FAT CROC passing by my beach

The mother ship was gone next morning…probably operating with the tides and headed in the early morning to Port Keats, I assumed.

I was just ready to launch, the tide was going down, as I spotted a “reef rock” starting to expose itself out of the outgoing tide. But the “reef” was floating with the low surf…BUGGER, THIS WAS A CROC! I felt it was best to NOT move any more, ducking down and to become kind of petrified…but I was still able to reach the camera and to take some shots!

It was a beautiful long, big one, about 3-4 meters, swimming slowly along the shore from the left to the right…it didn’t seem to have spotted me, as it didn’t make any puffing or threatening movements and kept on swimming nicely along the shore, obviously simply enjoying the day. Glad it went in the direction I was NOT heading to…I didn’t want it to spot me and to go under the water or to stay…I preferred watching it afloat passing into a safe distance until I felt secure enough to launch.

I crossed Hyland Bay to Tree Point, before I paddled into the Port Keats mongrovy channel area. I rather dared to go south of Dorcherty Island and taking the narrow mangrove channel to the corner where the old Mission Station was, than going around north. It felt a bit scary…

At the eastern tip of Dorcherty Island a motor boat came up to me, it was one of the tenders of the “Swordfish” mothership I was spotting yesterday, based in Darwin. They were anchoring in Mairmull Creek just before Port Keats. A fishing guide with two customers from New Zealand…haven’t I seen that before? They seemed to be quite “honored” to have run into me, and took heaps of pics and videos…I gave them one of my promo cards. The guide asked me again and again if I needed anything…maybe I should have already filled up all my water bags with them?

There was another motorboat later coming up to me as well, and I thought it was a second one from the “Swordfish”, alerted by the first one via VHF. But it were two local guys from Port Keats on a Saturday afternoon fishing trip. They greeted me with “You must be mad! The crocs out here are bigger than your kayak!” Yes, I know…

The told me there won’t be anyone in the two or three Aboriginal villages marked on my map where I planned to fill up water…bugger…they gave me two liters, but I would need more!

I decided to go the risk, there would be SOMEONE on a Saturday or Sunday weekend down the coast who would help me with water!

I had to paddle out of the mangrove channel now, ending up on the Old Mission Station. The guy’s words about the crocs on my mind, I was heading into the bright setting sunlight west. I felt quite scared…and paddled like hell to get through as soon as possible.

The channel was luckily wider than I expected, and an Aboriginal motor boat was passing by with high speed, waving at me frantically to say “hi”.

At the end of the channel, I spotted the Old Mission Station, and found it was quite “alive”, means it looked like there were people living, and I could have a go for fresh WATER supply!

A bunch of Aboriginal kids were soon spotting me, and ran along the beach waiting for me to land. I decided to pull in to ask for water, and tried to land right before the corner of the channel. A bad decision…as soon as I jumped out I noticed the sand was muddy and I was sinking in up to almost my knees…I hurried to push the kayak out of the shallows and jumped in again.

The kids seemed to be quite disappointed I didn’t land and rushed away in a hurry again, but I made sighn I would be landing further up around the corner.

This was the plan…until I spotted a BIG CROC floating in the low surf…it made me speeding up as hell until I felt safe enough further up the coast to land. BIG goose bumps on my neck…

I quickly made camp in last light, and even left the boat sitting in the outgoing tide’s edge. I needed to run and ask for water at the Old Mission station before it got dark. I assumed it was better on a Saturday night then on early Sunday morning…

I found a big friendly Aboriginal family, including the kids who recognized me as the kayaker. Luckily they were not partying on Saturday night…the lady had a Christian cross around her neck and they seemed to be all quite well-off.

I gave them my promo card, filled my water bags and was even able to toss a bucket of fresh water over my head. That felt good!!! Thanks for that!

Back to my camp, about a ten minutes walk with heavy water bags, I still had to drag up my boat up the long flat beach…life as an expedition kayaker is not easy!

Text message from Freya via satellite phone:

14.08 129.29 Old Mission Port Keats. 45km, 7:30 am  to 6:00 pm.  A fat croc swam slowly along beach when I was about to launch. Fat croc in low surf before landing…

Greg Bethune reports: “Spoke to Freya on phone she is in good and high spirits and doing well.”