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Australia is one of the world's most popular travel destinations but it can be a risky place if you don't have your wits about you, as one tourist recently found out.

Croc watching at zoos and wildlife parks is one of the country's most popular pastimes, but Matt Martin from Newcastle, New South Wales, recently got a bit too close for comfort when he dived headfirst into a crocodile.

Mr Martin was swimming at Cow Bay in the far north of Queensland and inadvertently came into contact with the animal.

Despite being bitten, he managed to escape and was taken to hospital to be stitched up.

Queensland Parks and Wildlife crocodile expert Dr Mark Read told ABC News that it was an accidental meeting and suggested it was more likely the swimmer's carelessness that led to the incident rather than the animal's appetite.

"He [Mr Martin] had repeatedly entered the water for cooling off dips, as he calls them, and in between had been consuming alcohol and after consuming a fairly significant amount of alcohol, by his own admission, he's gone back in for one last cooling off dip and it looks as though he's dived on top of a crocodile accidentally," Dr Read said.

There are two types of crocodile in Australia – saltwater and freshwater – and the authorities stress that visitors to areas that are home to crocodiles will be quite safe if they follow certain rules and use common sense.

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