A snake in the grass.

I have finally seen an Australian snake in the wild … !!
Like many New Zealanders I thought I would see kangaroos at every turn, a koala in every gum tree and I would have to dodge snakes, crocodiles and dangerous spiders every time I left the town. After six months exploring in three states, I have finally caught a glimpse of a little brown snake and it was slithering away through the long grass as quickly as it could.

It’s not like they haven’t had lots of opportunities to make themselves known. I have spent hours exploring native Australia, wading through the undergrowth, poking around under trees, and sometimes inside them. When looking for *geocaches they can be anywhere including inside hollow logs and under rocks.

I have met people who know people who have seen snakes, but I thought I would have seen lots of snakes by now.

If I had thought more about it I would have realised that there is a reason the daily papers don’t carry the latest snake attack statistics. There aren’t many.

So that brings my “Australian wildlife seen in the wild” collection to a few hundred kangaroos, thousands of beautiful birds, ten water dragons and various other lizards, no koalas and half a snake.

Perhaps I should go further north. I hear they have real live crocodiles there. That should be fun.

* A geocache is a small container that is hidden for others to find by using the supplied GPS co-ordinates. There are over a million of them hidden around the world. Look out for a post explaining more about geocaching soon.