Monday, December 18, 2023
We landed in Darwin last night at about 8:45 p.m. Collected our luggage and headed out to our hotel, the Darwin Hilton with our new bus driver for the next day and a half - Malcolm (or "Mal"). We tumbled into the lobby around 9:30 p.m., got our room keys, and we persuaded the hotel to reopen the bar until 10 p.m. so we could come down and get a drink and visit a bit before calling it a night. Yesterday (12/17) was a long tough day. But as 'tough' as we had it, the folks around Cairns, where we were originally scheduled to travel on Wednesday for a day on the Great Barrier Reef, were having it worse. In case you haven't been following the weather news out of Australia, the north coast of Australia has been dealing with Cyclone (aka Hurricane in the US) Jasper which has dumped incredible amounts of water on the region, including Cairns. As we arrived in Darwin, we heard that the Cairns airport was under water and all flights in and out had been cancelled. This morning we learned that the situation has actually gotten worse with people trapped on their roofs, and problems with the water supply.
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| Map of north Australia showing areas affected by Jasper |
The section in dark yellow on the above photo shows where the conditions are the worst and you can see that includes Cairns. The bottom line is that we will NOT be going to Cairns at all (no Great Barrier Reef - bummer). Princess has scrambled to make alternate plans for us (more on that later) but it has been hard since we're right in the middle of the Christmas holidays and trying to book flights and/or hotel rooms anywhere is more than a little challenging.
However, the title of this post actually refers to our adventure this morning which was a "Spectacular Jumping Crocodile Cruise" on the Adelaide River, about an hour's drive outside Darwin.
Before I share a picture or two, I should mention that, coming out of the Outback where the temperature was 104-108 degrees Fahrenheit (and zero humidity), Darwin is in the 90's for temperature and at 100% humidity. Wow! Luckily our tour bus is well air-conditioned. On the way to the crocodile cruise, we stopped at Wetlands View Top, a viewing station for the wetlands area outside of Darwin. Lots of wildlife in this area, including Magpie geese, water buffalo (we saw some cooling off in a pond), and lots of different birds, including Jabiru (Australian stork).
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| Carl poses at exhibit at the Wetlands View Top |
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| Jabiru stork |
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| Wetlands outside Darwin |
From the wetlands it was just a few minutes to the Adelaide River and our crocodile cruise. We went out on a pontoon boat with a canopy, but honestly, it was beastly hot/humid. Although it did feel good when the boat picked up some speed and we got a breeze. The crocodiles were amazing and came really close to the boat. One of the crew dangled meat (looked like ribs) off the end of a pole enticing the crocs to come up out of the water (hence the name "Jumping Crocodiles") to get the meat. We saw Roger, a younger male who was swimming in the territory of the alpha male crocodile, Stumpy; Stumpy, the alpha male missing 2.5 limbs; the alpha male, Casanova; and Hunchback (a female). Here are a couple of photos - trust me these guys are even scarier than they look!
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| Roger - our first croc |
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| Stumpy - the alpha male with only 2.5 limbs! |
Watching these guys come up out of the water to get the food was incredible! The guides also brought food to attract the hawks flying across the river. The guide would toss food up and out into the air and the hawks were able to swoop down and catch it in the air!
We spent about an hour out on the cruise and got a greater appreciation for the dangers of the Adelaide River. By the way, these are salt-water crocs, even though the Adelaide River is a freshwater body.
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