So I start this dream standing outside some sort of tourist office advertising "New crocodile tours!". Soon this ranger looking like Steve Irwin (in khaki shorts and sunnies) comes out and takes a group of us into a white van.
We drive out of Darwin on a beautiful sunny day, down the Stuart highway heading towards Katherine. Suddenly the guide brakes and pulls over, parking the van in a clump of grass.
We get out and stand by the side of the road. There's no water around for miles, and I start to wonder where the crocodiles would be.
"Are we supposed to cross the road now?" I asked the guide.
"No, just wait and the crocodiles will come."
I stand there watching sceptically while cars, 4WDs, trucks and road trains hurtle down the Stuart highway, sending little clouds of gravel into our midst.
Just as I was about to laugh at the ridiculousness of this all, I saw a huge looming grey shadow on the horizon, slowly coming towards us. As it gets closer I see that it is about 10 times the size of a normal crocodile, about 50m long with a humongous tail. It looks like some sort of reptilian dinosaur, steadily trudging towards us. Its feet make thunderous plops as they land on the road, like something out of a horror movie.
One of the girls in the group starts screaming, and the guide says "shhh... these are non vegetarian crocodiles, they'll eat you if you make too much noise!" The adrenaline starts to run in me and I shout at the guide "shouldn't we run away? this looks too dangerous!"
But the guide calmly says "These crocodiles have evolved to incorporate a new style of swimming on land, called the drystroke. Please don't be afraid of them because they are Olympic champions in drystroke and would be very upset if you ran away from such a master performance of this art".
So I stand there wide eyed as the crocodile comes closer and closer, when it passes by us I see that it is indeed swinging its arms & legs in a strange awkward fashion like a flapping drowning duck. It gets so close that I can see all its scales..
Then I smell that distinct smell of blood, my heart is filled with horror and I wake up.
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