22 April 2024
Bitter Springs had remained closed while National Parks officers undertook some inspections. The local reps had a look and then decided to kick it to the croc expert in Darwin. He came down and had a look (after a day or two) and (in conjunction with our local caravan park owner) confirmed the following:
- There is a crocodile in Bitter Springs.
- It is a “freshie” i.e. a freshwater crocodile.
- He is around 2m long.
- He’s been there a long time and has never bothered anyone.
- Sometimes he likes sunning himself on the bottom set of steps where people get out of the water.
So … we went for a swim this afternoon (we’re just about to spend our fourth and last night in Mataranka). The water and scenery were beautiful. We also had plenty of human company around us, which we surreptitiously used as human shields (yes, even the kids and elderly). You float slowly down with the current around 300m and can then get out and walk back along a path to the starting point. Floating along, our legs hit a submerged log. One of us screamed (very) briefly, and it wasn’t Nicole.
At the halfway point we had a quick chat with a fella who had moved in beside us at the caravan park today with his and two other families. We filled him in on what had happened over the last few days and received a funny grin / grimace in return.
Anyway, in summary, we’re very glad we did it.
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