Trudging up a hill above the Dalmatian village of Baska Voda, head down and paying close attention to the road surface, I came upon a strange worm-like creature. It was an odd blue/grey colour. It stopped me in my tracks. “Wow. Check out this big worm thing”, I called to the other members of my group, waiting for them to catch up.
Earlier in the morning I had seen a large caterpillar or centipede and presumed this to be another, larger version. I could only see about 20 centimetres of it from under the brim of my cap. But as I stepped closer and lifted the cap it got even bigger. Then it hit me.
“Wait a minute,” I said out loud to myself. “You can’t be a caterpillar; you’ve got no legs”.
As the others stopped to see what I was on about, realisation set in. “Oh, you’re a snake aren’t you?” Unsurprisingly, it didn’t answer me but my fellow travellers all nodded in agreement. Definitely a snake.
On this week of Dalmatian day walks, I have been introduced to a whole new concept for me – the “harmless” snake. And they’ve been everywhere. I have seen more snakes this week of hiking in Dalmatia than I’ve seen in more than a decade of hiking at home in Australia.
Of course it’s my own fault – I summoned the snakes earlier in the week. You know how sometimes you ask a question and then wish you hadn’t? During a break on a lovely day hike to the island of Brač, I asked one of the leaders “Are there any snakes here?” He thought so but couldn’t remember much about them.
Well speak of the Devil….half an hour later the other leader nearly stepped on a snake that darted across the path right under her foot. This set the pattern for the rest of the week. We have hopped over and dodged them on each walk since.
According to one of our group leaders, our Dalmatian snakes are a type of grass snake and harmless. All week, just about everyone in the group has had a close encounter of the snake kind. Despite their alleged harmlessness, there’s been screaming, swearing, jumping and sudden stops causing the whole group to crash into each other as a snake was given right of way on the trail.
Yet despite my lifelong fear of snakes – and can you blame me when I come from the place that dominates the deadliest snake hit parade? – by this point, I’m like “Pfft. Snake.” After all, I know what a serious snake looks like. The kind that are two metres long and thick as your arm. The kind that can scare you half to death just by being there. The kind that gives you nightmares.
So, as far as snakes go, the one lying before me on the road was rather unimpressive – about as thick as my thumb and around a metre long. It wasn’t very wiggly either.
“I think it’s dead,” someone said to murmors of agreement. But it quickly perked up and darted into the grass as soon as the cameras came out – of course.
Editor’s note: I travelled with HF Holidays on the Guided Walking holiday at Baska Voda, Croatia in the first week of May 2011.