27-Oct-2020
Yes, a crocodile! Right there in our river, in the middle of Kuching!
OK, it was a small crocodile. Maybe a metre or so in length. To be honest, we wouldn't have spotted it, had a kind local not pointed it out.
And just in case any mums and dads are reading, I need to make clear that it was down on a sandbank in the river, well away from any humans...
It was not entirely a surprise. We had been told by more than one local that crocodiles can be sighted right here in Kuching. But this is the first time that's happened to us:
You see -- movement. Definitely not a stuffed one
In fact, it is only the third wild crocodile we've seen in our lives:
This is our first, in Timor Leste, in 2014. This guy was enormous
Later in 2014, we saw this little croc in the Sundarbans in Bangladesh
By contrast, here in Sarawak, when we went out on a croc-spotting trip back in 2018, we saw none whatsoever...
Yet Sarawak is well known for its population of estuarine crocodiles, and unfortunately, they do attack people on a reasonably regular basis (at the end of July, for example, newspapers record two victims in the space of three days).
It was ever thus. In the 1909 publication A History of Sarawak under its Two White Rajahs, Baring Gould and Bampfylde note:
"The Sarawak Gazette records numerous deaths due to crocodiles, though by no means all that happen, and many thrilling adventures with these reptiles... Death caused by a crocodile is one of the most horrible of deaths... 'May I be killed by a crocodile if I am guilty' is a common invocation made by Malays in protestation of their innocence; in other words, they invoke the most dreadful death that comes within their ken."
You can't help but shudder...
Anyway, one more pic, just to make sure you're convinced: