Jim's Top End Trip
Well they say you'll "never never know if you never go" so I decided to take myself off on a S.A.R.S-free, low-terrorism-threat holiday to Australia's Northern Territory, hoping to show my listeners a good way to invest in Australia by holidaying locally instead of abroad.
After a day of acclimatising to daylight hours and exploring Darwin itself we hit the road on Tuesday to see the Jumping crocodiles on The Adelaide River.
This is a jumping crocodile from the Adelaide River. These animals, although living in the wild have been trained to swim out to the boat and jump for offered bait, just like Dolphins, to impress the tourists.
Or perhaps it is the crocs who have the tour operators well trained to come and feed them.
"Gotcha!"
The croc jumps up to grab a pork chop. This is a natural instinctive ability of their's and they use it to snatch prey of branches off trees overhanging the water's edge. Also a croc will carefully watch animals, such as cattle and wild pigs coming to drink at the same spot on the river each day, and after a few days the croc will be waiting at that spot to shoot out and grab the prey in it's jaws.
Crocs are territorial and this is Malachite, the oldest and most dominant male on this part of the River. He is thought to be almost 100 years old. Note the large groove or "slide" he has cut in the mud to reach his position under the trees.
Malachite has lost an eye in a recent fight with a younger large croc who is challenging him for dominance of the area. Most crocodiles are female as males are only produced when the eggs are laid at a specific environmental temperature of 31.5 degrees centigrade.
Females have smaller territories while males
control much larger areas than encompass these.
One could easily mistake a crocodile for a
piece of wood drifting in the River.
This is the same male croc, having dragged himself into the mud on the riverbank.
At a length of over 4.5 metres he is obviously no piece of driftwood.
After the cruise we stopped in at the crocodile farm to view the crocs from closer up .
This pile of young Crocodiles is destined for the fashion industry, their skins been used to make shoes, belts, handbags etc.