From the safety of the bar (closed - yes, it is 5:30 am), My guide Firstborn and I discuss what tactics we will use to get the crocs in the best light. Our strategy agreed, we set off in a wooden mokoro with Firstborn at the helm, 400mm lens mounted on the tripod and all set.

This crocs a monster, and only half out of the water, since we are too early. As we approach he erupts into the channel and our chance is lost for the time being. We decide to pass upstream to photograph the profusion of water lilies in the lagoon while our quarry relaxes and returns to his daytime resting place.

Two hours pass and we slowly return to the channel with light behind us, film loaded, shutter cocked and ready to shoot. Our croc is now right out of the water. The scene is set. We approach with caution, inch by inch, so as not to send him into the channel once again. After the second shot has been squeezed off, our boy, looking bigger than ever, turns and slides without a splash or ripple into the channel, apparently heading straight for us. Before I can consult Firstborn we are at full mokoro speed reverse, out of the channel and into the safety of the bank. We think a suitable time went by before Firstborn and I re-cross the channel on a direct course for the bar (now open). The rest, as they say, is history.