I decided to re-try the ill-fated trip to Crocodylus Park originally planned for Easter Monday. The buses were at it again but I knew they were upto something, closing the interchange and making me find the bus elsewhere. It was a nice scenic route, going from Darwin to Casuarina in a very not-straight line (think along the lines of the 371 between Kingston and Richmond). We took in the local industrial estate and made it to the crocs in due course. I had picked one of the buses on the timetable that goes through the car park of the park so that was good.
Crocodylus advertises itself as having over a thousand crocodiles, which is true but they don't highlight that this is because they are a farm. It is mentioned but very quietly as 'production'. I don't have a problem with this but I suspect that it might be a significant part of their business, so let's not pretend. The 'tour' was different to last week's. It was on foot for starters and a lot of the animals were behind bars. There about 40 crocodiles in a lagoon, rather more crowded than they would be in the wild, only two of them male. There is a pulley system to feed them and get them to do the jumping thing which I saw last week. I got some more photos. We then moved on to the breeding area, where pairs of crocodiles live together in little pens. It doesn't look too lovely but I've heard a few times now that crocodiles are extremely lazy, so I suppose not being able to run around isn't a problem. We could feed the animals ourselves, using the stick with a piece of string on the end to hold the meat. There were then some ponds absolutely teeming with young crocs, upto about 3 years old. It was interesting to see how they got on together compared to the alpha male marauding the lagoon ensuring that no-one else would get a look-in
There were some turtles in one of the pools with the smaller crocodiles and they are fearless (they haven't seen the pictures of the contents of some crocodiles' stomachs). One of them stole a piece of meat intended for a croc!
There were other animals too - I'm a sucker for a zoo. I got some good pictures but the style of the place is rather old-fashioned with criss-crossing wire everywhere making it difficult to get anything like a 'normal' shot without the bars in the foreground or background. Anyway, they have a small number of alligators, both saltwater and freshwater crocodiles (the former mostly), dingos, lions, tigers, birds, wallabies and kangaroos in small numbers, a couple of cassowarys (they seem bonkers), Timor ponies, buffalos, capuchin, cotton-tail marmosets. It all kept me happy!
Do keep checking that Drop box thing. If I haven't invited you to a shared folder drop me a message and I'll do something. There are pictures there.
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