Headed off early to Darwin with the main aim of a visit to a crocodile farm and some shopping as the bike needs another oil change and the food bag needs a restock.

Arrived at Crocodylus Park at nine and wondered if this was a good idea, as it looked a bit like a tourist trap designed for the tour bus set.  Turned out to be a very interesting and infomative morning.  It is the public face of a research centre and crocodile farming enterprise that processes about 30 crocodiles a day for their skin and meat.  Had a look around until the tour started at 10. 

The guy hosting the tour had been involved with the operation from the start so he knew his stuff.  It started with feeding some crocs in a large pond by suspending meat on a moving wire over the pond.  Whilst this was happening, we got a bit of history lesson on crocs and the first of many reasons why it is very bad idea to be near or in the water near a salt water croc.  After thaf it was onto the pens that hold their breeding pairs.  A couple of the males were over 5 metres  long and when you are that close and see how quick they move,  I am not going swimmimg outside a swimmimg pool up here.  These were fed pork shanks via a stick and string with the kids mostly getting the job.  After that it was onto the pens holding the diiferent age groups of junvenile crocs plus sone fresh water crocs and and explanation of the differences. 

There was then a discussion about the justification for farming crocs and the proccess involved.  The justification was pretty simple, by farming crocs for their leather and making it available commercially, there is no point in poaching due to the low returns and heavy fines so there is no pressure on the wild population.  Makes sense to most people but their has apparantly been some lively debates with the sandal wearing vegans etc but to me it is not much different to sheep and cattle except crocs are a quite a bit harder to handle.

Then for the bit I was not expecting.  At the end of the tour, the guy disappeared for a minute and returned with two small salt-water crocs with their mouths taped shut.  Its now time to hold a croc, no-one seemed keen so I ended being first.  It was surprising smooth and soft skin as the armour plates do not harden until later in life.  I then handed him onto a young girl who was not yet convinced this was good idea as she was not too pleased when I let go but them realised it was OK.  After that most people had their photo taken with one of them.  I ended up with the croc a few times as people got organised for photos etc.  Not something I was expecting to do on this trip.

After that it was off to find some oil and restock the food bag.  Got back mid afternoon and gave the bike its service and a bit of a check over.

Off done south early in the morning.  Not sure how far I will get as it depends on how the days go and how hot it is.