Yikes!

[Jim]

So, I'm out walking with Kerry and the dog this afternoon in the State Forest near where we're staying on holiday.  The dog's 20m ahead of us and Kerry and I are side by side walking up a forestry track.  Then...SNAKE!  Just about one step ahead of me there's this 70cm long tan coloured snake zooming across in front of us into the hedge.  It was totally invisible on the brown mud of the track and I narrowly missed putting a boot down on it.  I reckon it was a juvenile Eastern Brown Snake, the second most poisonous in Australia...Lucky the dog didn't spot it.
http://images.google.com.au/images?hl=en&q=eastern+brown+snake&gbv=2  One of the tan coloured ones, it didn't have any stripes.  The colouring varies wildly.

My first snake in Oz!

Jim

[Shockwave]

I like snakes, find them fascinating, to be honest with you I'd be more concerned about spiders if I lived ove there.

Mind you, there are plenty of Austrailian snakes that could kill you.
Tai Pan (available in 2 different flavours ~ Inland and coastal), Tiger snakes, Death adders, Copperheads, Brown tree snakes, Sea Kraits etc.. Those are only some.

Actually the Eastern Brown is quite a volitile snake and probably more dangerous than the inland tai pan, although the tai pan has more powerful venom..

Here's another good pic of an Eastern Brown, highly dangerous but quite a beautiful snake.

[Shockwave]

Btw, a juvenile brown snake of the size you saw there Jim would easily have enough venom to kill a human, they are lethal from birth.

[Clyde]

A narrow escape Jim; glad you and everyone are ok.

Thats the thing, the beautiful looking ones of the species are the most dangerous. I didnt realize you knew so much about Snakes Shockie dude. I know diddly squat, except that I would be terrified by them same goes for spiders.

[Jim]

I've been dreaming about snakes all night...pretty scary.

The thing is, we were an hour from the car, and the car was an hour from the main road down a dirt track and we weren't carrying a pressure bandage (the only recommended first aid for a snake bite).  If one of us had been bitten it would have been interesting to say the least.  That snake could definitely have packed a lethal bite, no doubt about it.  Taipan is more venomous, but the Brown Snake is more common and more aggressive.  A handful of people die every year from snake bites in Autralia, so lots of people get bitten.

I'm not particularly concerned about spiders - yes, it could be very unpleasant - swelling, pain, bruising, but the amounts of venom are very tiny and nobody has died in Australia from a spider bite since 1985.  I check the logs in the log pile before i pick them up though

Jim