Rogue croc attack leaves trio trapped on Daly River for a night before rescue
A MAN, his son and a cook have survived a night on the banks of a croc-infested river after their tinny was ruined by a snapping crocodile.
Northern Territory
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A MAN, his son and a cook have survived a night on the banks of a croc-infested river after their tinny was ruined by a snapping crocodile.
On what was meant to be an afternoon journey last Tuesday, Daly River man Mark Casey found himself stranded up the Daly River with his son Andrew, 14, and the Daly River Inn’s cook, Diego Pianalto, after hitting a crocodile, knocking the motor off their boat and into the murky depths below.
Having borrowed the pub’s boat, Mr Casey thanked his lucky stars he had told local barman Steve Kinny where they were headed before they found themselves stuck about 40km up the Daly River.
“I thought ‘we’ll have to paddle back to Daly River, someone will come up at night time, they’ll know we haven’t come back and they’ll come looking for us’,” he said.
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But it wasn’t the last they’d seen of the croc. After travelling about 4km, with his son paddling back down the river with makeshift oars, the sun started to set.
“He had the good sense to paddle with his hand inside the boat because there was another bang on the side of the boat, he screamed and I jumped up and he screamed ‘croc’,” Mr Casey said.
The crocodile had lunged at the boat, inches from where Andrew was sitting.
The group pulled up on to a sandbar, where Mr Casey sat up on crocodile watch for the night.
Mr Casey heard a boat coming up the river but the tide was too low for the boat, still some 400m away, to reach their location.
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After a night being eaten by mosquitoes, the trio woke up, hopped back in the boat and made their way down the river about 2km before the rescue boat returned, stocked with water and food.
“It’s going to be an experience for the cook,” Mr Casey said.
“My son has lived his whole life down here on the river and now he’ll have something he’ll remember for the rest of his life.
“I grabbed my son and said ‘we lived through this one, we’re all right’.”
Originally published as Rogue croc attack leaves trio trapped on Daly River for a night before rescue