A visit to see some snakes

Cal came down with me to Coffs Harbour for a couple of days earlier in the week. I had meetings at our Coffs campus, so while I was at work, Cal swam, and explored the town. On the Tuesday afternoon, we visited a friend of mine, Steve McEwan, who features in a chapter in my book, Snake Bitten (and what a great xmas present that would make - buy it online through Amazon.com)...anyway, Steve was very generous and took us into his reptile 'shed' where Cal met his beautiful animals including this lovely black-headed python (a close relative of the woma)
as well as some rather more toxic species such as this lovely female western taipan (probably has the deadliest venom of any snake anywhere)
the largest and thickest eastern brown snake I've ever seen...
and this magnificent animal, a Collett's snake (a relative of the red bellied black)...this surely is one of the most attractively coloured of Australia's snakes and this one was placid and gentle
what an absolute beauty....I think I'd like to have one....

Night spotting at Bruxner Park

Steve took Cal and I, together with his two kids, Sarah and Matt, up to Bruxner Park, a flora reserve literally 5 minutes from the centre of Coffs, for a bit of night spotting, last Tuesday evening. It was a very productive trip and within a couple of minutes of driving we had found this young carpet python...
followed a minute later by this baby brown tree snake....
a little later, we walked through the forest and found about half a dozen Giant Barred River Frogs, one of Australia's biggest frogs...
and this little beauty...not sure what it's common name is, its scientific name is Litoria barringtonensis...we also saw a small eyed snake, a red bellied black and a blind snake, 3 rather large tree funnel web spiders, a tusked frog, a bandicoot, a brush tailed possum and a boobook owl..now that is a productive night of spotting!

Woo hoo...another roughie...this time nice and alive

Again, click on each pic to enlarge. Cal and I went out on Wednesday night to see if we could find a snake or two...we were out for about 10 minutes only before coming across this rough scaled snake crossing mcGuinness Road down near Julia's Little Creek. We couldn't believe our luck!
Absolutely beautiful animal, which I grabbed for a couple of minutes so Cal could take some pics and get a better look. It's the first live one I have seen in the bush for over 25 years!
They are mainly a frog-eater so I'm surprised they haven't gone the way of the red bellied black snake around here and died out because of the toads. Hopefully there is a nice healthy population of them on our place and surrounds. And yes, I am in my pyjama pants.

rough scaled snake: 19 November

This is really a record note for me (and the handful of other readers who are interested in snakes). I found a dead rough scaled snake, about 70cm, nicely banded, on the road to Cawongla, about 2kms from our place. Judging by the smell, it had been dead a day or two (Steve almost puked when I attempted to take it home - it was quickly jettisoned from the car!). Most likely killed on Thursday evening.

I took Cal up this afternoon to have a look at it and we also found a dead and beautiful yellow faced whip snake on Martin's Road, just 50 metres or so up from the bridge.

Angourie: heaven on earth

Throwing our usual Friday evening routine into the winds, we decided to take a mini-holiday and head down to the coastal village of Angourie, situated about 5 minutes south of Yamba and 90 minutes from our place. Our friends, John and Julie, have been raving to us about their stays there for some time, so we decided to see for ourselves. My wonderful ex-PA, Diana, had booked us into a rental town house overlooking Spooky Bay.
We (Steve, Cal and I) arrived around 7pm and strolled, soon afterwards, the 200 metres or so down the road to the award winning Frangipan restaurant, where we had a fabulous dinner and occasionally acted a "little bit silly" (best said in a slightly drunk French accent).
The next day we took a pre-breakfast swim, then headed to the Angourie shop (which is for sale if anyone would like to run a business in heaven-on-earth) for breakfast which was splendid (blueberry pancakes for Cal and Steve and sauted mushrooms for me). The waves beckoned again and we spent the next few hours exploring the coastline, getting a little lost (and for me, a lot sunburnt) and then splashing around in the refreshing waves.
Both Cal and I enjoyed this sign, itemising all the 'dangers' (including the last one - snakes).
This other sign had lots of meaning for Cal. One of the surfing magazines he had read back in France, included a story about Australia, and featured a pic of this very sign. This story was one of the reasons why Cal wanted to come to Australia, so he was very delighted and surprised when he came across this sign - in real life. A sign of a sign that had become a sign of Australia which then became the real sign again.

Anyway, we shall become occasional visitors to Angourie now.

A trio of whip snakes

Last Sunday was a very good snake day, yellow faced whip snakes, to be precise. The first sighting, by Cal, was down near the big lilly pilly by Julia's Little Creek. Cal was convinced it was not a green tree snake, and so I was thinking it could have been a brown snake (which it still might have been, because I didn't see it myself). The second sighting, again by Cal, was under the hibiscus bush at the corner of the house. The third snake, which this time I saw as well as Cal, was this little beauty, a beautiful yellow faced whip snake. Cal is pretty sure it was a whip snake he saw under the hibiscus bush and probably down by the creek as well.

These are the first whips near the house....I had seen one dead on the road down near the creek some time ago and another in amongst the rocks along the edge of the road over the culvert through which Julia's Little Creek flows. Lovely.

By the way, you can always click on the photo to enlarge it, which you really need to do to appreciate the beauty of this animal.

Is this a salad or is this a salad?

Hopefully I will post some pics of a fantastic Friday night/Saturday spent at Angourie, a beachside village, just south of Yamba. After we got home on Saturday afternoon, we prepared a bbq dinner and Glen came around for he usual Luxury@Larnook package of spa, dinner and movie.
Cal is responsible for this perfect salad.

Cal and the spa

OK, so soaking in the spa during a thunderstorm probably isn't the wisest thing to do, but boy, it's pretty exhilarating. Just on dusk yesterday, while the storm clouds were brewing and sliding across the sky, we sank into the warmth of the hot tub and stayed there till dark, enjoying the lightening and thunder show that nature was putting on for us.
Cal giving thanks to the Goddess of Hot Tubs as the rain drops fall (not hail I hasten to add).

A couple of nice pics taken late this arvie

Well I said a couple of nice pics, and I've posted three, so this first one isn't terribly aesthetic, but it's our longan tree (close relative of the lychee) completely covered in sweet smelling flowers to which bees are attracted in their hundreds or maybe thousands...
One of our lovely coastal banksias, Bansia integrifolia, developing the characteristic old man banksia cones with the seeds seemingly wanting to burst out of the cone, set against a cobalt-blue sky....
and our garden of Chinese star jasmine which looks so lovely now, covered in sweet blossoms, welcoming friends at our entry gate.

Cal's bits and pieces

Cal has been with us now for two weeks and he's a joy to have stay. He's from Brittany, northern France, has an M.Sc in engineering and a B.Sc in marine biology, and he's having a gap year before he starts work. He's fantastic company and an excellent worker - and loves to cook. Here he is posing in front of his very tasty crepes.
and here is a chocolate cake he recently made...delicious
Cal (short for Calixte) has also been busily painting the front verandah in a deep ocean blue, which appeals to his maritime sensibilities.....
and of course, being a reptile enthusiast, he has enjoyed making friends with the oh-so-photogenic Kimba, the woma. The injury on Cal's nose was not caused by us, but rather the outcome of an incorrectly placed dive into the surf down past Byron last Sunday...the poor guy's bridge of his nose and part of his forehead are quite badly grazed. Steve took Cal on a big coastal adventure last Sunday while I was in Singapore on a work trip. We're heading down to Angourie, a small coastal village south of Yamba, this coming Saturday, which should be excellent fun.