‘Very lucky’: Close call after bogged in croc-infested swamp
TWO mates are lucky to have escaped with their lives after their 4WD became bogged in a croc-infested swamp area in rural Darwin.
One of the men, who did not want to be named, told the NT News the pair had been driving out the back of the Howard Springs Hunting Reserve about a week ago, on their way to go hunting, when his friend's 4WD had become "pretty badly bogged" in a swampy patch of land.
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With no phone reception to call for help, and a 4-5 hour walk away from the nearest populated area, the friends had no choice but to take turns building up material under the tyres - by hand - to increase traction and acting as lookout for any crocs approaching the vehicle.
"We were quite scared given the situation, because there are crocs that have been pulled from there recently," the man said.
"It was only a couple of hundred metres away that rangers captured two crocs in the space of a week or two.
"They were about 3.5m, but that's a big enough to do a lot of damage."
The man said the situation was so tense, whoever was on croc watch stood at the ready with one of their hunting guns - but only with the intention of distracting, not killing, any approaching crocs.
"We're aware of the legalities around shooting a croc so we just thought if we could shoot the water near one, it would register that and give us a chance to run and get away," he said.
"It would just be as a distraction, so the croc could take its focus off us,."
Fortunately, the pair were rescued after about 45 minutes, when they flagged down a passing 4WD whose driver helped winch their car out.
But the man said the situation could have been very different.
"We were very lucky - in terms of our own physical safety, that there weren't any crocs around, and also that someone came along relatively quickly," he said.
"Who knows how long we could have been out there otherwise, and the implications."
Originally published as 'We were very lucky': Close call for duo bogged in croc-infested swamp
