Days 26,27

DAY 26 – Wednesday
We packed up early, said goodbye to the Andersons and headed for Darwin, with a stop at Batchelor for ice and ice-cream.  We arrived in Darwin about 11am and found the caravan park with the fuel light glowing.  We set up camp and had a quick lunch before heading into town to get fuel and have a look around.  We found a supermarket and bought a few groceries and alcohol, then went for a drive along the coast. 
We found the free waterpark at Leanyer and called in for a swim.  It had a large pool, a fun park for smaller kids and three waterslides for us big kids.  After a few hours of water and fun, we headed back to the caravan.  Shane called in for a visit and then we had tea.  The boys went to the pool for a “midnight swim” at about 8pm and finished up playing water volleyball with a couple of German backpackers until they got kicked out at 9pm when the pool closed.

DAY 27 – Thursday

We woke up early and got organised, and drove into Darwin.  We parked in the city and headed to Crocosaurus Cove.  Darren and Mitch were booked in to do the Cage of Death at 12.30pm and were both looking forward to it.  We walked around and looked at the different fish and crocs, watching the barramundi being fed, and watching one of the staff trying to chase a sting ray out of one aquarium into another.  Then we went and watched the big crocs being fed.
Mitch and Darren did the Cage of Death.  It involved the perspex cage, with Darren and Mitch inside, being dipped into three different pools containing crocodiles.  They banged around on the top of the water to try and get the crocs interested, but to no avail.  When the cage was lifted out, they were both a bit disappointed. 

We then went over to a platform where the boys were able to “fish” for the baby crocs.  They dangled their fishing rod, with a bit of meat on the end of the line, over the edge of a platform.  The baby crocs were jumping out of the water to grab the food. 

We all got to hold a python, a frill neck lizard, and a gecko.  Then we watched a display where the keepers had a snake and they fed it a rat.  After this we had nearly had enough and we decided to go through the croc information area and look at the photos of the boys doing the Cage Of Death. 
We held a baby croc and took a few pics, and were just starting to look at the Cage of Death photos, when one of the croc handlers approached Darren.  He asked if he would be interested in going into the cage again.  Darren quickly said “yes”, and asked how much.  The guy said it would be free, and would be just Darren in the cage while he fed the crocs from above at the main feeding time.  Two of the other handlers were near me and they looked at each other and raised their eyes, and said to me “lucky, very lucky”.

We went and had some lunch and then made our way back to where Darren had to meet for the Cage of Death.  He changed into his bathers and got ready.  The other handlers came up and asked me if they could “borrow” Mitch for a while.  I said yes go for it, and they told him to bring his camera.
Darren was introduced to the crowd before being lowered into the water to begin his croc feeding adventure, meanwhile Mitch was taken around the back and into the croc enclosures where the crocs sunbake to watch the feed.

Darren was able to snap some great pics of the crocs feeding and at times was only centimetres away from their jaws with only a ¾ inch piece of Perspex separating them, at times you could hear the bang of the Crocs head banging into the plastic. Perhaps they had bigger things than a piece of meat hanging from a pole on their minds.

Darren was lowered into the 3 seperate pools for each of the feeds with each one getting wilder and more aggressive as they went along, it finished with “Denzel” a 6 metre male Croc that is relatively new to the Cove and was sent there as he dominated and fought with all the other crocs in his area. so had to be relocated to the cove to be placed in isolation from others.  This Croc was by far the most aggressive and unpredictable one of the lot.

Meanwhile Mitch was moving from enclosure to enclosure with the handlers and filming the feed from the best vantage point other than the cage. He was given a stick to hold and was told that it was more for show but wont do much if he hits the croc but tapping it on the nose may distract it, if it goes at him. At one stage Mitch wandered too close to the water and was quickly advised by them to step back a bit.... Just in case....

Once the show was over we had a look at the photos that were taken by the park people and decided to get the DVD disk for the memories.

We left Croc Cove and headed for Shane’s place and caught up with him and a few of his mates for a beer at the bar below his apartment. No kids allowed so they went for a swim in the pool at Shanes apartment building whilst we had a drink or 2.
We left Shanes place and headed to the caravan park and the boys had a swim whilst we got changed and ready to go out for tea. We picked Shane up around 7.00 and off to the Wharf area for a Fish and Chip tea. Whilst at the Wharf there were heaps of Moon fish swimming around and were eager for our scraps. After giving them a quick feed we set off for the caravan park dropping Shane off on the way.