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Snakes in Glenrock
NB: Originally posted elsewhere on the Global Riders Network and appears via syndication.
Just a word of warning, the warm weather has the local snakes out and about.
Wednesday afternoon I came across a 1.5m black snake and this morning a brown snake.
Both laying across the trail, both just avoided.
Probaby need to put an emergency bandage in the backpack just incase.
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i seen a brown at the end of the quarry loop, and a red belly down on the road at the shit factory, and theres been a heaps of sightings of red and brown snakes out at awaba, be aware.
There is a long term resident brown on the Quarry Loop. There used to be one on Deluge as well, but I haven't heard of it for a few years.
I saw a baby brown on the second half of Shaft during a night ride a few weeks back.
On the black/blue gravel Hunter Water put down at the bottom of the hill below the exit of BJ's, there is often a Black Sunning itself.
There are 2 trails I regularly see Pythons on though.
Its just that time of the year where you need to look out for them. Apparently the Belmont end of the Fernleigh has a few BIG Red Belly's.
Awaba is full of snakes, used to see far too many out there for my liking.
My wife saw a snake in our backyard okay. We're selling and moving to NZ. Not cool.
And thanks for the warning Tony.
Although there's no way i'm stopping to put a bandage on a snake if I run it over
Nice strategy. I'll see if I can find a snake and try the same thing!
Totally chilled.
Beautiful creatures, nothing to fear.
Red-bellies will flee if you give them a chance, so not a big risk unless you do something stupid.
Browns you just give way to. Period. You want to sit there? Be my guest. The trail is yours.
http://youtu.be/Y3sdjL0cWWQ
Great video.
If you read the stats on snake bites over here, they aren't nearly as bad as we make out. 5 deaths since 2010 (none in NSW).
Something to do with smaller venom yields and fang lengths when compared with snakes in other countries. They also rarely inject their death juice. Apparently they can't really bite through jeans either.....
They still scare the poop out of me though, but I'm from Wales.
Bugger i was going to hit these trials tomorrow but now y'all got me worried.
I rode Awaba last week for the HMBA round and thankfully didn't see any however I did ride Wylde in Sydney a few weeks ago and ran into a big Kranky Goanna on the first climb then on the second lap I almost ran over 2 Browns sitting right in the middle of the trail. First on the flat section in the paddock and the second was on 'home run' and moving along when I almost clipped its tail. You can see where I met both on strava, just look for the Heart rate spikes
This has me thinking.
Would it be wiser to have a morning ride as apposed to afternoon. Just not sure if the snakes come out for the morning sun.
I ride alone alot and its an encounter id rather avoid.
Certainly less likely in the morning
Just before Winter I saw a Marsh Snake keeping warm on the Fernleigh Track at about 8pm, it got a bit snappy when I moved it off, haha!
Looks like ill be riding Glenrock early in the morning with my young fella make sure im out of the sunny parts by10.00am
Big beautiful diamond python trying to cross the trail Just after the rock drop offs, just before the houses start. Thought he was going to taste my shoe as I passed him!! It was about 5.45pm today.
More people die in Australia from bee and wasp stings then snake bite but we don't seem to make threads about seeing bees along the trail...
Yep we have some of the most potencially deadly snakes in the world but we also have good awareness, first aid training and top notch medical treatment
Anyone going into bush should be first aid trained and carrying a comprassion bandage as a minimum.
As much as we heap awe on our snakes the Saw Scaled Viper, which doesn't even make the top 50 on venomous snake charts) kills more people per capita than all the Australian species put together.
Seeing the way our snake at home behaves, I think we don't see 99.9% of the snakes we pass. Its just so easy to not see them. Treat snakes with respect, don't play with them and it should all be sweet.
I don't subscribe to the no snakes early in the morning theory either. Thats when I ride and I have seen plenty.
Depending on temps far more likely to see them early morning or late afternoon than in middle of the day. Not being able to self regulate temps mean they need to escape the mid day heat
Worst one I saw in there was probably 10+ years ago, myself and a couple of friends followed and abandoned trail to find a snake across the track it was damn fat and we couldn't see the head or the tail so we turned around and got the hell outta there.
It was a weird looking thing with black scales in random locations along the length of the snake, never seen one like it since.
One hot day Naz, my son and I got together to check out Jubes and the surrounding fire trails. After getting bored fairly quickly with Jubes we did the out and back heading north east.
On the way back I led the charge up the hill and when I got there the other two were nowhere to be seen. After a few minutes I circled back to find them fascinated by this dead snake lying on the trail not moving. A small matte black scaled snake about half a metre long with a python shaped head. They were about to pick it up and throw it off the trail.
They laughed when I picked up a big long stick to scoop it up with. "What are you worried about?"
Very tentatively I touched the snake with the stick, in the middle.
It moved! The point where I touched it twitched away ever so slightly.
Now the laughter carried a tone of "Oh Shoot!" as they stepped back a couple of metres in a hurry. Little snake had been playing dead.
like being at speed with a wasp stuck in your full face helmet!
I did some pretty good interpretive dance the other week with a bee in the back of my helmet.
Be very careful IDing a snake by a "Python Shaped head" Hawkeye, as it's not always obvious or accurate.
Around Sydney things like Braodheaded Snakes (Elapid, highly venomous and potencially deadly) Golden Crown Snakes (Elapid: Mildly venomous, relatively harmess) or brown tree snakes (Colubrid: mildly venoumous) tend to have wide "python like" heads
That's why I got the longest stick I could find, a good 3m long. Probably wasn't long enough, in hindsight, nor was it a wise thing to do.
Won't be doing that again in a hurry.
Was warned last week of a Python on the Fernleigh last week but as I'm an antisocial person who rides with headphones I heard nothing and almost hit the snake, hahaha! Would have been close to 2m long crossing close to a trail exit.