Mate,
Done the canoe thing on the Zambesi river and in Canada. Plenty of crocs and hippos in the Zambesi, which made for some nervous paddling but by and large no worries. Although I did get chased by an angry hippo called Mad Mike up near Victoria Falls once – but in a kayak and not a canoe – so speed was important at that time. Anyone ever told you that adrenaline is brown:D
However salties in the Top End, especially the large ones, may be a different proposition, although the freshwater ones wouldn’t be an issue. Spent a couple of days in Darwin and saw how the locals were teaching the large crocs to jump for food on the Adelaide River, so I’m not sure how close I want to be to one of those fellas.
Don’t recommend standing in a canoe though, probably better to use it to get to interesting places and then do things on foot. Considerations about weight should be high on your list – portaging can be sweaty work, but importantly, you probably don’t want to hang about on a bank for too long messing about with the canoe – crocs are plenty smart (they’ve survived for millenia) and like prey who hang around the water’s edge.
Good luck – sounds fun – where are you in QLD?
