Johnno heli rescued from a 4 metre croc!

Johnno heli rescued from a 4 metre croc!

What he would do for a free chopper ride!

After almost a week of windy weather, which meant lots of reading instead of fly fishing, it was only a matter of time before Johnno was to say ‘To hell with it, I’m going fishing anyway’.

Fly rod in hand he made his way out across the knee to waist deep waters.  Being a Sunday, there was a lot of traffic up and down the beach, so I opted out of the walk, choosing to stay at camp with the dogs, keeping them out of temptations way (they like to chase cars!).

Hardly half an hour had past when I  heard a helicopter circling the beach very low, as if it was going to land.  With not much happening at camp a grabbed the camera and headed to the highest point for a better view over the sand dunes.  Sure enough, the chopper had landed on the beach, to drop someone off.  That was strange enough, but now they were circling low around Johnno.  I knew it had to be Johnno.  There was no one else wading the flats, and with so many people on the beach, that is where he would have headed.

Johnno, thinking he was being photographed for some kind of Broome tourism magazine, was concentrating on getting the perfect cast for the photos.  After a couple of minutes he finally looked up to see the pilot making an unmistakable, mouth snapping  crocodile sign with his hands.  Johnno knew instantly what the pilot was telling him.  Quickly backing out of the waist deep water he was wading around in, towards the sand bar, still in the middle of no-where, Johnno remembered the large dark shape he had just been casting at, only metres away.

The passenger, who Johnno recognised straight away as the skipper from our Horizontal Falls trip last year, jumped out and run over shouting ’Four metre croc, right there’.   Yip, got that, but now what, was Johnno’s reaction.

Johnno being informed he is wading next to a 4 metre croc!

Realising that Johnno had waded past the croc to get where he was, meaning he had no way of getting back to the main beach, without having to try his luck with a second walk past, Mr Hori Falls skipper was left on the sandbar, with the 4 metre croc still looming around somewhere, while Johnno got air lifted to safety!

Watching from a distance I was playing a guessing game to what was going on, croc never crossed my mind.  Seeing the figure left on the sandbar, thinking that was Johnno, I was pretty surprised when the chopper started circling camp looking for somewhere to land.

Helicopter circling our camp.

A very quick landing on the still wet sand.

As it landed on the still wet sand in the middle of our little lagoon,  I got a bit excited thinking maybe it was the Derby boys doing a Beer drop for us.  But no, to my surprise, Johnno jumped out, letting the chopper quickly fly off.

Thanks Horizontal Falls team, we o u a beer!

We watched as Troy got safely picked up from sand bar, then cracked a ‘Thank your lucky stars’ coldie.

How quickly things change here!  Wading the flats will no longer be the peaceful relaxing walk we have obviously become too accustomed to.  Now they will be adrenaline filled, totally alert, ever watchful, quick walks.  But yes we will still be out there, still wading, just a little more watchful from now on…and maybe keep the dogs on their leads!