Rif, G'day, I'm enjoying your trip ... thank you.
rifraf wrote:I came across a very large snake on the side of the road.
With the nights getting colder now, you will possibly see more snakes by the side of the road at night. Being cold blooded, they're trying to soak up the last bit of heat from the warmer roadsides.
A few years ago I was with my Dad driving on the Newell Highway. My Dad was a real city slicker, not a Bushie at all. Dad stopped the car to see what the dozens of black lines, that we had been passing for hours, on the sides of the road were. I was asleep when he got out of the car, to see what the black lines were. He jumped back into the car super-pronto, when he realised that they were snakes by the hundreds. If I'd been half awake, I would have told him what they were. If I remember correctly, I think that Dad then drove for the next several hours into Queensland non-stop ... sitting right the middle of the road. It freaked him right out.
rifraf wrote: ... nothing like the small snakes, by comparasen that I spotted squashed on the road prior to this sighting.
Small Australian venomous snakes are just as venomous as the large ones of the same species. Definitely, size doesn't matter. A snake is most venomous when it first comes from hibernation because it has built up its poison sacks to full. Hopefully those you meet will have bitten heaps of creatures, already ... and hopefully be slithering on empty.
rifraf wrote: As previous sightings mentioned, this one appeared black, though unlike the previous sightings, this one was very much alive.
Where you are, those black snakes could be more than just a Red Belly Black (a relatively timid common Black Snake), they could be a Highlands Copperhead (extremely venomous, they're found in the Central West not just in the High Country), Yellow Faced Whip Snake (a mildly venomous snake), a While Lipped Snake (again mildly venomous, the term mildly venomous is relative of course), Broad Headed Snake (mildly venomous, they have thin lines of yellow scales on predominantly black scales, just like a chicken wire pattern) or an Eastern Tiger Snake (highly venomous, a Tiger can be totally black apart from a few stripes in the centre of the snakes under-belly). Tigers don't always look overtly Tigerish.
You lucky bloke, you've got a serious selection of deadly snakes to identify, now.
rifraf wrote:I swerved and didnt look back for many a mile.
I've learnt to ride with my feet up on the handle bars, going through the long grass at home. If you normally clip in tightly, consider loosening those releases a tad, for executing a more rapid cleat release.
May fair tail winds be with you young Rif ... and don't overlook that wise old Bushie's saying, when you see the next dead snake on the road.
Snakes don't die until after sundown. So, only pick them up after dark to identify them, OK.
Warren.
PS, ... but poke them with a big stick first, incase one is just snoozing.
"But on steep descending...Larson TT have bad effect on the mind of a rider" - MadRider from Suji, Korea 2001.
"Paved roads ... another fine example of wasteful government spending." - a bumper sticker.
The closed cell mat will absorb them pretty well. I used them with good results along the Oodnadatta Track. They only weigh a few hundred grams.
