Overnight in Timber Creek: Croc Feeding!

Another of those whirly winds we often see as we are driving.  They come and go quickly, often whirling themselves out of existence in seconds. As we moved west we started seeing a more varied landscape.  Goodbye flat outback, hello mountain ranges!  We have seen so much scenery that reminds us of southern Utah or Arizona. Our last night in the Northern Territory was spent in Timber Creek.  We wanted a place with a pool so we could have a swim but this caravan park also has a croc & kite feeding every evening.  What a fabulous way to draw in travellers!  The creek at the back of the property (I’m assuming the creek was Timber Creek) was home to a dozen or so freshwater crocodiles.  We got to watch while an employee of the park fed the crocodiles from a bridge, even getting them to jump a bit. It was very nerve-wracking being on this bridge with a toddler.  The railings were too far apart, nothing to stop a small child from falling in.  And of course he was not willing to be held the whole time so we had to kneel down with him and have an arm around him or hang onto his shorts.  [What’s really scary is that we snuck away from the kids that night and came down to the creek with a torch to look for glowing crocodile eyes…well, we thought we’d snuck away but he came after us and caught up with us on that bridge.  In the dark.  Yikes!] I’ve looked back through my pictures and really don’t have any good ones of them jumping.  She held the meat out on a hook dangling from a pole.  I was wondering how the crocs don’t hurt themselves on the hook but it had just enough give on it that they could get the meat off without injuring themselves. Quit growing up, kid.  His hair is a mess because it’s way too long he’d been in the pool. There were a couple of bigger ones, most were small.  She said not all of them showed up every day at feeding time.  She only gave them small bits of food, not enough to keep them from looking for food on their own. Where’s the crocodile?  There.  There’s the crocodile!.  (What you can’t see in this picture is Dad’s hand holding onto the back of his shorts!) I think it’s so interesting to see how they float in the water.  I just don’t picture crocodiles as swimming creatures.  I picture them crawling up the river bank after some food! Next it was time for the kite feeding.  She led us away from the bridge and suddenly there were ten or so kites circling overhead!  They knew it was feeding time. A couple of them kept landing directly above me.  None stayed there long, too much chance for food to keep still!  When we visited the Billabong Sanctuary in Townsville they fed a kite during their free flight bird show, throwing the food up for the kite to snatch out of the air.  I remember him saying that in the wild a kite has to fight for its food as there are always other kites around going for the same thing.  We often see them as we are driving, groups of them circling around. I know this is an exciting picture, but it’s the only one I took of the kids feeding the kites.  The woman had little chunks of meat and after she’d thrown a few she invited everyone to have a go.  It was great fun watching the kites swoop in and grab the meat out of the air.  Occasionally they’d miss due to our inept throwing and if it landed far enough away they’d grab it off the ground.  (That strategically placed black rectangle is to hide how much someone’s swimsuit was riding up.)  🙂 TurboBug had a go, and it was the cutest thing.  He had to try several times to even get the meat to land far enough away that a bird would come get it. He was so, so satisfied with himself when one of the birds dropped down out of the sky in front of him to eat the piece of meat he’d thrown.  The look on his face here (and those gumboots!) makes me laugh every time I see it. In the trees along the creek was a huge bat colony.  A noisy one.  Did you know bats are noisy?  They remind me of angry budgies clacking away at each other.  There were heaps and heaps of them.  We could hear them from our campsite, after they’d left for the evening it was much quieter! There was a good sized boab tree near the creek.  There was a sign on it and I expected it to say something about how old the tree was.  Nope, it was an old warning sign that crocodiles inhabit the creek.  Boab trees are becoming more plentiful as we move west.  This is a big one. Bonus cute toddler pic for the grandparents.  Love my boy, he’s getting so big.