A deadly brown snake hitched a ride with me on my bike!

I have been paranoid about the deadly Eastern Brown Snake, since one wriggled over my toes, when I was four. It is the second most venomous land snake in the world and can cause death, severe reactions, such as vomiting and hallucinations.

My bike riding keeps me fit and healthy and I am usually on my way by eight in the morning, in the summer time.  It had been extremely hot and the day before had been a scorcher at 43.5 degrees C. We have a quiet gravel lane close to our house that is perfect for a peaceful, energetic ride. However, to get there we  have to ride through a neighbours property for about 60 metres and then open his gate and we are off.

I am travelling downhill at a good speed and there is a dead branch in my way, so I veer around it and feel a "stick" hit me in the lower calf just above my ankle, my thoughts were, "gosh I didn't see a stick in my way" and then only 5 seconds later I felt another "big stick" hit me on my back just below the waist. Either I was going too fast to see what I was running over or I am going blind. I looked at my leg and could see a ten centimetre scratch.  By this stage I am flying down the hill towards the gate to the lane, I have to apply the brakes, gently at first and then hard to stop, so I can get off and open the gate. As I tip the bike to dismount, a very comatose, six footer falls out of the back wheel of my bike and drops to the ground. He had come in from the left, past my left foot, through the pedals and attacked my right leg and then got caught up in the back wheel and hung on and while rotating lashed out and hit my back. He had spun around in my wheel for 40 metres.

The Eastern Brown is the second most deadly snake in Australia and all our first aid lessons, say you must keep the patient still and calm, being alone and not knowing the severity of the attack on my back, I had to start walking for help. The neighbours whose property weren't home and most of the home owners in the Estate all go out to work.  Being school holidays, I was lucky that another neighbour is a teacher, had just done a first aid course and came to my aid, bandaged my leg from toe to thigh and also bandaged around the stomach from the crotch to the waist and called an ambulance.

She potentially saved my life.

The snake couldn't inject his venom, luckily I was travelling too fast and after spending 14 hours in the hospital, there weren't any reactions.  But there were a few nights of little to no sleep with nightmares of things crawling out of holes etc.