In the Northern Territory crocodiles are serious business. At every place that land meets water there are signs warning of the likelihood of crocs. Everyday in the newspaper (which, admittedly, is a small town newspaper and talks at length of the frolics of hens nights thinking the police were strippers ) there is an article about a croc stealing a dog or being spotted or something.
One day we decided to go on a Jumping Crocodile tour (which my brain confused, hence the title). They took us out on a boat into the murky Adelaide River to see crocs in their natural habitat. We saw giant crocs about 6 metres long lazing on the riverside catching the sun. We saw one whose name was Hannibal because he likes to chomp the arms off of other crocs.
The people running the tour would tie a bit of meat to a string and dangle it over the side of the boat. Sometimes they would smack the water with it to make it seem like a flailing human to attract the croc's attention.
These animals are so scary. It seems to be the only animal that Australians are afraid of (and they have zillions that can easily kill you!). Maybe it's the yellow teeth. Maybe it's the death stare they give you or the fact that you can barely see them in the water before they make an attack. Maybe it's because for fun and dominance they like to eat each other. Maybe it's the fact they they haven't really evolved in 60 million years and hung out with dinosaurs and didn't die off when they did. They probably ate all the dinosaurs.
In nature the crocodiles jump out of the water to get prey. So they are pretty impressive even if they only have 2-3 arms. These are powerful beasts and I wouldn't go swimming in this river for anything.
I'm pretty certain that this one is thinking "You're next". This is one time where we fully obeyed the common rule of keeping our hands and arms inside the boat at all times.
Terrifying. We felt really lucky to be able to see these amazing creatures and not die.
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