and at such close range.  We also got a rare experience to see one crocodile that was over 6 metres long and around 104 years old.  Apparently salt water crocodiles have only been protected for 40 years from hunting so it is unusual to see one that is so big and so old.  He didn’t look all that big in the water as when in the water you only see 10 – 20% of the total body mass but oh my when he came out of the water beside the boat he was huge.  Unfortunately for the photo shot there was nothing to compare his size to and no one on the boat was willing to lie down beside him!!



Check out her teeth!!



On the trip back we were treated to a Kite (bird) feeding and then we left some meat in a tree for the Sea Eagle to come and collect.  The kids were fascinated and enthralled for the whole trip.  This was a great morning!

We arrived in Howard Springs just outside of Darwin early afternoon and treated ourselves to a swim and I began the ring around to see if Zac and I can get on a Barramundi fishing trip.