After an overnight stop at Ayr we made a relatively early start (8:30am) and headed inland West, towards Mount Isa,  with our first stop at Charters Towers.

Charters Towers was once the 2nd biggest City in QLD after Brisbane. It made it’s mark with the discovery of Gold in 1871.

For more history click here

As for us it was the place we first discovered “snake” on our inland stretch. We’d just pulled up at the caravan park and I was following Jayne into reception to check in.

Jayne had opened the sliding screen to let herself in and a snake slivered in at the same time. I have no idea how she didn’t step on it.

Now. In the past, on our few slivery occasions, it has been Jayne who has spotted the snake first. My main memory of these moments is lots of her screaming “SNAKE, SNAKE, SNAKE…” with little direction or indication of where the snake may actually be. As such I’ve become quite good at the crazy man dance of the “WHERE,WHERE,WHERE’S the flamin snake”.

So with the ongoing trauma of these experiences still playing on my mind I pondered, quite rapidly, how best to break the snake news to Jayne.  So, at a gazillion miles an hour my man brain attempts to work out the optimum way to inform her of this slivery delivery.  Best I quickly assess the situation again first.

Is it really a snake? Yes. Slivery long scaly thingy.

Is it a really Big snake? Yes/No. Any time you see a snake it appears to be 2 metres long but in fact this one was about probably about a metreish and a bit skinny. But little snakes can sometimes bite and deliver more venom than a big snake because of their inexperience in these matters.

Is it a Deadly Snake? It looks kinda brown in this light. Or greeny browny yellowy. Pass. Don’t know. I’ll just assume it’s not a good snake.

Does it look aggressive? Hard to tell, but I suspect Jayne may have kicked it without knowing on the way thru as it was doing the quick sliver thing. So it’s probably not happy. Maybe a bit grumpy but as yet it hasn’t bitten her, I think…

Is it moving toward or away from Jayne? Away, no toward, no away, away toward away.

Is a life in danger?  Not right now but things may change a little later.

Is anything at hand to flick the snake with? Nothing near either hand.

With the thinking all done (all the above took 50 milliseconds in real time) it was now time to act, OK.  I’ll just get Jayne’s attention and when she turns around she’ll see me standing here just pointing at the snake. If that doesn’t work I’ll also say “SNAKE”.”

“Jayne!” I say quite firmly. No response as she’s already chatting to the lady at reception.

“JAYNE!” Slightly firmer. Nope. Nothing. Jayne is still half way thru introductions.

“JAYNE!!” I may have said this 12 more times, I’m not sure but I’m starting to feel a bit like Sheldon Cooper (Big Bang Theory – TV).

At this point Jayne turns around to look at me with an expression that says “Wot, can’t you see I’m speaking, how rude…”

I just stand there pointing at the snake.

Jayne’s response was something like “Oh. Look. There’s  a snake”. At this point the receptionist responded with “SNAKE OMG SNAKE OMG SNAKE OMG I’LL GET MY HUSBAND OMG I HATE SNAKES!!! OMG I’LL GET MY HUSBAND & A SPADE!!!” and promptly disappeared out the back.

I’m not sure if snakes can hear but this outburst caused the snake to run (technically not) for it’s life and hide under the nearest shelter, an ice cream freezer just inside the door.

By this time I’d managed to get inside the office thru the sliding screen, past the snake, screams and all the ice creams and both Jayne and I stayed on the other side of the 2.5 metre room and watched as the snake peeked it’s head out from one or other side of the ice cream cabinet.

The Husband appeared promptly and us men then set about doing our best to defend the damsels in distress. Husband invoked Plan A & poked at the ice cream machine a couple of times but no snake appeared. We hatched a Plan B. I’d move the ice cream machine and he’d be ready with the spade.

Good plan but as soon as the machine was moved the snake disappeared into the Telstra box mounted just off the floor behind where the ice cream machine had been. At least the ice creams are now out of danger​ but now communications & the Internet are under threat!

Plan C: As I have some experience in the communications field and was also familiar with this particular type of Telstra box/cover/installation, I offered to remove the cover if Husband would then dispatch the snake with the spade.

Ready, set, go! I deftly removed the Telstra box cover only to discover the snake curled up inside the cover at which point I quickly dropped/threw the cover and jumped back stabbing myself in the back with the corner of the reception desk. This did two things; it hurt like hell and stopped me getting further away from the snake.

Luckily the snake headed for the door where Husband was waiting with spade and dispatches were made upon the snake.  R.I.P. snake. It was all over in a flash.

It was all quite amazing but, once it was over and the snake was on it’s way to snake heaven, it shrunk back to a more non threatening size. Evidently this is quite common when you kill a big snake…

More sadly, with the help of Dr Google I identified the snake later as a non-venomous “Common Tree Snake”, “Dendrelaphis punctulata”

I feel quite bad about the whole performance really. Poor snake.

 

 

 

 

 

05 Jun This entry was published on 05/06/2016 at 3:21 pm and is filed under Uncategorized. Bookmark the permalink. Follow any comments here with the RSS feed for this post.