A Snakeoff

Monday, 18 February 2008

Today I went for my second cycle in two days. It was also my second cycle in a year.   I couldn't resist though - I had so much fun riding with Jo yesterday and it was such a beautiful day that I gave myself the afternoon off cakes and went up the mountain. I've got so much imagination that I chose to do exactly the same ride that I did yesterday only today I was by myself so it wasn't half as much fun. Still - The route is the perfect mix of the sort of challenging terrain that suits an athlete in my condition - i.e. it's flat. Except for the parts that are downhill.  Perfect. Anyway - I was rolling along about 40 minutes in when I rounded a corner and met Mr Black Snake (see above). Unlike the very large tiger snake Jo and I saw yesterday which respectfully turned tail and um.. ran when it spotted us, this snake which was maybe half the size must have been a juvenile as after a moment or two of eyeing eachother off, it decided to rudely continue its journey in my direction.  I was fumbling around trying to capture the moment on my new camera (thanks paul!) and I nearly bounced 10 metres backwards when I put the camera down and saw how close the snake actually was to me. So I scuttled back 20 metres or so and kept trying to get some photos. And the snake kept coming.   I'm not one to let anything come between me and a training ride so I just jumped on my bike and rode straight past it. NOT.  There was no way I was going to attempt to ride past it - after all I didn't have my mobile so in the event of a bite I couldn't have rung Jon and asked him to pick up the kids from creche to avoid the late collection fee.   I turned wheel and retreated like the chickeny chicken that I was. Snake 1 , Cathy 0  .    As I am going to be catching up on cake stuff tomorrow afternoon I really hope I don't get a tiger snake hattrick.

ps. I wish Telstra would stop sending me creepy postcards.