Paul McCormack’s Web Site

Well, the snake was still draped across two patio chairs this morning and was looking even more settled than before. Having read that the Diamond Pythons are often tree-dwellers that lie in wait for prey to pass, I was a little concerned to see the snake with its tail wrapped securely around the chair arm and it’s head coiled up read to strike anything that scurried beneath the chair.

The patio chairs are favourite relaxation spots for our cats. I wonder if the snake could smell the cats and was ready to ambush them! Little did he know that the cats were safely in the house.

Anyway, I decided that it was time to “encourage” the snake to move on. Having donned thick gloves and being armed with two brooms, I started wrangling the snake! It wasn’t too pleased and struck the brooms a couple of times, but then it was being taunted!

After it climbed up the fence and looked as if it was going onto the roof, I was almost tempted to grab its tail and pull it back! It was a very strong snake - not easy to get into the box that I had ready. Eventually, it wrapped itself around one broom and I was able to carry it into the open where Debs moved the box and stood ready with the lid.

Once in the box, it was a different matter of getting the snake off the broom! Constrictors are not the easiest thing to get off a broom handle, but it eventually unwrapped itself and hey presto, one snake in a box! Debs fearlessly moved in (despite being six months pregnant) and closed the lid on the box to secure the monster.

I was a bit unsure of the length when posting the images yesterday and I thought that it was a little under two metres. When it uncurled along the fence, it was obviously a lot bigger than it looked on the chair. I’d say it was definitely over 2m - probably about 220cm.

We were too excited during the wrangling to record the action, but we did record the release. We took it to the end of the street where the National Park track starts and released it a short way up the track. Here’s the video:

I fitted a new cat flap to our laundry door last night and we have propped it open to allow the cats to go in and out at will as they get used to their new door. I had to close and lock it in a bit of a hurry today as I walked past the patio door on the upstairs decking and saw a large snake basking on one of the patio chairs. Harriett was sitting on the rocks at the far end of the patio unaware that she was potential lunch for our visitor!

As soon as I secured the house, I grabbed the camera and took a few photos. After returning from work, the snake was still sitting on the chair. Deborah watched from the safety of the rumpus room sofa whilst Welly barked at it! It is clearly in no hurry to move and as I write this at almost 10pm, it is still there!

The snake is a Diamond Python. It’s about 2m long which is typical of this species although they can grow to 3m. They are not venomous, but have a nasty bite (apparently). We’re a bit worried about letting the cats out as they will eat rodents , small birds and even possums so I reckon they could have a go at a cat if they were hungry.

Hopefully it will have gone by the time we get up tomorrow so that we can let the cats enjoy their new door.

Stockton is huge beach just 2 hours north of Sydney with some of the largest sand dunes in Australia (and even the world). It is now managed by the National Parks and Wildlife Service so that this amazing environment can be better protected. Thankfully, they still allow access for vehicles at a very cheap price - just $10 for a 3-day pass.

When we bought our Jeep Cherokee just over a year ago, the dealership told us that they had just organised a day trip up to Stockton Beach for a number of their clients. This was the first time that we had heard about Stockton, but we were keen to give it a go.

As Mum and Bob are staying with us at the moment, I arranged a guided trip. Deborah is currently 19 weeks pregnant, so we thought it best that she stayed behind to the three of us packed up for the day and headed off.

We met up with the group and headed off to the southern end of the beach. Before getting onto the sand we stopped in a car park and let our tyre pressure down from 33 to 16 psi. Once deflated, we set off and were soon onto a massive open area of the beach where we were given our first basic lesson about sand driving.

As you would expect, the key to driving on sand is to increase the surface area contact of the tyres (by deflating the tyres) and keep up the momentum when going through soft sand or up dunes. The advice for this technique is “Drive it like you stole it” and it works!

We visited a number of famous areas on the beach including the wreck of the Sygna, The Bowl, the tank traps and Tin City, but the highlight was driving down a 100-foot dune at a silly angle!

The sand was so steep that when disturbed, the whole dune slipped under foot. No worries - the key to getting down was 1st gear high ratio or 2nd gear low ratio and just drive straight down the dune. I had a go first with Mum and Bob watching from the bottom but then I handed the keys to Mum to let her have a go. Not that I had much choice!!

Our group was made up of the usual range of 4WD vehicles as well as some All-Wheel-Drive’s like the Toyota Rav4 and Mazda Tribute which coped equally well with the sand.

I can’t wait to get back out there - hopefully when my brother visits in about 6 weeks. Now that we’ve done a guided tour, I’m fully confident that a trip with a couple of mates would be a piece of cake. The thing to remember is that “the beach is perfectly safe until you forget that it’s dangerous”!