Packed up camp in Darwin, pouring sweat while we did so, and headed for the bush. We'd heard about Shady Camp from a few different Darwin locals, just outside Kakadu with awesome fishing and the highest concentration of crocs in the territory! We rocked up after a couple of hours drive of tar and dirt to find not much at all apart from an empty campsite and about 25 crocs hanging out just off the boat ramp. We drove and (carefully) walked around to a few differentt vantage points to check out the crocs and watched a couple of people put their boats in, happily wading around in knee deep water only metres from the brutes.
We found a spot in the empty campsite and set up then went for a bit of a fish and more croc spotting. Stayed safely back from the water while fishing but there's no doubting the element of danger. Happily cut off lures when they got stuck despite being just off the edge of the bank. Plently of wildlife coming down to drink in the evening, we hoped for a croc attack on the cheeky wallabies but were disappointed.
Various creatures started emerging from the big tree next to our tent as the sun went down; frogs, crickets and all sorts of other beasties. After dinner we jumped back in the truck to check out the river under cover of darkness. This was the highlight for me, as we swung the headlights across the river literally dozens of red eyes stared back. I'd only seen this sort of stuff on tv before. We hung around (inside the truck) and shone the Maglite around and counted 40 to 50 crocs in total. Awesome to see them lazily crusing around, some sqabbling with each other and others stone still, staring back at us.
