In this story I’m not sure who is crazier:Â Us for standing five feet from a wild crocodile, the man with the chicken in his hands or the actual crocodile whose name is Crazy.
**All photos by Brenda Kadlec-Debnam**
A couple of years ago I quickly featured this lone crocodile in a random pond in a residential community as part of this blog post. At that time the crocodile was of no consequence because he was just out in the middle of the water minding his own business and barely visible.
Well fast forward to last month when we made a refreshment stop at a small bar during our motorbike ride, which happened to be located right beside the same pond. The man who owns the little bar is the brother of a friend of mine so of course I asked if the crocodile is still in the water. Not only is it still in the pond but they have now named him – Crazy. It must be because of the creepy eyes.
Since we were there and the bar owner wanted us to be able to see Crazy in action he sent someone up the street to buy some chicken-back. He would use it to draw the crocodile towards us and feed it. Naturally I was fascinated (or just stupid).
Crazy wasn’t visible at all until the bar owner started calling its name and throwing a small piece of chicken into the water to get its attention. It sure didn’t take long for Crazy to show himself and hustle toward the waters edge where we were.
Having seen this crocodile before I wasn’t surprised to see his head pop up from the water. What did surprise me is the size of him when he finally reached the shore and started wanting more food. The crocodile looked to be about six feet long at least! The bar owner made sure to carefully toss each piece of chicken just short of the water so that Crazy had to show himself to get it. It was a little unnerving and I admit I told the guy that if Crazy starts running that it’s every man for himself! I’d be running my ass off in the other direction and not saving anyone!
So there we were, myself and my friend from Canada with Wray & Nephew in one hand and cameras in the other hand snapping pics of this mouth full of teeth. It was exhilarating and I kind of hoped Crazy would walk right out of the water and pose.
The bar owner told us that he regularly feeds the crocodile but by no means does he trust him. It looked to me like they have this silent understanding……”I’ll keep giving you chicken if you keep your scarey a$$ in the water”!
Trust me when I start my own tour company this experience will FOR SURE be included…..at your own risk lol!
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