Huge thanks to Tourism and Events Queensland and Dreamworld for providing this death-defying adventure! As always, all opinions are our own.
Is anyone really crazy enough to lure sixteen feet of teeth and muscle out of the water with a chicken leg?
Yes. We are.
At Dreamworld — Australia‘s largest theme park –that is just what we did.
Perhaps we’re not as crazy or brave (stupid?) as we are making ourselves out to be since we barely had time to think about it.
But is it any less insane because we had no idea we would be feeding crocs until just before we did it?
This is the kind of thing that happens when we let Queenslanders plan our escapades and stupidly say, “We’re up for anything!”
The combination of humor, sense of adventure, and a tad bit of wickedness that our hosts possessed led to some wonderfully unsettling situations (here’s another one, should you need more convincing).
We were expecting a day of gut-wrenching roller coasters and theme-park related fun (we did that too!), and instead found ourselves gut-checking our courage inches away from the jaws of death. All while strapped to a glass platform.
We began with a demonstration, safety talk/harness fitting, and waiver signing (… crocodiles … danger … not responsible for lost limbs … name … date) with the fabulous Alecia.
Concern began to sink in as she taught us proper feeding technique with a seemingly too-short, well-chomped-on pole.
See more about our adventures in Australia’s Gold Coast!
After helping us prepare the croc food (in our newly-donned overalls with CROC FEEDER emblazoned on the back), Alecia handed us off to Chris, crocodile wrangler extraordinaire, who snapped our harnesses to the feeding platform.
Chris has a special relationship with these prehistoric-looking creatures. Still, he had no problem expressing his awe. “They can go from completely still to full speed in a blink of an eye. Yeah, it takes you by surprise sometimes.”
Coupling Chris’s remarks with Alecia’s careful instructions – “We are slowly lowering (the pole) to get them excited, and then we are slowly raising the pole up” – had us questioning the entire preposterous venture.
“Full speed in a blink eye?” “Get them excited?”
Have you guys ever taken a close look at these killing machines?
But securely latched to the platform we clung to the small comfort that the beast couldn’t drag us into the water.
Part of the fun was that there was a crowd watching. Alecia manned a microphone, stirring up the masses.
We hoped against hope that the field trip-taking schoolchildren among the spectators would not witness the ultimate grisly demise of The GypsyNesters. That kind of thing could scar a kid for life.
See more about our adventures in Australia’s Gold Coast!
Chris wasn’t kidding about the speed of these critters. There’s no rush in the world like being on the business end of a hungry croc’s mouth. Less than a second ticks by – from leaping reptile to the other-worldly SNAP! as enormous jaws slam shut.
Lucky for the school kids, and us, the only casualties that day was some poultry, and a crocodile’s hunger.
David & Veronica, GypsyNester.com
Delve Deeper:
Check out the Dreamworld website
See everything we did on Queensland’s Gold Coast
See where we stayed! Peppers Broadbeach
Bucket list check! We snorkeled the Great Barrier Reef!
Watch us skydive above beautiful Queensland – yikes!
Follow us into the Australian Hinterland and kayak the Noosa Everglades!
Find out how we saw all of the bizarre Australian animals in one place!
Let Us Introdoos-ya to Noosa and Spread a Little Sunshine Coast
Huge thanks to Tourism and Events Queensland and Dreamworld for providing this death-defying adventure! As always, all opinions are our own.
Click here to see all of our adventures in Queensland!
YOUR TURN: Are you game for feeding a croc?
Crocodiles are magnificent aren’t they. All that primordial power and ferocity. Glad to see you survived the encounter.
So true! We are glad too. 😉
What an experience! I saw crocodiles feeding at the Australia Zoo, years ago. Thanks for sharing!
We saw them feeding at the Australia zoo too, before we did this. Thought they were crazy, then after this, we knew they were.
It’s amazing something so large is as agile as they are.
It is, and they are incredibly fast!
Holy crap, that vertical leap is insane, good thing there’s plexi-glass between you & the crocs.
Holy crap is exactly what we thought too!
Man, they sure do look hungry! What a great experience. I’m sure it had your heart racing. Thanks for sharing!
It was unbelievable looking down into those teeth!