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PEOPLE tend to check their sleeping bags very carefully after a night around the campfire telling snake stories. They've all heard about the jackaroo who woke up feeling a heavy weight next to him, thinking he had got lucky, only to find a large brown seeking a bit of warmth.It's the time of year for snake stories. Some observers are saying they haven't seen so many snakes on the move for a while. Even so, chances of death are slim. Only about two people a year die from snake bites in Australia, but around 80 to 90 people get a dose of antivenene. The stories of the near-misses are the best – and they usually deliver a lesson.
My neighbor last week reached into his tool cupboard for a spanner. His son asked what was lying among the tools. A bit of hydraulic hose he was told. Lesson: If you are half blind, wear your glasses. Snakes don't like being mistaken for a hose.
A young worker on a farm came in for lunch at his quarters. He flicked on the griller to toast a sandwich but couldn't understand why his food was making a sizzling noise when he hadn't even put it on. There, arranged in a nice neat coil, was a furious hot tiger snake which bolted for the door. Lesson: Check your griller before you turn it on.
At our community hall, some ladies were arriving. One noticed a large snake lounging on the mantelpiece. It departed down the plughole of the sink only to return a while later with a frog in its mouth, which it devoured on the benchtops. Lesson: Replace the drain covers outside, when the kids remove them.
Sometimes our snake fear becomes irrational. But for fear factor and near-miss luck, Wendy "Winky" as she is known to her friends and colleauges experience from last weekend is hard to beat. Winky was trail riding with eight friends in forest and swamp country.They camped in the bush and, having seen six or more big snakes in three days, were very wary. Needing to head behind a tree, Winky beat a path through sticks and litter, turned, squatted and put her hands down to steady herself. Mid-piddle, she felt something hit her leg just above her riding boot on her leather gaiter. She looked sideways and, staring her in the face was a tiger snake, just six inches away with a wide-open mouth ready for another strike.
Winky says she is chilled by the experience. She was a long way from the nearest house, hours from ambulance help – and how would you bandage a bottom to stop venom coursing through your system anyway? She stood a slim chance of survival at best. Lesson: Bang the ground harder to wake up sleeping snakes.
For me, well living in the tropics, i am surrounded by them. I pretend they're not there. I have had my fair share of misses. I've come face to face with one whilst trimming a gardenia bush. Nearly stood on a black snake that was coiled at the base of my letterbox, seen many a tree snake slithering up trees, along my verandah, seen carpet snakes eating frogs and the best...........one morning i went out on the front verandah where i kept 2 parrots in a cage. I went to get the seed and noticed the cage on a lean. I reached to get the cage down............no parrots, but a huge carpet snake with 2 lumps sound asleep!!!!! Yikes! Only once have i had a snake inside the house here. When "A" was around 4, i was reading to her in the lounge room. I happened to notice this "thing" moving from behind the tv cabinet. Hmmmm "A" doesn't own rubber snakes.......wtf...........omg.....it was a snake! I picked up "A" and ran into my bedroom where her dad was sleeping, he grabbed the broom and managed to catch the snake on the end of the broom and put it outside. The poor man and the snake were pronounced deaf after "A" and myself had finished our performance!

till next time, Michelle.