Snakes on the trail

Won’t make it to Taz this time unfortunately but plenty of other food for thought there so thanks. To be honest it’s just great to ride new places, get out into the countryside and enjoy the scenery.
Better get the kids to bed early and do some route planning!

Looking at some of those links has made me really want to take the bike over east. Especially to play on some real hills! Perths just a little flat sometimes.

Bring a 6 pack, or a case if you want guiding

@warns74 I’d second Forrest over the other options. There’s plenty of other things to do if you’re with the family (well, there’s a brewery and walks to the lake) or you could drop them at the beach in Apollo Bay and head up for a ride. Everything is very clearly mapped. Impressive snake btw.

@fangin Never said it was an easy game to master. Experienced players will go for stick most of the time… Because it usually is. I saw echidnas and koalas far more frequently, which was fine with me!

I was riding out in the Blue Mountains somewhere when I lived there (can’t remember where- it was a cool ride, we descended in a sort of gulley into a gorge) and came across a huge snake sunning itself on the fireroad- it went from one side all the way to the other and had to be bunnyhopped. Not sure what sort it was but the locals I was with weren’t too bothered.

I thought you were not supposed to suck anything out?

I wasn’t sure what the current recomendations are so googled it ,turns out the not sucking with your mouth is because of your mouths bacteria going into the wound or the venom entering via a cut in your mouth which could be a bigger problem than the bite victims.
The little sucky device gets around these problems and is advised to use although older types which suggest opening the wound with a knife are no longer recomended.
A friend of my FIL was bitten on the lower leg whilst gardening ,he tried to find the snake for proper identifaction and was bitten a second time , after much treatment he had to be amputated.

General advice, stay calm get help, DO NOT CATCH THE SNAKE, they do not need to see it and if you get bitten when it’s pissed off things are getting much worse, also nobody in the hospital is going to appreciate you turning up with a snake in a box. Compression bandage/snake bandage and get help, I think most of the anti venom is the same (is in tassie) some people don’t even get it these days.

If it’s for dogs etc. it’s about $1000/vial, most need 2 at least.

Here’s the what to do list.

1 Keep the snakebite victim calm. Restrict movement and keep the affected area below the heart level to reduce the flow of venom.
2 If you have a pump suction device, follow the manufacturer’s directions.
3 Remove any rings or constricting items from the affected area in case it swells. Create a loose splint to help restrict movement of the area.
4 If the bite area begins to swell and change color, the snake was probably venomous.
5 Monitor the person’s vital signs. If there are signs of shock, lay the person flat, raise the feet about a foot, and cover the person with a blanket.
6 Get medical help right away.
7 Bring the dead snake to the hospital only if it’s safe to do so. Don’t waste time hunting for the snake, and don’t risk another bite if it’s not easy to kill the snake. Be careful — due to reflex, a snake can actually bite for up to an hour after it’s dead.

the best non-trail center places to ride around Melbourne (1hr or so):

Plenty gorge
Smith’s Gully
Anglesea
Silvain
Castlemaine
red hill

trail centers:

Buxton and Lake Mountain
warrandyte
forrest is ok, but patchy.

buller is good for a day trip, bright is better for a weekend, and the beer is very, very good.

This is why I don’t live in Australia. The wildlife there is just obsessed with killing you.

forrest is ok, but patchy.

Don’t tell Norm Douglas 🙂 there is what is world class discussion going on, they are bringing their thing to the Derby trails in Tas, I liked it but more in an XC way.

I liked it but more in an XC way.

some bits are excellent (red carpet, mariners) others are weak.

world class

nah.

yep ridden it all and some twice, all of it again at the end of the month

yep ridden it all and some twice, all of it again at the end of the month

I used to ride there at lunchtime. I pick and choose.

top tip – camp at lake elizabeth, get up at dawn and go watch the platypus feeding. they’re poisonous too, natch.

NO WAY!!! We did the paddle round the lake before they built the trails, never camping down there ever again, perpetual fear of being murdered and that was before the screaming flying marsupial things got going. Out Out and really OUT!

Though the glow worms on the corner were cool

I’d second third Forrest but not done all the over the other options. ……… you could drop them at the beach in Apollo Bay and head up for a ride. Everything is very clearly mapped. I’d second this as well… Impressive snake btw

from a local park

teaching kids to play with snakes….not sure about the mushrooms!

Yarra trail here in suburban Melbourne – see these quite often

I forgot Warburton!

Bluddy ‘ell! Brits are waaay outnumbered by Aussies on this thread. I didn’t know STW was so international.

Glad there’s some sensible advice re treatment up there ^^^ !

Have been looking at snake bite treatment recently as a bloke got bitten 3 times by an adder locally (he tried to pick it up) which made him quite poorly, but nowhere near as poorly as some of them aussie ones could do! And coincidentally there’s been some chat in mountain rescue circles about it too this summer. But treating adder bites is pretty small change – do nothing but immobilise the limb and get them to hospital asap.

With scarier snakes there’s disagreement over the sucking out of venom as there’s kit to identify the snake via the venom DNA now, which isn’t going to be easy if you’ve washed the wound or sucked a lot of the “loose” venom out. There’s disagreement over how useful it is as well. I’m think that if you’re a long way from help then you’ll do whatever you can. Similarly with more vulnerable people (kids especially) you might act first in that respect.

Tourniquets have to be a last resort – if you know what bit you and how venomous it is and you’re a long way from help then you might seriously consider it, but in the knowledge that you may loose the affected limb. That’s the sort of decision point you’d be at though.

Found a couple of big adders (60cm+) in the forest locally, and nearly ran over one of them – it wasn’t best pleased. Having a snake at home now (harmless corn snake) has made me very aware of how quickly they can move and the sort of distance that might be “safe” – that bugger can make me jump 😉

My record in Hobart is seeing 3 Tiger snakes in 100m. Mating season.
Otherwise i won’t see one for years.
Now I just need to keep the scorpions out of my house.

I won’t mention the TMTBR rider who stopped to pick up an adder in Thetford Forest and got bitten then. Nor the fact that he carried on riding and didn’t got to hospital for >24 hours when it got a bit painful!

Silly Billy!

jonathan – Member
…Having a snake at home now (harmless corn snake) has made me very aware of how quickly they can move and the sort of distance that might be “safe” – that bugger can make me jump

Too true. Some folk think a snake has to rear back before striking.

Not so. They simply straighten out like an iron bar and whack their target in a millisecond. I learned that lesson from the Fierce snake I mentioned earlier. They are right cranky buggers. Luckily it was my brother who was the target. 🙂

But the reality is very few snakes will attack a human unless they feel threatened, otherwise Australia would be littered with corpses – especially when you consider how casual Aussies are about legless lizards.

Well as far as I know with an adult with a single adder bite a hospital isn’t likely to do much other than monitor them and I guess maybe give some antihistamines. They’ll just let the body deal with it. Their are antivenom stocks (I know Scarborough has some), but the side effects aren’t nice and they’re unlikely to give if they can avoid it.

Oooh – I’ve found the article that was in Mountain Rescue mag this summer here – well worth a read if you’re in adder areas!

See loads of tigers, some pretty huge ones just lying on the paths around bushland and lakes. Over in Rottnest there’s plenty of king browns and dugites. They don’t mess about.

Snakes not so bad really but I did have a redback on my face yesterday – walking through the ward, one had lowered itself down from the ceiling at face height, I just walked into it. It hit my glasses and fell. Thank ****!!!

edit: argh dugites…

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dugite

One of the most venomous snakes in the world, bit causes coagulation. Only in WA and SA. More aggressive in Oct/Nov (mating season) last person to die was 1993 in Spearwood, WA (that’s where I frickin live!!!)

The Aspivenin was designed for dealing with snake bites but can be used for wasp,hornet or any other type of sting the only time i have used mine was after being stung on the jugular by a wasp . The pain was severe and reduced by 50% immediatly, i could see a tiny speck of wasp venom in the suction cup . I am told that enough hornet stings can be fatal , we get them in large numbers each summer.

Now I just need to keep the scorpions out of my house.

Tell me about it every time i open the shed door all i can hear is “winds of change”.

I saw the Aspivenin in use in South Africa for a bee sting so when my son aged 5 got stung by a wasp and was distressed I grabbed an old syringe and placed the nozzle over the tiny puncture and withdrew the plunger. The effect was miraculous; a small bead of clear venom appreared inside the syringe and the pain stopped immediately. Within a minute the small white blister with red surrounding had vanished. Result: one happy child.

When I was a walking leader for Ramblers Holidays in Savoie an elderly bloke got bitten by a sand viper on the first day of the first holiday. He was a herpatologist who had been the British government’s chief vet in Kenya all his life so he had seen plenty of Africans bitten by snakes but never been bitten himself. He knew it was important to stay calm so he popped the viper in a catch bag in his rucsac and headed off to the hotel to sleep it off. Hotel manager saw him coming in alone looking a bit pale and called an ambulance, which carted him off to hospital. He stayed the night on a drip, taking detailed notes of the symptoms he was feeling, and was back the next day turning over boulders and shaking saplings. The chambermaid refused to go into his room for the rest of the fortnight because the snake was in his wardrobe along with several other reptiles he caught.

Have we done this[/url] yet? 😯

So we going to manage a stw down under beer some time?

I’m keen.

Thanks you lot. I got bitten by a snake in my dreams last night. It struck without warning and without rearing back first. Until yesterday I didn’t know they could do that.

Here’s a snake skeleton that I found earlier this year whilst riding on the Aldershot military land.

Incidentally, if anybody sees a snake or lizard in the Surrey, Hampshire, Berkshire area it would be great if you could report it here:
http://www.surrey-arg.org.uk/SARG/12000-Sightings/SARG2SightingsSite.asp