The last night with our van, we stayed at a crappy old caravan park just 2hours west of Darwin. When it got dark we spent, like we did almost every night, reading outside, next to the van. Then, time came to go brush my teeth, so I walked over to the toilets/showers. I didn’t take a flashlight so only at the very last moment I noticed the big snake enjoying the warm pavement just outside the showers. My foot was about 30cm’s from stepping on it. My hart skipped as I stepped back quickly! I called for Mark in the darkness, and while I went to take the camera with my hart beating like crazy, Mark had teamed up with a couple of Aussies that had heard me calling Mark.
“aaah, that’s probably just a tree-snake.”
“well, isn’t it a bit aggressive for a treesnake, John?”
“jeah John, I think it is a Taipan”
“well, maybe it is… jeah, I think you’re right”
One of them nutty guys tried to catch it for a while, and when he did (I was standing 20m’s back, shaking as a leaf) he carried it away and with a big, discuss-trowing spin, trew it as far away into the bushes as he could.
I’ve been doing some looking up, and judging from the pictures and all, I have come to understand that it was actually a Taipan. It is regarded as the most deadly and aggressive snake in Australia…. I think I have been quite lucky!
(so, all the stories actually seem to be true… I am for sure never going to pee in the dark again without bringing a flashlight).
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