We all know you should never smile at a crocodile. But what happens if you ask one to say cheese for a photo?
I spent a few months backpacking around Australia in my early 20s and found myself up in Darwin for a few weeks. While I was there I went out to both Kakadu and Litchfield national parks (both amazing by the way – you should go!) and somehow ended up going on a ‘Jumping Crocodile Cruise’ twice.
For those of you who don’t know, a Jumping Crocodile Cruise involves a bunch of tourists boarding a boat on a crocodile-infested river. The staff dangle chunks of meat over the side of the boat on fishing rods to attract the crocs. When a crocodile goes to grab the meat, they lift it high into the air – causing the croc to launch itself vertically out of the water. The first time I saw the jumping crocs, it was through the window of a large boat.
I didn’t really want to repeat the Jumping Crocodile experience because I thought it was a little cruel, but it was included in another tour so I went along a second time. This time there were fewer tourists. We climbed aboard the large boat and walked across the deck before being led onto another, much smaller boat. We went out onto the river, the staff dangled some bacon and the crocs jumped out. Yawn…
The skipper moved the boat over to a flat patch of river bank and the bacon-dangler tempted an 8ft Crocodile out of the water. He. Was. HUGE! They told me and my ten tourist companions to go to the back of the boat and take photos.
With so many people on such a small boat, I decided to wait until they were done and take my photo last. What I didn’t know then, but learned that day, is that Crocodiles are into conserving their energy. Rather than hunting their prey, they prefer to wait very still until it is in easy reach. They typically won’t strike at a group of large animals, rather they’ll wait for a nice, small specimen all on its own.
I am tiny. And I wandered to the back of the boat on my own.
All that was between me and the giant Crocodile was about 4ft and a piece of rope tied across the boat railings. I wasn’t worried. The croc wasn’t moving and I imagined it would be slow if it did.
Just as I clicked the camera shutter the Crocodile, with unimaginable speed, lifted his head and snapped his jaws – making for the boat. The boat immediately surged backwards, sending me toppling, startled, into the rope barrier.
I didn’t fall off the back of the boat and to this day I don’t know how. As the boat backed away at speed, the skipper confirmed that I had been two seconds away from, at best, losing a limb. But at least I had signed their insurance waiver…