I always wanted to do some crocodile spotting in Kakadu National Park and now was my chance. You can visit the area independently but as I had limited time and was travelling on my own, I thought I would take a tour into Kakadu National Park. There was plenty of tours to choose from as well.ย I chose aย 3-day tourย taking in many sights and activities. Activities including taking a cruise on the Adelaide River to do some crocodile spotting.ย
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Crocodile Spotting in Kakadu during the Day
There are a number of places to spot crocodiles in the Kakadu National Park and one of them is along the Adelaide River. Now you wouldn’t go close to the water’s edge because their just might be a crocodile lurking nearby, waiting for a tasty morsel to dip their toes in the water. The best way to see the crocodiles is to take a cruise along the Adelaide River and see the crocodiles jump. They jump out of the water because they are jumping for food. The tour guides on the boats will put a little piece of meat at the end of a pole and hang it out of the boat. While waiting for one of the crocs to jump you will hear tales about the individual crocodiles and even learn their names!

It is quite spectacular to see the crocodiles jump. Being so close to these ancient creatures that would snack on you without hesitation I thought was just awesome. But the best was yet to come.
Crocodile Spotting in Kakadu at night
We had just finished a fantastic evening barbecue at our Kakadu hostel. Most of us were settling in for an evening of drinking, talking and fighting off insects around the camp fire. I wasnโt expecting what was to happen next. Night crocodile spotting in Kakadu.
โCome on everyone, letโs go croc spottingโ the hostel host said enthusiastically.
โCroc spotting!โ someone exclaimed โbut itโs night time?โ
โWell, you donโt have to if you donโt want toโ he said somewhat disheartened before adding. โI just thought youโd like to! Kakadu is another world at night!โย
He paused to think of what else he could say to sway those hesitant.
โYou donโt know when you will be back? But Iโll leave it up to you. I will be leaving in 10 minutes which will give you enough time to grab a jumper, a torch and put on a pair of walking shoes. Therefore, if you decide to come, you can meet me at the hostel gateโ.
I already knew that I wanted to go. Afterall, I didnโt come all this way to miss out on anything.
Off we headed into the darkness, a mini bus-load of city dwellers. We were led by a bearded, bare-footed reptile lover along a moon lit dirt track in search of saltwater crocodiles.
After a 15 minute walk which involved brief stops to look at the local flora and fauna. This included a spider which could have easily slapped someone with one of its huge legs, we arrived at a causeway.
What is that smell? What are those orange dots?

โThis is close enoughโ said our host.
The causeway can be crossed by foot during the dry season, but as we werenโt quite in this season yet the causeway still had water rushing over it. Apparently it was a great fishing area. Unfortunately, we were told that only the week before a young boy was taken by a crocodile while fishing with his father here.
Our host spotlighted the causeway with his torch. We were about 50 feet away from it. A long, rough, grey croc tail disappeared over some rocks. This brought gasps of โwowโ. It truly was an incredible sight to see a crocodile in its natural habitat. He then scanned the river with his torch.
โLookโ, he said excitedly. โsee those two orange spots?ยโ
I squinted into the darkness until I saw those two orange spots.
โWell thatโs a crocโ he said โand a bloody big one tooโ.
โHow can you tell?โ someone asked.
โThe larger the eyes the bigger the croc. Iโd say that one is at least 6 foot long, even moreโ.
โWowโย someone said. Wow seemed to be the word of the evening as most of us stumbled for words to describe what we were seeing.
The area turned out to be mission control for our crocodile spotting. We all took turns standing next to our host looking at those illuminated, transparent, marble-like eyes. They were hypnotising. I felt like a kangaroo staring into some headlights.
More pairs of orange marbles appeared hovering in the darkness ahead of us. There must have been at least a dozen. No doubt, the buggers were thinking, food, succulent live food of all shapes and sizes, all waiting for an underwater roll. I was glad they were all over there and we were here.
โHave you ever smelt croc before?โย our host suddenly asked.
โNoโย someone said, and I thought, I donโt think I want to.
โCan you smell that briny, salty water smell?โ
I stuck my nose out into the darkness and let the smell fill my nostrils. It was an odour I was familiar with. It was similar to the smell of drying seaweed on a beach.
โRUNโ our host yelled.
It took a few seconds for what our host said to register, but when it did, I and everyone else joined our host hightailing it back up the track.
Whether this was a joke or not I am not sure. However, if you take a trip into Kakadu and your host of the hostel asks you to come for a walk to do some night crocodile spotting in Kakadu make sure you stay behind him at all times. Or ensure you can run faster than him!
How to organise your Crocodile Spotting in Kakadu Trip
I organised my trip to Kakadu from my Darwin hostel. I had found the hostel by booking it ahead on line through Hostel World. If you want to go on a tour in to Kakadu and go crocodile spotting plus see aboriginal art, learn about Aboriginal culture and more, there are tours available for a variety of days and nights run by small tour operators – following. Going crocodile spotting in Kakadu was one of the highlights from my time in the Northern Territory.

What a unique adventure! I never thought of crocodile spotting but this looks like so much fun! And 3 whole days too! So fun! Thanks for sharing because I also enjoy going via tour when time is limited.
It was a unique adventure and I am glad it was one I was able to experience. 3 days in Kakadu was great but next time I would like to stay longer. And tours are great when you have limited time, particularly small tours that you often don’t know about until you get to a certain place. Like I only found my tour in Darwin.
Such a great post! I havenโt seen any crocodiles while I traveled around Australia. But would find it quite interesting to see them from a safe distance ๐
I thought I was always at a safe distance until the evening which was an impromptu experience.
Oh my goodness those orange dots in the water would be so scary to see in real life! Great post thanks for sharing all the details ๐
Seeing the orange dots was quite scary but smelling them and knowing they were close but not be able to see them was scarier. Glad you liked the post.
I absolutely loved the Kakadu – didn’t spot any crocs though. Thanks for sharing
I’m glad you loved Kakadu. You need to go to certain parts of Kakadu to see the crocs like Adelaide River.
Wow you had quite an adventure ๐ I would love to experience this..the night spotting looks really scary ๐
Yes, Kakadu was a great adventure and I would go there again in the blink of any eye, however, I have other places to visit before I go back. Crocodile spotting at night was scary.