Snakes

dan1983

On my ride up at Hamsterley Forest this morning I was unlucky enough to see two snakes. :shock: Well, when I say "see", what I actually mean is "narrowly avoided squashing". Now, for someone who has an irrational fear of snakes this isn't a good thing. On the plus side, it made me ride a damn sight faster and delay the rest stop I had been planning!!

What other types of scary wildlife have people come across while out riding?

jacktheoc

i go to hamsterley alot as i only live in billingham near boro nd have only seen rabbits and squirrels but never snake , not to happy about that i have a massive fear of them :shock: .
what route were you doing, the black?

Bromski

I saw a snake on the North Face at Grizedale last month.

My thought pattern was something like

Funny place for a frog.....its got a long body......oh it must be a lizard.....without legs....... omg a SNAKE!!!!

By which point it had scarpered.

I got a few knowing looks when showing off the photo of the bush it crawled into that I took by the time I got my phone out.

Oh yeah Bromski......just like the photos of trees in Guisborough where there's a deer "just behind it"

Damn.

dan1983

The red route. Snake #1 was on the singletrack bit after the bit where you cross over the downhill track. #2 was right up on the tops, after the singletrack uphill (before the nice long downhill bits) - if that makes sense.

dav1

I have come across several deer running around like headless chickens. Its quite daunting because they are so damn unpredictable that one might end up jumping into you, I have come quite close once or twice.

Now i tend to wait for them to move away from the trail (never takes long) then get through quickly before any more come along.

ddraver

hares are a good laugh to race - but they always win

Noodoo

we made our way through the fog covering a field last winter only to find ourselves surounded by massive Bulls with huge horns!!!

OK, so it turned out to be harmless Highland Cattle, but it was bloody scary at the time!

EDIT: found a picture:

nicklouse

reindeer, roe deer, badgers, Moose..... the odd Drunk.

supersonic

You get Adders in dalby and Hamsterly - be careful!

dan1983

Yeah think the second one was an adder, first one, dont know, it was about 30cm and quite thin, brown. My dad says it might have been a grass snake, but to be honest, i didnt stick around long enough to get a close look!

WillGTJumper

Not uncommon but the bloody un controlled dog! :twisted:

alfablue

dan1983 wrote:

Yeah think the second one was an adder, first one, dont know, it was about 30cm and quite thin, brown. My dad says it might have been a grass snake, but to be honest, i didnt stick around long enough to get a close look!

This is most likely a slow worm - I saw one on the trail in Wales last week - it was basking in the sun on the path (glad I spotted it in time!) - I stopped and took a photo



It is actually a legless lizard, not a snake, it is a protected species, and amazingly they can live up to 30 years old!

madmole

If you want to see Adders, get up to Leith hill in March when the first few sunshine days take place, they are out in their hundreds sunning themselves on the sandy paths

x-isle

When I was doing the Tarw at Coed y Brenin last weekend, I was about half way through the Rocky Horror Show when I came accros a a small herd of 5 sheep.

Instead of running off the track, they decided to run the entire length of the Rocky Horror Show where they suddenly disappeared.

Now, imaging this........

I'm a Welshman living in England, I get back to work and tell everyone that I was chasing Sheep down the Rocky Horror Show......... :shock:

dan1983

The first one was a slow worm then, as it looked like that picture. But the second one was DEFINITELY a great big man eating snake. Ok, so i'm over-exaggerating, but i'm sure it was an adder.

Father Faff

If it was a "great big man-eating snake" then it was probably an Anaconda, which have also been known to eat whole cows. There was a picture of one in the papers recently that had tried to eat a crocodile but the croc bit through the snakes insides and they both ended up dead.

Personally the scariest wildlife I've met was a bunch of lads who chased me round the canal towpath round Victoria Park in Hackney cos they wanted my MTB. Luckily they couldn't ride as fast!

dan1983

Father Faff, its times like that you want your hunting rifle with you. But thankfully they'll have been too drugged up or drunk to keep up! :evil:

And yeah, saw that picture. Thankfully the one I saw wasnt quite that big!

clanton

My girlfriend very nearly rode over a spitting cobra in South Africa, at what is probably the only purpose built centre in the country! Turns out they quite regulalry see these and Puff Adders. Puff Adders are notorious for NOT running away so it is great motivation for working on your bunny hop skills!

dan1983

:shock: Well that's South Africa out of my round the world tour itinery!

clarkson

i also saw the pic with the croc and the snake. fascinating i thought. still, 9m odd like that!! rode through a herd of cows the other day. not scary, but at the time in thought they were bulls, which is scary enough a it is, but more so when you realise my bike was red.

Jack Sprat

Adders have the black triangles on their backs, cant miss them, saw one two weeks ago lying on a large slab of concrete.

Even though adders are the only poisonous snake in the uk their bite only poses a real risk to the old or the young, or to those like my friend Tom who are allergic to the venom too!

Jack

dan1983

Like I said, I didnt hang around long enough to look - all I could see was a snake and that was enough for me.

One question though...how on earth do you find out your allergic to adder venom?! It's not exactly one the GP checks for!

howsmyriding27

how do u know if ur allergic to snake venom?

alfablue

You find out the hard way, or hopefuly you never find out. Its not something you need to know really.

John Stevenson

Living in Sydney, I'll see any snakes you encounter in the UK and raise you our most common local venomous species, the Eastern brown snake and the red-bellied black.

Eastern browns are supposed to have the second or third most deadly venom in the world, while red-bellied blacks are also potentially lethal.

Fortunately, most Australian snakes are quite timid. Give them a chance and they will scarper.

I have heard stories of people narrowly avoiding being bitten after disturbing a snake that was dozing in the sun.

I've also seen green tree snakes and carpet pythons. Both non-venomous, but the latter has a reputation for being bad-tempered so when I encountered a 2m specimen lying right across the trail I hit the brakes hard. I got shouted at by the folks behind me till they realised what was going on.

On evening rides, I've also had wallabies jump out close enough I thought they were going to hit me.