Day 145 | Black Gin Camp, Mt Sanford Station: and I meet the local reptiles
35 km | Heading west total: 6,609 km
Snakes alive.
I was settled in at Stevens Creek waterhole eating my cheese on ex-frozen bread sandwich for lunch and I got a feeling I should look over my left shoulder.
I jumped a bit because there was a metre long snake looking closely at that cheese sandwich. The snake was the colour of the cheese but quite slim and I was relieved when it decided to scurry away.
After months of not seeing much of the reptile world on my travels, well there was the Tiger snake at Cape Otway and then nothing til a King Brown going out to Purnululu. Suddenly there’s been another King Brown on the Buntine, this thin thing today and soon to be a whip snake on the track tomorrow.
Later in the day I saw a station hand who advised it was probably a local python and nothing much to worry about. Oh yeah.
When I got to the station Dave the gardener said immediately when I told him about it: Taipan.
‘One bite and you’re dead’.
But I figure a snake biting me is really like us trying to bite an elephant, they have a tiny head.
This wasn’t the last of my snaky experiences. It was 4 snakes in four days when a surprised 4WDer rolled down the window today and offered me a red gum snake (made from sugar).
Now that’s the kind of snakey experience I can occasionally handle.