Every Wednesday night the originally named Wednesday Night Skate (or WNS) cruises around Brisbane. Anywhere between 15 and 50 skaters out for a bit of a roll - sometimes only 10k and sometimes almost 30k.
Last night I was skating along from the car to the start point in the middle of the city and noticed a stick on the bikeway ahead of me. I wasn't sure if we'd be skating back that way so thought I'd pick up the stick and chuck it out of the way. As I rolled towards it in a crouch with my hand out I suddenly realised it was a snake, dark scaled and around 3' long. Fortunately I'm confident enough on skates to be able to turn and stop very quickly.
Looking it up later in my book of Australian fauna (which should be subtitled 'I wouldn't be poking that if I was you') I think it was either a Small-eyed Snake (venomous) or an Eastern Black (highly venomous and very dangerous). Something else to add to the disadvantages of skates - 'can cause stumbles over dangerous reptiles'...
Last night I was skating along from the car to the start point in the middle of the city and noticed a stick on the bikeway ahead of me. I wasn't sure if we'd be skating back that way so thought I'd pick up the stick and chuck it out of the way. As I rolled towards it in a crouch with my hand out I suddenly realised it was a snake, dark scaled and around 3' long. Fortunately I'm confident enough on skates to be able to turn and stop very quickly.
Looking it up later in my book of Australian fauna (which should be subtitled 'I wouldn't be poking that if I was you') I think it was either a Small-eyed Snake (venomous) or an Eastern Black (highly venomous and very dangerous). Something else to add to the disadvantages of skates - 'can cause stumbles over dangerous reptiles'...
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