AAP - October 20, 2009
A man who climbed a tree to escape crocodiles spent up to 12 hours on an shaky branch while the creatures circled around him.
Stan Martell told police from Wyndham, in north-western Australia, how he had feared being taken by the crocodiles after his boat capsized in the Lynne River on Friday night.
He fell asleep to find his boat had become jammed under a mangrove tree trunk and filled with water, and had to climb the tree that had trapped him because of the danger of crocodiles.
He told ABC radio on Tuesday he had seen "two (crocs) right where I was. One was a big one, and one was about 10-foot".
"I crawled up as high as I could and just sat there like a koala bear all night," he said.
Mr Martell said he had spent the night worrying that the tree branch would break before he could climb down in the morning and activate his boat's EPIRB signal.
Sergeant John Kazandsis, of Wyndham police, said it was fortunate Mr Martell had not tried to get up on one of the mangrove banks in the area.
"If he'd gone up on one of those in the dark it would have been very risky," he told AAP.
"There are a lot of crocs in that area.
"He only saw a couple but there would have been plenty more under the water."
He said Mr Martell, who was found by searchers about 11.40am on Saturday, may not have been discovered without his EPIRB.
"He had a satellite phone but it wasn't functioning after his boat got submerged," Sgt Kazandsis said.
"If he didn't have the EPIRB he would have had to rely on someone reporting him missing or someone seeing him.
"There's not much chance of someone passing him where he was," he said.
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