September 2nd, Royal National Park, New South Wales, Australia

After four days in the city I decided to take a daytrip. Royal National Park, half an hour south of Sydney by car, was established in 1879 making it the world’s second oldest national park after Yellowstone in the United States. Australia has an amazing 2000 national parks but unlike their counterparts in the United States or Canada they are managed at the state level. This technicality becomes relevant when you try to purchase an annual pass as each state issues their own and valid only for access to parks in that state. If, like me, you plan to visit only one or two parks in each state it actually works out cheaper to pay the daily rates for each park. But I’m digressing.

Quarter of an hour into the park I spotted a snake sunning itself by the side of the road. I pulled off onto a wide shoulder a few hundred feet past it. As I was walked back a small truck stopped just across the road from the snake and a young man in the day-glow yellow jacket of a road construction worker jumped out to get a closer look. ‘Tiger snake. Very venomous. Could kill you!’ he exclaimed as I approached. With Australia being home to all ten of the ten most venomous land snake species in the world, and with some 50% of all species being venomous (the percentage increasing to 100% in Tasmania), this didn’t exactly come as a surprise. He pointed at the faint but distinct stripes in the snake’s coloration. ‘Yup, definitely a tiger snake! Could kill you!’. To my amazement having positively established the snake as highly dangerous he proceeded to pin it down to the ground with a stick and then casually picked it up. Holding it with two fingers just behind the head he brought it up to eye level, not six inches from his own face, for detailed examination. I wonder if they teach you this in school here. That’s apparently where his imagination ran out. ‘I don’t know what I should do with it.’. I really wanted to say ‘Well, you shouldn’t have picked it up then!!!’ but decided better against trying to get smart with a fellow holding a five foot deadly venomous reptile and helpfully suggested he move it away from the road so it doesn’t get ran over. After putting it down he shrugged and with a goofy smile announced ‘Could kill you. I probably shouldn’t have picked it up.’. A-ha… It could kill you.

I pulled off again a few miles down the road to write this incident up while it was still fresh in my mind. Before I even got my laptop out I saw a small dark shadow on the side of the road. I got my camera and got out for a closer look. I was looking at an echidna, a mild tempered egg-laying spiny anteater similar in appearance to a porcupine. In the mid-day sun I didn’t get any usable images but had a blast nonetheless watching it destroy a small anthill!