Many people swap homes for holidays and one year we did this. We swapped for a bush holiday, and a large brown snake swapped the bush for holiday at our place: Returning from our holiday we could hear the phone ringing. It was a neighbour who told me “Before you unpack check your garden. A big brown snake has been sunning itself on your drive and wriggles into your garden when disturbed.”
This news caused a stampede as wife and two daughters stopped unpacking and fled to the safety of the car.
I carefully checked front, back and courtyard gardens. No snake. But I know why. It had wanted the quiet and privacy of an empty home. At our front fence it had left its skin – a pile of large silvery scales with some complete body sections’indicating a body width of 3 inches. It must have used the bottom fence rail as a back scratcher.
Kevin (2011)
