My world walk blog Australia -63 - I stood on a snake!

Before leaving Winton I paid a visit to the brand new Waltzing Matilda centre. There was so much to see I could have spent a day there. Instead, I spent an interesting hour. The centre also had a  large collections of artifax from the pioneer days that gave a great insight into some of the trials and tribulations faced by the local people of olden days in the Australian Outback.

Eventually, I got walking but was not feeling good as a couple of days before I picked up a left foot injury. The camber on this road is severe, three degrees difference from the edge to the centre. Designed for flood drainage. The sloping effect on the road is not good for walking or running.
I walked with effort and did what I usually do with an injury: I walked until I got better! 27 kilometres outside of Winton I had a lucky escape. It was a beautiful starry  evening with a half-moon which gave pretty decent illumination. Never-the-less I had my own lights. There was little traffic on the road and I was walking on the right side towards traffic. Just then a truck came from behind. When I looked back and continued walking, I rolled Karma over a snake that I didn't see and then stepped on it as I walk directly behind the front wheel. The distance between me and the front wheel is about a metre and a half, so it got a rapid one-two and perhaps was taken by shock.

I looked back, it was too dark to identify it but I saw it slither into the grass. I think the snake was more shocked than me.

I only noticed it when I looked back after feeling something move under my foot

Then I dashed away. I have no idea what species or even if it was venemous. This is an area with some of the worlds most dangerous snakes for eight out of the twelve most venomous creep around here. That day, April 23rd, the birthday of my late mother, I felt I was lucky that I didn't die on her birthday. I wondered and naturally was relieved that I was not bitten. Someone suggested it could have been a non-venemous carpet snake. Another man said that even if a person steps on a dangerous snake they don't always bite as it depends on their mood. He said, "If you stand on my foot I may or may not thump you. So, it's the same for snakes."

I walked another 11 kilometres, 38 for the day and camped at a clearance at the entrance to a farm. An uneventful day followed, but my injury was still there. I had to stop to rest several times, even after short stints of just three or four kilometres. It was a pretty easy decision to end my day when I came to a rest area after 27 kilometres.

Next day, I felt great! It's amazing what a cooked dinner can do. Well, a can of beef steak and beans The only stop I made was for lunch and that was after six hours. It was a beautiful starry evening. A three-quarter moon. Little traffic, no flies, twenty-something degrees C and I felt like walking on and on. Instead, I walked on until midnight and pitched my tent that 62 kilometre day

I had been marching for fifteen hours that day.

It was 38 km to Kynuna roadhouse, so I expected to make it onThursday. From there it's a further 76 to McKinleys Walkabout Creek bar, scene of the Crocidile Dundee pub scene. I can't wait for that!