Below are some pics of the Crocodylus employee and the Irish couple I made friends with, whilst in the caravan park. They have been in Aus for 1.5 years with the sole purpose of touring. They have another 6 mths before they have to leave. They have seen more of Aus than I think I will. If they like a place they stay for a month or so and get a job to top up the money balance. They decided on Fri to stay in Darwin and by Sat, hubby had a construction job. He is a .net developer. So if you want a short term job in Darwin, it won't take long.
Hidden Valley pub is trading off it's famous motorsports park just 1 km's away. Great memorabilia on the walls of our motor sporting legends. It's a blokey pub!! They had strippers, topless barmaids and 1 on 1 acts. We had dinner in the bistro and then had a quick drink in the bar being served by a topless waitress. Sorry guys, no pics of her here. Best beer I had so far on this trip :)
Pete arrived Friday morning and after spending some time on both bikes, we had lunch on the docks, checked out the WWII fuel tunnels and then Pete earned a well deserved sleep as he had been up for effectively 2 days.
On Sat we went to Parap markets, similar to Mindil Market, just better food, less buskers less crowded and a smaller. Mindil market Thurs / Sun gets my vote as the variety of people attending is great to stop and just watch and listen.
We went to Crocodylus on Sat. It's a zoo which specialises in crocs. Now I'm not a fan of zoo and I feel for the animals who roamed the lands now have a 10 mtr by 10 mtr fenced off area to live the rest of the miserable life. I remember at Melb or Syd zoo watching a giant panda completing laps and laps and laps. His / Her mind was gone. Seeing such a majestic animal with a lost mind put me off Zoos.
They had a couple of water buffalo. Check out the vast room they had to roam....
Below is the croc mating area. Most of the crocs were taken out of the wild as they were causing issues for humans. ie eating stock, eating humans and the like. Isn't that what they do naturally? For me it's like shark culls. If you don't want to be Great White dinner, don't go into their territory. They are the kings of their domain and killing or relocating them into a 10 * 15 mtrs (approx) concrete pens is just so wrong.
The majority of the males here are about 40 years old, approx 4 mtrs long and when you are standing 2 mtrs above, them are awe inspiring. Unfortunately, they will have another 30-40 years to live in such a cramped environment.
I had a very good chat with the ostriches and emus. Explained to the them, that as an emu, you are the most dangerous road kill animal on the road due to their lack of intelligence. Great chat and we'll have a safe trip from now on. Seriously tho, I stopped and chatted with them, with Pete looking at me strangely :) thinking I'd gone nuts. But I know emus are very inquisitive and as I was lecturing them, they hung around looking at me, 1 mtr away, giving me whoop whoop sounds. I knew they were listening.
Close up of Ostrich. The male ostrich loved hats and used his height to reach over the barrier and grab tourists hats. He never got mine :)
Do you want to try croc meat? Click on to enlarge and see the prices. Reasonable I think.
They have pens with fresh and saltwater crocs. 498 salties in the one huge swimming pool. With so many crocs in the pool, the smell was unique, strong and off putting.
These crocs would be allowed to grow for 5 years and are then killed for meat, leather etc.
The majority of the males here are about 40 years old, approx 4 mtrs long and when you are standing 2 mtrs above, them are awe inspiring. Unfortunately, they will have another 30-40 years to live in such a cramped environment.
I had a very good chat with the ostriches and emus. Explained to the them, that as an emu, you are the most dangerous road kill animal on the road due to their lack of intelligence. Great chat and we'll have a safe trip from now on. Seriously tho, I stopped and chatted with them, with Pete looking at me strangely :) thinking I'd gone nuts. But I know emus are very inquisitive and as I was lecturing them, they hung around looking at me, 1 mtr away, giving me whoop whoop sounds. I knew they were listening.
Close up of Ostrich. The male ostrich loved hats and used his height to reach over the barrier and grab tourists hats. He never got mine :)
Do you want to try croc meat? Click on to enlarge and see the prices. Reasonable I think.
They have pens with fresh and saltwater crocs. 498 salties in the one huge swimming pool. With so many crocs in the pool, the smell was unique, strong and off putting.
These crocs would be allowed to grow for 5 years and are then killed for meat, leather etc.
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