Location: Darwin, Australia
We have a day visit to Darwin, Australia; which is the capital of the Northern Territory of Australia (note: not a state). Several organized tours were offered, including the “WW2 Experience” (Darwin was bombed over 70 times), but I went on the “Jumping Crocodile” tour.
It seems the local crocs have quite strong tails, and some local guides have licenses to give tours and encourage them to “jump” out of the water.
The guides use 10-foot bamboo poles with string baited with water buffalo (a major Australian export item – usually shipped live) and encourage the local celebrities into the river with some “tucker“.
With a little encouragement the croc starts dancing.
As we returned to the docks several local kites escorted us, snatching tidbits from the sky as our guide tossed them. I haven’t tried to take such “action” shots before – it’s hard to focus and frame the image at the same time.
Technical Note
I spent a few days getting rained on in Cairns, but I thought I had dried everything off. Nope. About 1/2 hour on the river in Darwin my lens started fogging up, on the inside. Fortunately, I had 20 minutes to disassemble my camera and let it air dry while our guide croc-jumped on the other side of the boat. Once back at the ship I’m tearing down all my camera equipment and giving my camera backpack more open-air time.