Snakes in the grass

This is the snake I walked right past without even noticing - but that was maybe because I was a bit busy in a conversation about Camp Drafting - an Australian sport I’ve never even heard of. It’s a horse riding skill sport where they  kind of corral a cow through a series of challenges and the one with the least mistakes and fastest is the winner. It’s is a test of horsepersonship as much as anything else and it’s very competitive with some high stakes and lucrative prizes.  Sort of like a cross between dressage without the jodhpurs, dog trials without the dogs and  polo without the ball!  (I think the snake was dead anyway).

So this is the thing - Australia seems very different this time, there is more to it than photographing the koalas stuck in the forks of trees like great furry turds

Maybe it’s because I haven’t been over for a few years but I’m sure their accents are getting stronger too- I find myself thinking in Straylin already.

My fellow walkers seem mildly amused to think I would come all the way over here to do this. Of course  I’m not mentioning that I thought it would be a bit easier than most of our tramping challenges- and rain and mud aside, I guess it is.  But still no walk in the park for sissies- there’s are, after all, snakes to consider!

SNAKES IN THE GRASS

There are snakes in the grass here

And scorpions in the sand

I saw an ant the size of my hand

Or was I imagining that?

Perhaps I was- imagination running wild.

There is a lot to be afraid of,

Wild things waiting out in the bush

Leaping towards the unaware, the unprepared and the timid.

Of course, none of this applies to me.

I’m not scared of anything.

And especially not beetles and bugs.

So then I get to thinking,

What is there to be afraid of?

Infirmity, disloyalty, pain, poverty, robbers and rogues?

People who say they love you when they don’t?

Cancer leaping out of nowhere and taking you down with it?

The stealthy creep of memory loss?

Drowning in the river when the tide comes in fast?

In the face of such catastrophic horrors,

What’s a beetle or a bug between friends ?

And a snake seems almost benign.