Chasing Snakes

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DAY 285


Firstly, thank you to everyone for a huge amount of Anniversary wishes, e-cards, e-mails, Cards etc, and thank you to the Wallaby Wanderers Darryl and Sarah for the Chocolate (Cadburys Flake) it was Yum!! Everyone’s kindness is always much appreciated.

We woke this morning in the swag to the bird chorus, It must be a cockatoos conspiracy as they were right above the swag squawking their heads off, so we lay there looking in to the morning sunshine, watching the birds flying around and coming to terms with the day.

We wished each other a happy anniversary, and snuggled back down in to our sleeping bag for just another 10 minutes.

I eventually climbed out and went to make us both a cup of tea, asking Caroline to stay in the swag until I got my camera just to show her smiling little face so early in the morning after spending a night under the stars, and believe me we did spend the night under the stars, we heard things padding around in the early hours, but it is so much fun.

Caroline got out and during a light breakfast we checked our emails and the blog to find so many Happy Anniversary messages, we also opened the card that Darryl and Sarah had given us before they left Bedrock (Mount Surprise) last Thursday, they kindly gave us a Cadbury Flake each, which sad to say we ate for breakfast, yum, but we don’t eat chocolate every day so we figured that one slip up at breakfast would be ok. We started to get the trailer ready for our departure 100 mtrs up the road to the “Train Carriage.”

The awning came down and was packed away in no time along with the rest of the gear that we haul around with us, the inside of the trailer was swept down, the bed was remade as we removed it to sleep in the swag, we were not so much in a rush as usual, we will only have a few more nights in the trailer tent until we take the house we have rented in Cairns from the 26th August.

The last job before we left was to re roll the swag and pack it away in its Polythene Tarp to protect it; due to its size it now lives on the draw bar of the trailer.

The trailer is hitched to the Patrol, a job Caroline always does, well I hitch it, Caroline does the delicate job of reversing until we have “hook up”.

We drive around to reception it is 10.30 and wonder if our room “Train Carriage” is ready so we both go in and Amanda tells us that we can get straight in as Kim the “House Mouse” (that’s what Kim calls herself) prepared our room ready for 9.00am, we are both delighted that we can go straight in.

We are in Firth Car, Carriage number 4 that is quite sweet, they still have the horse hair leather seats in them, a remnant of years gone by. Oh the bed, a real bed with lovely crisp white linen, it feels lovely to be on a proper bed, not that the one in the trailer is bad, but a proper bed is so nice after months of roughing it (the last bed we slept in was at Sue and Cliffs).

The first job of the day is to have a shower, my feet are suffering again from wearing those bl**dy flip flops, over 9 months of wearing them and my feet are like Ryvita, so dry and cracked, I am constantly doing them everyday with a Pumice stone to keep on top of them.

By the time we are both washed and quaffed it is just about lunch time, we go and sit in the dining area which looks like a station and make ourselves a cup of tea, we have some cold sausages in the Evakool fridge that we had the night before so we go and make ourselves a cold sausage sandwich (with HP sauce!).

I know we didn’t want to do anything today but as we had access to a free washing machine we couldn’t turn down the opportunity of doing some washing, which always needs to be done.

Caroline is typing the blog, I am reading my book, Caroline looks up and says that the washing needs to be taken out of the machine, I say that I will go and set off down the path past all the carriages to where the machine is situated, under strict instructions I fold all the washing and put it on top of the bag and put the bag in our carriage until we can hang it.

I am walking back along the path, just day dreaming, I’ve only got my thongs on (Flip Flops) and somehow become aware that I have just walked past a snake on the path.

I turn around and there it is across all the path with about a foot of it (The head end) on the grass to the side of the path, I am only a few steps from shouting to Caroline to grab my camera which is on the table where Caroline is sat typing the blog.

She appears in about 5 seconds saying “Are you OK there was urgency in your voice?” I nearly trod on a snake, it’s a tree snake quite harmless but beautiful I would have been mortified if I had accidentally stepped on it and injured it, still if it was a Taipan then Caroline wouldn’t have been grabbing the camera, but getting ready to bury my lifeless body as death would be soon (within the hour).

This beautifully coloured tree snake was about 4-5ft long and was now heading for the trees, with me in hot pursuit of this snake it shoots up the tree; my camera is clicking away merrily

This snake came down the tree and slithered along through the grass and found another tree that interested him, he was off up this large Iron bark tree. It must have been a tree it was familiar with or was of significant interest as I looked up to see a birds nest which I’m sure the snakes intentions included robbing the nest of its eggs.

I came back to tell Caroline what I had saw and we both stood on the veranda watching this tree snake start to slither down but the minute you took your eyes off him you just lost him, he was fast.

We go back to the lap top delighted to see the 7th Snake on our Australian Tour, and downloaded the photo’s straight away through the photo viewer software to get a better look at this fella, and to see which ones would be loaded to the blog.

It was early evening, the bar had opened and dinner was just about to be served, Caroline went to change for dinner, and Eve one of the waitresses had brought the evening menus around.

It is a large BBQ buffet they do for the quests and you can have what you like, I ordered a small piece of Emu Fillet, Kangaroo Steak, Crocodile fillets, BBQ Bush Chicken and Undara Volcanic prime rib fillet, with a starter of Spanish Chicken with Rice, and Brocolli and vegetable soup.

We had had Kangaroo Fillets (courtesy of Darryl and Sarah) the other night which is really good, and I really enjoyed the Emu and the Crocodile, it’s a very white meat like fish or chicken, its really good, if you cut a piece and put it in your mouth not knowing what it was then I think you would definitely say it was chicken. Apparently KFC are going to started doing breaded Crocodile with the Colonels special recipe coating, just don’t ask for a wing as Crocodiles don’t have them.

A Sydney school was having a field trip to Undara, there were kids everywhere, we thought it was a brilliant place to let kids learn, as I am a big exponent of the great out doors. If kids even just get to understand wildlife a bit more then they may try to understand and respect it rather than harm it or be frightened of it, when it comes to things like snakes etc.

Dinner was great, washed down with a couple of pints of really cold XXXX Bitter, whilst Caroline had a couple of glasses of Australian Sauvignon Blanc,

We retire to our carriage at about 8.30 but before we leave Caroline goes to the bar to get a jug of fresh Orange Juice as we have a bottle of Champagne to celebrate our 19th Wedding Anniversary.

Getting back to the carriage there is a card on the bed with a small gift, we said we were not going to do this but Caroline has broken the rule, and has got me a little something. I open it to find a pack of cards with pictures of Australian Native Wildlife on them. My favourite is the 7 of Spades; there is a lovely picture of Wombats on it.

We have a couple of hands of cards on the bed and then its lights out, we leave the blinds open so we can see the night sky and allow the morning sun to burst in.

So goodnight all.

PS. Note from Caroline: I was secretly hoping that Andy had picked up a small Pink Kimberley Diamond on our way through the Kimberley’s, which I thought would have explained his reluctance to allow me time to press my little nose against the windows in the jewellers shop in Kununurra. Still perhaps he has it wrapped up in his case and will give it to me at the end of the trip - well, a girl has to hope doesn’t she?

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Photos

Tree Snake
This lovely tree snakes heads for the tree's after I nearly trod on him, when he was basking on the path

Tree Snake
He was hard to catch when he got a wiggle on, or a slither as the case was.

Tree Snake
How good is his Camoflage

Tree Snake
This Chap bolted for the safety of the tree

Tree Snake
I see ya !!

Tree Snake
Curious

Tree Snake
Up & Over

Tree Snake
After the eggs, in the adjacent nest