2019/11 Australia trip - Yea & Mulgrave |
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Wednesday November 20th
This was to be our last day of this road trip. We stopped at a couple of river crossings and then came to the John Cummins 
nature park, an extensive backwater area around the Yea River. It was home to a wide variety of birds: ibis, herons, wrens, kookaburras.
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Yea River (1.35) |
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John rested at the picnic area while the rest of walked the trail, or tried to; there were more forks in the trail than the map suggested. We’d seen snake warnings, but with the dappled light through the trees it was hard to see what was on the ground. We were almost back when Sandie shouted “Snake!” and I froze in midstep. She said that I’d stepped over the snake without touching it; surprising as I don’t raise my feet far these days. Edna said it was an eastern brown. I never saw it as it disappeared 
behind a log and no one got a picture. The eastern brown is the second most poisonous snake in the world after the taipan. Survival time after a bite may be only a few minutes. That was my third close encounter with the species, so I’ve been lucky.
We’d planned to return to Melbourne via the Black Spur, a twisty road through a forest of enormous mountain ashes, but with the snake excitement we took the wrong road out of Yea. No matter as we’d been to the Black Spur before.
On our way into Melbourne we passed a small bush fire; it appeared to be under control. All was well at the house except for the electric front gate which refused to slide unless humans helped.