First up, shoutout to the NSW Police: 10AM on the weekend and they do roadside breath tests - it was the first time I ever had one, but as a motorcycle rider, I'm totally in favour of them checking drivers to make sure they aren't drunk! Riding up to the mountains they had a little inspection set up, you pull off the road, talk into a device for a few seconds, and then the officer sends you on your way (sorry no pictures of this!)
So, to get to this rock we drive west about an hour, then turn down a little road (Hat Hill Road for the record) in the town of Blackheath. That road fairly quickly turns into a dirt road, without many signs or people.... And then you turn down an even less used dirt road and keep going for a bit, practicing your dirt riding skills, until you get to what you think is the parking to go to the lookout. A note here: Australia has some beautiful views, and often they do a great job with signage to get to the lookout, bathrooms, benches, picnic tables, etc. at the lookout. This one? Almost nothing! Which meant there wasn't anyone there (good for us!)
So, we get to the lookout named Pulpit Rock, jump off the bike, and start the 5 minute walk down to get to the lookout. Basically, you walk along a ridge, out to the centre of a deep valley. When you get to the end, almost a 360 degree view around you is valley, covered in trees and with streams running at the bottom. It's a absolutely fantastic view.
Now, this story would be complete right there, but of course, it didn't end. I was walking along on the top of the rock, about to take my next step, and Tara puts her arm across my chest and just says "Stop!" Sure enough, right in front, a snake had curled up right in front of us, and I was 1 or 2 steps away. It wasn't a very big snake, didn't look very scary or anything, but it sure was a good thing we stopped. He waited just a second, and then slithered away to the other side of the path. We didn't stop to take a picture, but here's one for reference:
Upon our return home, did a bit of googling, and found that what we saw was the infamous Australian Brown Snake - you know, the one that's super venomous and is the one that kills the most people every year in the country! From the wikipedia page: "This snake is considered the world's second most venomous land snake based." Good thing Tara was looking at the pathway, while I was enjoying the views! We can't be 100% sure that's what we saw, but after doing research on snake species in NSW, it's the closest one we can match to the one we saw.
Anyways, that's it from here. Coming up soon: blog posts on our trip to Auckland, our 12 day Christmas Cruise, and most recently, our first Australia Day in Canberra! One other point, while uploading the images I'd like to point out these were taken with an iPhone 5s - no DSLR, no expensive camera, just my telephone.... isn't technology incredible!!!
