Thierings on Tour

After a rough night with Scarly it felt extra hard getting up to start packing and moving again. 

Chris was really concerned by the squeak that Toyota hasn’t fixed during their service and so wanted to get some other opinions. We hade a detour via a suspension retailer where a very helpful young man spent a good half hour crawling under the car checking different parts to try and identify the issue. There was nothing in it for him and it definitely wasn’t part of his role, he was just very kind and helpful. It’s so humbling to stumble across people who genuinely want to help….

We headed on to Crocodylus Park as we had booked a boat tour at a specific time. Now this was impressive and a little bit scary when you see their eyes peer out of the water suddenly.

The guide explained that back in the 80s there were only some 3,000 saltwater crocodiles in the wild and that a conservation and breeding program began, which has led to over 120,000 saltwater crocodiles now living in the wild. (I think it’s time to control them a bit, in my opinion!) more in zoos is fine by me…

There were some 40 crocodiles in the river where we floated and whilst they are more docile in the winter months, there was enough action and jumping to see. I loved that the guide had a story and personality description for each and was amazed how she could tell them all apart so easily. 

Grandma Suzie is the one that showed us the most teeth by jumping out of the water.

After 45 minutes of cruising, which went way too fast, we were back on dry land and headed to explore the rest of the park. There were a lot of other animals, including two beautiful lions who were busy roaring away. What a majestic sound! 

Then it was back to crocodiles to watch the feeding and learn about the breeding program. Males and females should always be fed separately due to the fact that males will happily attack the females over a bit of food. They have 64-66 teeth in their jaw, but can go through up to 11,000 teeth in their lifetime and only start going gummy and not growing new teeth when they get to their 80s or 90s. Wow! Their jaw force is equivalent to a semitrailer smashing into a concrete barrier, to give you an idea. 

The big girls had a go at feeding them with the help of the zoo keeper, which was really cool.

Some of these males were over 5m long and beastly! Definitely not one you’d want to encounter in the wild… 

After all the feeding fun, we got to hold a baby crocodile. I was surprised to hear that this would have been 1-2 years old. It really goes to show how old the big beasts are when they get to 4-5m as they never stop growing. 

Then it was time to head out of Darwin onto Litchfield National Park. We were reuniting with our road besties and the kids couldn’t wait! 

The pool was magical, although a bit cold and all the adults enjoyed relaxing and catching up over a couple of drinks.

Kms travelled – 129