SNAKES ALIVE!

Introduction

Ray Jerrems

This is a scene from Claustral Canyon.

I have chosen the title of “Snakes Alive” for this article because I have a recollection that it was a popular expression many years ago to express amazement.

When you read this article I think that you, also, will be amazed!

But I am getting ahead of myself because, although this is a story about a brave Aussie snake, I need to explain the context in which this occurred. The context was that the snake was the first snake to ever travel through a Blue Mountains canyon.
The Blue Mountains

Readers will no doubt recall that I have written a number of articles about the Blue Mountains, which comprise a mountain range west of Sydney.

Although the Blue Mountains are famous for their mountain peaks and deep valleys a lesser-known aspect is that they are home to a number of canyons which nestle in the bottoms of some of these valleys.

Although the existence of some of these canyons was known in the early days it was not until the 1960s that the true extent of their frequency was discovered thanks to the explorations of a number of bushwalkers which included myself. Canyon trips opened up a new world for the adventurous, due mainly to the fact that, unlike famous canyons like the Grand Canyon in the United States, the canyons were narrow and difficult to locate. Some of them also involved abseiling and swimming.

This article features the adventures of a snake in its journey (albeit unwitting) through Claustral Canyon in the early 1960s.

Claustral Canyon

Claustral Canyon is located near the Bell’s Line of Road, a main road which crosses the Blue Mountains parallel to the Great Western Highway. It is in a creek which rises on the south side of that road and is only a quite short distance from that road (about an hour’s walk). The probable reason for its late discovery is that, as shown in the above photo its cliffs cannot be seen from the vicinity of the road, they are set in a deep rift. There are no walking tracks in the area, so bush bashing in dense bush is necessary to get to it.

The first recorded people to go down the canyon, from a club I belonged to, did so in winter, demonstrating that they had no idea how much swimming would be involved nor that exit routes would be so difficult to locate.

Abseiling

To understand the true significance of our brave snake’s foray we need to understand that abseiling involves sliding down a rope, with the rope running through a karabiner, as shown in this photo. The karabiner is held in place by a rope sling which is looped around the abseiler. My reason for describing this is that our snake became an experienced abseiler, as you will see.
We discover the snake

In preparation for reaching the canyon I was leading a small group of bushwalkers into a cliff sided valley when we saw a large tree branch lying on a rock ledge below a cliffline. There had been a storm the day before so we were not surprised to see that branches had been blown down off the top of the cliff, but on closer examination, we saw that a rather comatose snake was lying on the ledge nearby.

We gathered around the snake, debating what to do. One of our members, a snake enthusiast, quickly identified it as a harmless green tree snake, from the python family. But it was obvious that, being a cold blooded creature which needed sunlight to survive, it would be doomed if we left it in perpetual shade where it was.

The snake enthusiast came to the rescue by suggesting that he put the snake down his shirt, which he promptly did, after we had christened the snake “Missus Snake”. Of course the gender of snakes is difficult to ascertain but we did not think our snake would mind being called “Missus Snake”.

Missus snake wakes up

This is a photo of the main abseil in Claustral Canyon.

As we were approaching the canyon section of our trip Missus Snake, encouraged by the warmth of her rescuer’s body, woke up and stuck her head out of the top of her rescuer’s shirt. This looked very cute but when we examined her more closely we realised that she had made friends with the karabiner and sling which her rescuer were was carrying inside his shirt. She had wound herself through the karabiner and she was quite adamant that she wished to hold tightly onto her new-found friend.

The problem which quickly became apparent was that her rescuer needed the karabiner for abseiling, and nobody had a spare karabiner. After some debate I gave the rescuer my karabiner, knowing that a sixty foot abseil (shown in the above photo) was approaching. Fortunately I was able to “down-climb” the slippery wet rope without mishap, although being the first descender I found that the rope swung backwards and forwards and I spun around disconcertingly..
Missus Snake travels in style

After the sixty foot abseil Missus Snake’s progress was quite simple along the narrow vertical-sided canyon except for a sixty yard swim through a dark tunnel (see above photo) some distance downstream. Fortunately I had brought a small inflatable mattress as a safety measure because some bushwalkers were not good swimmers, my intention being that the mattress would provide sufficient flotation for them to hang onto if necessary.

Missus Snake thought that this was an ideal arrangement because she, with her newfound friends the karabiner and sling, was placed on the mattress like royalty while she was ferried through the tunnel.

This looked quite comical and caused great hilarity.

Missus Snake goes home

Like all good adventures, Missus Snake’s expedition came to an end soon after the 60 yard swim, when we climbed out of the canyon through a cliffline to a height we estimated to be about the height of her original home. There we released her on a sunny ledge.

We were rather sorry to see her go, but knew that she should be returned to her natural habitat. She obviously had a lot of potential for canyoning and had taken everything very much in her stride. At least she would have a wonderful story to tell her future children about her trip down Claustral Canyon!

Missus Snake became famous

Missus Snake’s exploits became legendary with a potentially disastrous result. The following year a friend of mine befriended a snake in similar circumstances in Claustral Canyon but it bit him. After spending a night in a delirium he recovered the next day sufficiently to make his way out. He looked up a book on snakes only to discover that the snake was quite rare and could be easily mistaken for a Green Tree Snake like Missus Snake. The book said that there had been only a few recorded attacks on humans and at least one human had died as a result!
Conclusion

Next time you see a Green Tree Snake ask it if it is related to Missus Snake. It is quite possible.

A danger of the Canyon

A particular hazard of the canyon was that for about a kilometre below the 60 foot abseil the canyon was very narrow, smooth sided and overhung by its cliffs. There was no means of escape so some years later four bushwalkers were drowned by a flash flood caused by a thunder storm.