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Published: October 26th 2013
I was heading to a hotel in the hills in Brisbane for a long weekend. Located in the mountains, about a 30 minute drive from the city, my plan was to go for walks in the hills and relax by the pool. It wasn't too far from the city but my GPS certainly made the drive longer than it needed to be. Firstly there was the long and circuitous route I seemed to be taking, then there was a "Deliverance" moment as I dutifully followed the GPS instructions down a narrow dead end road. As the road petered out into a red dirt trail I came to a gate making it clear I couldn't go any further. In case of any confusion there was a flurry of dust and an old four-wheel drive came flying out towards me. "You need any help?" asked the young driver and her friend. I explained where I was trying to go and she pointed me in the right direction, then watched in scowling silence as I departed, before u-turning and heading back to where she'd come from.
I'm not sure what was going on in those hills but it was soon clear that nobody
really wanted me to explore them. At the hotel I asked about the bushwalking trails, and the receptionist did all she could to discourage me from venturing out. Reluctantly she got out the map and pointed out the nearby bushwalk. "It's maintained by the council so it might be a bit overgrown." I replied that wouldn't be a problem. "Hmm, well it's also quite hard - it's very hilly - a very hard walk that will take you about an hour". I thought I could handle that. It looked for a moment that she was going to to relent, but then she threw in this little gem, "You also need to watch out for ticks and snakes. There's plenty of them about at this time of year." Well that wiped the smile off my face. She looked quite smug, I admitted defeat, and then she recommended I drive down the road about 10 minutes to do one of the walks around Lake Samonsvale, so that was where I headed.
It turns out she wasn't kidding about the snakes. I'm glad I didn't know this before I went walking around the lake, however my walk was very enjoyable, with beautiful
scenery and almost completely uneventful, with the only wildlife being a colourful bird that looked a lot like a turkey. However on the drive back to the hotel as I was speeding up the hill, I realised as I got closer and closer to a large stick on the road that it wasn't a stick at all but a big brown snake. There weren't a lot of options - he was entirely on my side of the road and I could nothing except keep driving, so over him I went. My first brown snake and I think I killed it.
Unfortunately that wasn't to be the only snake I saw that day. After the first snake sighting I felt a little guilty, but managed to ease my conscience as I lay by the pool reading my book. It was a very hot day indeed and I had the entire pool to myself - very relaxing. My only other activity that day was a facial I had booked at the hotel spa. By this stage I was quite relaxed and as I was heading to the spa, I was definitely in my own little world. It was rather a rude
awakening to realise that I had stumbled over (quite literally) a snake on the stairs, and it wasn't happy. It reared up towards me as I tried to run backwards down the steps. Let me state for the record that this is not recommended. I'm sure the only reason that my heart didn't stop completely is that the snake was quite small, and it was also bright green, which I was pretty sure meant it was completely harmless.
To say I arrived at the spa for my facial appointment in a bit of a fluster is an understatement. It didn't really help when having told the receptionist about my encounter on the way to the spa, the woman asked me to describe it, and then when I mentioned it was green, replied, "Oh that's lucky, there's a red bellied black one that lives around here, and just the other day out by the pool I thought I saw a belt someone left over one of the loungers, which turned out to be a brown snake. But we've only had one snake bite so far I think." My walk back to the hotel room from the spa was rather fraught
as I engaged eagle eyes and was hyper-alert for more snakes. The hills remained undiscovered and it was early the next morning I checked out of that hotel and sped down the hill towards Brisbane.
My final wildlife encounter was a kangaroo on the side of the road. I slowed down, he watched me, then as if to say, "bloody tourists" turned his back to me and hopped back into the bush. I kept driving towards the city and away from the snakes.
I had a day in Brisbane, back in familiar territory in the city. I had breakfast in Fortitude Valley, which was busy with cafes, restaurants, boutiques and bars, before heading towards the river. I somehow stumbled upon a free ferry which I took all the way up to Southbank. It was a fiercely hot day, and it seemed all the city had come out to enjoy the sunshine, and the man-made beach. I decided to go the whole hog tourist-wise and took myself on the Wheel of Brisbane. The views were spectacular, and it gives you a great perspective of the city.
It may have been a short trip to Brisbane, but no one
can say it was uneventful. I know just the place for Bear Grylls' next survival mission too.
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Home and Away
Bob Carlsen
Not sure where you got the idea that green snakes weren't poisonous...
we had green tree snakes in Thailand that would leap out of trees on the unsuspecting passer-byer...fearfully poisonous. I hope this news doesn't put you off visiting Thailand.