Ever had a next door neighbour that you wish would just go away? You’ll know the ones I’m talking about, loud, unruly, parties until all hours, beer bottles chiming to the sounds of another cheers! Mind you, it almost sounds fun when put it that way, but it does wear thin after a while.
And then there are the silent ones, no noise, no parties, pretty much keep to themselves, but shikes, they sure can give you the creeps.
Strewth, we’ve had our fair share of them over the years, but we are lucky to have great neighbours all around us these days!
But I’ll share a yarn about one neighbour that we had not so long ago.
We were out touring in Far North-Queensland, FNQ (pronounced ef-fen-Q), up in the Gulf Savannah Country where Janet, my partner, has her roots. Mott’s are still grazing sheep and cattle in that region to this day, and for me, growing up in Townsville, this region was my backyard.
Over the past few years we have made the 7,000 kilometre round-trip to one of our most favourite spots in the Australian bush, Lawn Hill Gorge.
Now let me tell you, this is one heck of a beautiful spot that we first visited back in the 1990s. It was literally a flying visit in an aircraft we owned, a Piper Arrow, call sign Foxtrot-Tango-Hotel. This was before the little tacka, TomO came along, and we flew it extensively over the Australian outback before selling it some years back.
These days we enjoy the drive north through the outback in The Landy just as much as we did flying over it.
The Aussie Outback, it’s a great place to just stand still and take it all in, a place where the barren land and ochre red soil meets the deep blue of the never-ending sky…
Anyway…
Last year when we were up there we had no problem securing a great spot beside the creek, which surprised us as there were a few others around at Adel’s Grove, a small tourist resort that caters for travellers just nearby to the main gorge.
It was our neighbour, a magnificent Olive Python that measured about 5 metres in length. A beautiful specimen it was. Apparently, only known to eat small children…
Just kiddin’…
It had taken up residence just on the bank where we had set up camp. These are not an aggressive snake, despite their size, and not venomous. And we have our fair share of those venomous ones.
Crikey, we’ve got a bagful of the world’s most deadly snakes, and none of those “rattling” things that they have elsewhere, just hard-core mean and downright dangerous ones!
Okay, fair’s fair, the North American rattle snake does make it into the top ten…I don’t want to turn this into a “mine’s bigger than your’s thing”…
Most passing by our camp were totally oblivious to it being there, many who saw it thought they were about to be eaten alive, others were curious at a seemingly chance encounter with something so wonderful.
Late in the day, as the sun drifted low into the western horizon and shadows started to cast long, it would move on, returning first thing the next morning to take up its position once again.
Yep, neighbours, they come in all shapes and sizes, some you love to bits, others you’d be happy to see the back of, but for sure, we’d be happy to have this bloke as our neighbour anytime – best “guard dog” we’ve ever had…
Ps. For those who might be wondering, Janet loved it, she was the photographer. Um, I must’ve been busy with something…
Xplore 
The snake is magnificent. And 5 meters? Wow! We’re heading into spider season here, when the large wolf spiders start wandering into my house. I hate spiders, but will be reminding myself that at least they aren’t poisonous! Gorgeous photos of the landscape, too.
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Baz…umm…did you say you swim with crocs?!?! Maybe for a million dollars!!!! No, not even then! But wait, Brett would, for probably $10,000! Hahaha! Awesome pics and crazy big snake. I’d rather see a snake anyday than a nasty spide!!! (aka spider)
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Now, just to put some context around this. Two types of crocs in Australia, salt water crocs (salties), the bad mothers! and Freshies, the good ones (doesn’t sound right), but Freshies are quite timid, don’t usually try and chomp you, and quite safe to swim in areas where they are. TomO has many times. A Salty, on the other hand would eat six of me (and Brett), and be looking for seconds. TomO would be like a little cheese and cracker for one of them!
Wish I had posted a picture of a freshie… But they are quite prolific in Lawn Hill Creek… and fresh water creeks throughout the north. But as a rule, there is no way TomO, Janet, or I would swim in any creek or river that flows to the sea in northern Australia, as they are full of salties, and there are some big salties around.
And crikey, we’ve got some nasty spiders. We live in an area notorious for the funnel web spider, our deadliest, and we are heading into mating season, so they’ll be out and about. I see one every so often up in “The Shed”. Only one way to describe them, black and ugly!
The Olive python on the other hand is a magnificent snake, and this was a very large one! Take care, Baz
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I hope you take a pic of a freshie next time. I want to see you in the water in proximity to a freshie! When I visited Charleyville a group of us went to a “lake” to swim and I was totally up for that until we got there and I saw it. The water was completely brown! I thought of crocs and was like I don’t think so! Haha!
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Beautiful scenery!!
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There are such contrasts in our landscapes, from barren deserts covering much of the continent, to beaches that are among the best (dare I say it, best?) in the world…
We could do with a few more higher mountains though! Take care…
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I live in the foothills of the Smoky Mountains of East Tennessee…. they are breathtaking in the fall when all the leaves change colors. I would love to see Australia… its on the bucket list 😉
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What beautiful scenery you have over there. It looks like paradise!
Considering that tiny spiders cause me to scream like a little girl, If I had a python as a neighbor, well, let’s just say I’d be moving. =]
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Yes, I get that, mind you it’s the one you never see that ends up getting you 😉 … But don’t let the wildlife stop you, it is a great country, full of surprises we are!
Oh, and TomO, the cheeky little thing, said, can you bring you cousin if you make it over!
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Great pics, especially the Aussie Outback one!!!! I love the ending, “you must have been busy with something”. Thanks for the laugh on that one 🙂
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TheOutback is sooo good.
And geez, you wouldn’t catch me near one of those!! Actually snakes don’t bother me too much, as long as you stay out the way, but I’ll leave the intrepid photographer to do her work…
I didn’t show any in the piccy’s but there are quite a few fresh water crocs in there also, freshies we call them, you can swim no problems, just stay out of their way, and they do likewise…
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help, please….when i click on the link i receive a not found message :\thanks….
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Hmm, not sure why, try and refresh?
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Working now!
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