Jumping Crocodile Cruise near Darwin in NT, Australia

Driving in the east for an hour from Darwin, you will reach Adelaide River. You can join a boat tour in which you see crocodiles lured by meat junmp from water.

There are three boat tours. One is “The Original Adelaide River Queen Jumping Crocodile Cruises“(OAR), which is located along Arnhem Highway. Another is “Spectacular Jumping Crocodile Cruise“(SJ), which is to the north of OAR. The other is “Adelaide River Cruises“(ARC), which is away from the highway.

Departure time is 9, 10, 11, 13, 14, 15 at OAR, and 9, 11, 13, 15 at SJ and ARC.

Here are rates for 2017 season.

*OAR’s tour at 1 p.m. uses a two-story boat and children 3yrs and under are free of charge.

It seemed to me that they were almost same, so the fees were the matters to consider. Generally speaking, such attractions have discount coupons on their website or on brochures given by rental car companies. The above mentioned tours, however, didn’t have any. So we chose SJ because they had a family rate.

We wanted to join the 11 a.m. tour, but we reached SJ at ten past eleven because it took time to buy groceries in Darwin. There were six cars in a parking lot. The tour did not seem so crowded.

When I went to buy the tickets, the staff said, “The next tour will start at 1 p.m. Okay?” I answered we would wait and paid the fees.

While we were waiting, we ate sandwiches my wife made with groceries we had bought. I was glad to have complementary coffee at a waiting space.

As for the weather, it was hot. I had thought it would be pleasant since this region was in dry season in winter. I was wrong. It was hotter than I had expected. And the humidity was not low.

As the departure time was approaching, passengers increased. There were about 30 people at 1 p.m.

There were two boats, but we were all on one boat.

When the boat was away from the pier, one of the two staffs tried to lure a crocodile. She beat the water with a rod tied with meat many times. Then a crocodile appeared and approached us.

Soon it came by our boat.

Now the show time began. The staff moved the meat up and down in front of the nose of the crocodile.

If the timing was good, the crocodile jumped.

The crocodile jumped several times on both sides of the boat, and the staff fed the meat to it.

Eating a meal, it went back home.

We saw such a show at three different places. It seemed that particular crocodiles jumped at each place.

They were very impressive.

On our way back the staff threw pieces of meat away and many raptors flew near the boat.

More than ten birds came near us. But I was not able to take good photos because our boat were moving and the birds were flying much faster.

The tour took about one hour. We enjoyed watching jumping crocodiles and flying raptors.

I give you advice. It is better to take a seat near water. You don’t have to think which side is better since the show is performed on both sides. I expected we would see both sides on the seats near the center, but they lacked impact.

This attraction is a must on the way to Kakadu National Park.