One thing to be aware of, however, is snakes around the grubby pool.
I was there last Sunday, and was searching the pool for the snipe, when
there was a bit of a commotion behind me. I turned around to see a red
wattle bird hassling something on the ground. I couldn't see what it was
for the long grass. The bird's behaviour was quite intriguing, so I crept a
bit closer, watching through my binoculars. The bird was trying to scare
off a tiger snake, which had come out onto the path beaten by birders. The
snake, for its part, was having an athletic swipe at the bird every time it
came over. Unfortunately, the path was my only way out, and I wasn't
wearing my hiking boots, but rather some sneakers which could pretty easily
be bitten through by an ornery varmint. I thought I'd probably better keep
an eye on the snake, rather than find the snipe for the time being. Of
course, the snake eventually decided to scarper, but the problem was that it
began to advance down the path towards me. Bummer.
Bugger the snipe, I thought, and began jumping up and down on the ground, in
an attempt to scare the snake so it would go off into the grass. This it
dutifully did, so I took my scope and binoculars and hurried past, before
wandering around the bike path to get a different view from the far side of
the pool. This angle, it turned out, was a much better view of the snipe
anyway.
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