Are There Crocodiles In Here? (Matt)

Throughout our stay in Surumuran I asked many people if there were still crocodiles in the river. "Yu lukim pukpuk long dispela wara?"  I would say. "Nogat (No)", was usually the reply. Although I did get a few of them to tell me that they had spotted a huge one a year earlier, close to where we bathed each night, at the mouth of the river. It was maybe 12 ft long.


My waspapa (guardian), Laboi and his father, Mum (a respectable term for "Father" in their language,) and I had spent two days in the jungle cutting down and up trees.We also had a small caravan of boys helping us. We dropped 6 trees into the river in order to get 3 good Limboom trees for my waspapa's new floor for the house that we were living in.

Once we had 16 logs cut to length, we made a raft with all of them and floated it down the river to the ocean. Floating, walking next to, pulling, and swimming it across deep parts with 3 kids on top took about 2hrs. Once we got to the ocean, we guided it down the beach to their village.

 Several times as we were swimming next to it, I pretended to get attacked by a puk puk. I would scream and go under. The kids' eyes would get real big, waiting to see if I would come up. Once we made it to the ocean, many kids climbed on for the remainder of the trip, including Grayson and Brianna.

Once we got to the beach, we rolled them all up on shore. Later we split them, chopped and shoveled out the middle, and broke them flat with an ax. That is how you get a free floor for your house in the jungle. Any takers? I will do it for $50 per square foot, installed! Plus crocodile insurance.

So...what about the crocodiles? Were they in the river?

YOU BET! Two weeks later as Laboi, his 5yr old son Nigel, and I were paddling a dugout canoe up the river, we paddled right up on one. It was probably 6 or 7 feet long. It rose up off its log when it saw us, and slipped into the water toward us. Then the wake from it came straight towards us. We could no longer see it above water. Laboi spun the canoe around and paddled out of there. It had come within 30 ft of us. Laughing, but a bit relieved, we headed home. I guess when they would tell us that crocodiles and other bad things didn't exist, they were just "protecting" us from reality. I wish I had my camera for that one!