Croc Emoji
I was on a boat tour of Port Essington from Seven Spirit Bay Eco-Resort in the Northern Territory. We’d just completed a guided walking tour around Victoria Settlement and had motored across to the eastern side of the inlet to look at the banded cliff formations along the water’s edge when we spotted this four-metre salty sunning itself on the beach. As we drew nearer, it picked itself up and casually strolled into the water just off the beach. I expected it to disappear and pop up somewhere else one or two hundred metres away, like I’d seen other crocs do, but this one only went as far as it had to. We inched around it a bit, but from a distance that wouldn’t disturb it, and it still didn’t move. The water was so clear that we could see its outline - a dark shape with its tail curled to one side. Funnily enough, it reminded me of a crocodile emoji, only it was very real. Menacingly so.
Mark Daffey
