We have a great day today with Marie, being our good little tour guide. She takes us to Crocodylus Park and Zoo, not far from where we staying. We end up spending a good hour or more here. Watch the crocs being fed in the pond, then a walk through the breeding pens, look at them the woman giving the bloke a gob full, good girl!! One poor fella had his jaw taped up, apparently had given his missus a right touch up. The salties are carnivores, the blokes can even turn cannibal, they eat meat as soon as they are hatched.
They farm crocs here also for leather and meat. It was one of the most sort after leathers world wide with a 2 year waiting list to fulfill orders. They cull at about 1.5 metres (approx 18 mths old) Darl reckons the slower you grow to 1.5m to longer you get to live... They banned hunting in the early 70's, and started the farming programmes this is the only way to ensure their survival. We have heard along our travels to run zigzag to get away from the crocs, WRONG!
We are assured they will get you in the end.
We are assured they will get you in the end.
Unless of course you can clamber up a tree. Ah how cute, how can this little fella grow up to be so ferocious. Mind you they have got his jaws taped. Crocs live to 50 to 75 years old, they lose their teeth every 18th months until they get to 70 when they don't grow back and this leads to the ultimate demise when they got no teeth they can't catch tucker.. Unlike shark teeth, sharp and designed to rip and tear, crocs teeth are blunt designed to grab and drag.
We were looking forward to seeing the big cats, tiger, lions, ocelots. But only the lions were out today and they were sleeping. For a small zoo they have a great display native animals and some imports, Tortoises, iguanas, ostrich, baboon etc. But check this Wallaroo, check out his biceps!! Now I am glad it wasn't one of these that ran into us, think we would have had more than ding in the bumper. 
From here we go sightseeing along the coast of Darwin, Marie takes us all over and we end up at the ski club for the best steak sandwich in the Territory AND a couple refreshments to wash it down. There is 3 clubs along the waterfront, we had a drink at 2 yesterday, the Trailer Boat Club and the Sailing Club, so we did them all. They are all top spots. Marie points out a sand bar as it's low tide and on here they have a cricket match once a year, that would be a spectacle or even great to attend.
After lunch we wander over to the Museum and take a look at Sweetheart an infamous croc, it was being a menace, a couple of guys caught him, however the croc drowned before they could get him back to land for relocation. They say he would have died within a week due to the stress of relocation, but I guess that's something that they will never really know. Entry to this museum is by donation, free if you want, and is also well worth a look see. It has a section on Cyclone Tracey another devastating event to rock Darwin.
We have a drive over to Cullen Bay, bit like the Raby Bay of Cleveland. Before heading to Mindil Beach markets, another must do if you ever visiting Darwin. The pic above is the Big House in the foreground with Mindil Beach after that. The markets based largely on food! Anything you can imagine (yes even road kill) you can get here, so go with an appetite. Lots of entertainment, aboriginal art (expensive), whip cracking, didg playing, etc. This market is on Thursday and Sunday night and always attracts huge crowds, especially down the beach to watch the sunset.
The markets do close for the wet season from around end October to April. The opening and closing of the Mindil market season is marked with a fire works display on the beach. There are a number of other week-end markets go all year round. Here we are soaking it up on the beach at sunset. They have two police officers patrolling the beach on horse back, I think more for show than anything else, but I got some good pics of them too.
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