Crikey!!

(Red Bellied Black Snake)

See this handsome critter here....I came face to face, (or rather foot to tail), with one of his relatives this afternoon!! I kid you not...I was less than 20cm away from the poor bugger as he was most probably lying in wait for his next meal. I obviously didn't mean to intrude upon his day, I was merely trying to steal....ehem.....I mean....borrow some river weed from the banks of the Riverway when I came across him. He got more of a fright than I did let me tell you! He took off like lightning....thank goodness in the opposite direction....jumped off the river bank (if you can imagine a snake jumping, work with me here), and proceeded to skim across the water lilies. I was very impressed! Then I lost sight of him, and so ended my weed hunting expedition as I was not too keen to come face to face with him again, nor meet any of his immediate family!! Keila was hilarious. When I first saw him scoot out from under the bush I yelled back to her "SNAKE!" I am thinking of putting her in little athletics after seeing her 50 metre dash up the river bank and up the nearest pole! All the training of "now if you see a snake just stand still and wait for it to move out of the way" went right out of the window with her. She was very impressed with me though as I had stood still long enough to tell her what kind of snake it was, where it had gone, and how long it was.

So long story short......I will have to buy my dang pond weed!!