A VERY Big Day Out!

On Thursday (Wednesday for those of you in America), the International House hosted a 'Bid Day Out' and boy they were not kidding! There was a Jumping Crocodile Cruise, a visit to the Darwin Museum, and a trip to Aquascene Fish Feeding. We were to meet at the front office at 7:20 in the morning for the first activity and we were supposed to be back from the last activity at about 5:30 in the evening.

I am not a morning person at all..... I do not do mornings and I do not understand how anybody could ever enjoy waking up early than 10 a.m. So, when 6:30 rolled around on Thursday morning I was not having it. But, I got up anyways to get ready because I was about to meet some crocodiles! I was also excited because every 'Australia Bucket List' that I found prior to coming here and this jumping Crocodile cruise on it. AAAAAAAnd there really isn't much to do in Darwin apparently, that does not involve crocodiles in some way. You can go to Crocosaurus cove, you can do this cruise, and you can go to the beach, but do NOT go in the water!!! There are, you guessed it, CROCODILES in there! I'm really going to know the difference between crocs and logs by the end of this semester... If I haven't learned that by the end of this semester, there is a slight chance I'm not coming back, if you catch my drift. Anyways, we got to the bus, got on, drove about thirty minutes and arrived at.... McDonald's! Not super exciting, or funny, but I think it's really great that the McDonald's here is so much better. We got back on the bus, drove for about another thirty minutes, and we were finally there! Standing just a few feet from wild crocodiles in their natural habitat. No fencing or rails keeping us safe from them whatsoever.

When we got in the boat, the guy driving the boat was very adamant that we not go near the edge of the boat lean over the side for any reason at any time and if anybody got too close to the back of the boat he would yell at them through his microphone. Now, I was not nervous about this until then. I was thinking this whole time that these crocodiles are in captivity somehow and that they are trained to not get in the boat, that this was all just for show. I was way wrong. These crocs are just straight roaming and they are, as we were told through the mic many time, very unpredictable animals. We were assured that only one person had been bitten on the boat and that was only because he was leaning over the side, but that did not make me feel any better.

We pulled away from the little dock, looked back, and there was a crocodile following us. Everyone was so focused on that croc that we didn't even notice the one coming at us from ahead. I heard everyone freaking out, looked around to see what they were excited about and there he was, Stumpy. Stumpy. Was. HUGE. Stumpy was also chilling right in front of me at the edge of the boat, only a foot away from my very made of meat feet. I kept picturing him just leaping out of the water and grabbing me to yank me down to my watery grave. Then they brought the meat and I was fine. All good right? Not right. I turned and here comes another crocodile! She wasn't as big, but she came right up to the boat too and I was pretty ready to go back. I'm glad the tour didn't end there though. Weirdly enough I sort of got used to the idea that a crocodile could just pop up out of the water at any time. Plus, it was really awesome getting to see the crocs in their natural habitat. They pulled the boat over and got Stumpy into the mud so we could see him and take pictures and everything before they started jumping him.

The jumping was the best part. When they came out of the water to try to get the food their bodies would wiggle and it was honestly pretty cute. I know I shouldn't think they were cute, but it really was! I think we saw about six or seven crocodiles in total, which the boat driver guy said was 'a very quiet morning'. My favorite croc was Fluffy. Don't let the name fool you, this dude is fast as heck. And one of the jumpers informed us that he has a major attitude. Apparently, he will go up to the big crocs and try to intimidate them! He was pretty small, but he was really cool. We also got to see a little baby crocodile and THAT was cool. He was a really yellowish color which I thought was a little weird. On the way back to the dock, they brought out the birds and we got to see a sea eagle! They were throwing food into the air for them and the birds would swoop down by the boat and catch it. You could tell when one would swoop down and catch food on the other side, there be a nice "OOOOOOOOOO" coming from the people sitting over there. The cruise was such an amazing experience and I am so glad that I was able to go.

After we got back, we had about an hour or two to relax and then it was off to the museum! Surprisingly, the museum was free to enter. That is definitely something that you would see back home. They had an art gallery there filled with a bunch of aboriginal artwork and one with modern art and videos and things. It was all so beautiful. There was also a pretty large portion of the museum dedicated to Cyclone Tracy. That exhibit was really intense. There were pieces of buildings that had gone through Cyclone Tracy, documentaries of the damage, death lists, audio recordings of people describing the cyclone, an audio booth, etc. The audio recordings I think were the hardest part. After the recordings and seeing the death list I was definitely holding back more than a few tears. One of the lives lost in the cyclone was a five week old baby... That was a really rough thing to see. Upstairs in the museum was mostly about the history of Darwin and the Northern Territory and outside they had a bunch of ships from different times and countries, that was pretty cool too.

After we got back from the museum, I think we were able to go back to our rooms for about thirty-ish minutes and then it was right back onto the bus to go and feed the fish. At this point I was completely drained and just totally ready for a nap. But, I got on the bus and went to feed the fish anyways. When we finally made it, all of the gates were shut and the hours said that the place closed at two on Thursdays. We stood outside for about thirty minutes waiting to hear back from the people about what we should do. They ended up just rescheduling the activity until Sunday, which was actually really good because everyone just wanted to go home.

On Sunday, when we were actually able to feed the fish, it ended up being concrete steps and a boat ramp next to the ocean, where we would sit to throw bread into the water. We were up close with the fish, giving them bread, and the person telling us about the fish was constantly giving us a heads up that there were not any sharks yet.... Besides the worry that we were going to see a shark, it was a really good day. Devyn and I pet the fish and where we were at they would swim all around our feet. And they had this parrot named Jimmy Choo that talked to us. There was also a small pond that had crabs in it. That was pretty much it though.

On Thursday when we finally got back home I pretty much just went straight to bed. I was completely exhausted! All in all though, it was a really good big day out.