I felt relaxed and refreshed that morning, happy to be in beautiful exciting scenery again and I was looking forward to another day of exciting water and a paddle close to the shore. Nothing is more boring than flat water and/ or paddling way offshore!

I was glad I found that campsite last night, as the big bay around Buckle Head didn’t show a glimpse of a sandy beach landing…I would have had to paddle across into darkness into the next bay which had some sand. But no way I’d like to land here in FAT CROC’s country in darkness…

I paddled inside Reveley Island on high tide, a good decision, as it was a most beautiful scenery! There were quite some tidal waves on the shallows between the island and the mainland, and a big river was adding his water to the confusion, but that’s part of the fun!

I could cut across directly to Cape St. Lambert, some big tidal action was abeam the beautiful white high sand dunes as well.

I passed inside Eric Island, and was searching for the gap of Elsie Island to the right and the mainland.

At the end, where the channel between the island turned right, there were a line of cliffs and around their corner a beautiful quiet river mouth with a white inviting sandbank.

I felt like stopping briefly, as it was really on the way and no detour at all. I would have loved to paddle into the river along the cliff bank on one side and the white sandbank on the other, but reckoned it was better to have a sneaky look on walking the sandbank to the river mouth first…it’s still FAT CROC’s country!

So I landed in low surf, and dragged the kayak up high enough to keep it away from the waves for a while.

(*He* was on the other side of the narrow river mouth in the bushes to the right)

The walk to the edge of the river mouth on the beach was just about 100m, but I was very carefully sneaking over each sand dune, and eventually was able to look to the right into this beautiful small tidal pool.

Tidal pool to the right

Nobody in there…two or three steps further the sand dropped about 3 m steeply into the river mouth. I kept my eye upon this steep river bench to see what the look down would reveal there…nothing but sand and crystal clear water.

Steep river sand bank to my side, bushes on the other…

Eventually I lifted my eyes to look to the other bank of the only about 5 m wide river mouth…there *HE* was…I was eye to eye with the biggest croc I’ve seen on earth!

Zoom in from the pic above

A giant of about 6 m lengh, who was probably as surprisingly steering at me as I did at him…luckily there was still a bit of water between us! It was simply the “perfect” croc living room. *HE* was probably living in there already for quite som eyears, undisturbed by few people…

I had my camera ready in my hand and was able to take the shot above, before he decided to launch with a big “splash” and was gone…

I’d rather felt like been gone as soon as possible as well, back to my kayak, although I knew he won’t climb my side of the water and would chase me, or would be likely to swim out of the river mouth around the corner to where I had parked my kayak…but who knows…maybe he liked me and wanted to say “hi” a bit closer…

I felt like speeding up on getting back and launched in quite a bit of a hurry, still feeling the shiver of the close encounter, eye to eye with that huge beast…no way I would paddle into ANY river mouth to look for fresh water or just for pleasure…this was a good warning!!

Even with a small motor boat I wouldn’t want to be in there…although I reckon a motor scares even such a size croc that much away he would be simply invisible. But he would be still there…

I left Elsie Island to the right, and kept on going along the coast. The map showed about 15 km further north “Evelyn Island”, which turned out to be only a huge area of rocky reefs, which I had to give a wide berth against the low western sun in my face. It was no island at all. But my GPS chart marked “unsurveyed” for this area…maybe it’s time to do the job! Quite some traffic around here! I was probably only one out of maybe 5 kayaker who have paddled this area since Paul…

It was time to find a beach for the night, and south west of Rocky Island a lovely sandy spot offered himself for a camp. It was quite early, but who knows what was behind the next bay on offer…and I wanted to land in light.

It was a bit of a paddle into the bay, and I was carefully checking on any floating log around. But no one in sight…

Climbing the steep beach, I noticed a tidal pool on the other side with some mangroves around…NO, I would NOT check there…if there would be a croc, I was in a good distance on my side of the beach.

Let them be there in peace, if there were some. I simply wanted my night’s peace as well…and blocked my tent with some fallen trees and my kayak.

Message via Satellite phone:

14.06 127.32 North Rocky Island. 60km, 6:00 am to 4:00 pm. I landed briefly  on a sandy beach,
sneaked carefully around corner into river mouth to see a GIGANTIC 6-meter-long croc!