![]() Grabbing our cameras, we approach the snake, which has only just noticed us. This time it’s a mulga snake sitting on the shoulder of the road with its head in a bush, very much alive. Soon we have to brake for our first snake. To my surprise, the dirt road into the desert is well maintained, allowing us to travel at a good speed. I feel for Tim’s partner, who’ll no doubt be nervously awaiting a phone call, hoping it will be Tim’s voice on the other end this time, not hospital staff. Tim quickly calls home to explain we’ll be out of contact for up to a week. The small outback town of Laverton is our last stop for fuel, supplies and phone reception. Next morning we wake with the birds and face almost 1000km of driving. ![]() Fewer than 20 encounters with this reptile have been recorded, although the Pila Nguru – the Spinifex People – would surely have come across this snake regularly during the 15,000 or more years that they have lived in the Great Victoria Desert.ĭuring his trip, Ross got the opportunity to capture some of Australia’s other desert reptiles like this Goldfield’s shingleback skink. Sitting at the top of my list is the western desert taipan, a reptile first described by scientists as recently as 2007. It’s an ordeal neither of us is eager to repeat.īut where there’s risk, there’s reward, and, for me, there’s no greater reward than seeing these wild places and animals with my own eyes. It’s almost a year since our last taipan expedition, during which he nearly died after being bitten by an inland taipan. See more: Photographing Australia’s desert reptiles Returning to the surfing analogy, photographing taipans is like big-wave riding – succeed, and you won’t remember a happier moment get it wrong and it may cost you your life. They are all formidable snake species, possessing large fangs, extremely potent venom and an agility that demands the utmost respect from even the most experienced of snake handlers. These are the notorious coastal taipan, which is also found in southern New Guinea the inland taipan, sometimes known popularly as the fierce snake and believed to have the most toxic venom of any land snake and the recently described western desert taipan. Most Australians would have heard of taipans because these reptiles are among the world’s most infamous snakes and Australia is home to all three known species.
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