There was some excitement in our house this morning! I opened the front door and in-between the screen door and wooden door was a Tiger snake. I had the kids and Rocket following me, so I tried to slam the door, hold them all back and try and control my total fear. All in one tiny moment that felt like an hour!

Stupid me, turned my back for a second to tell the kids to grab the dog, go into the kitchen and sit up on the bench while I watched the snake. I turned back and it had disappeared.

Did it go out the flyscreen door? Did it go under the freezer that is close to the front door? Did it slither into the office? I had no idea. I didn’t know if there was a snake in my house or not! Not a pleasant feeling!

I had a bit of a look a round while Rochelle flew out the of the kitchen door to get Anthony. Couldn’t see anything. Neither could Anthony, when he came back.

I fussed around getting the kids school lunches, all the while keeping an eye on the area I’d seen it last. Then I decided to have a look in the office.

I walked down quietly and stood in the doorway… Yep, there it was, sliding along the window, trying to get out. My heart just about flew through my chest. Now I don’t like snakes, but they don’t unduly upset me if they are outside. But it was the fact that it was IN MY HOUSE: that I had a problem with!

So we called the reinforcements – Anthony came to the rescue and finally, after upending the entire office, (which I now have to clean!) we found it under a filing cabinet. Needless to say that it is no longer with us!

But even as I sit at my office desk and write this blog, I am still wary. I know it’s gone, but I have my boots on and the dog locked in the laundry. The unsettling feeling of not knowing where it was, if it was even in the house and the danger that the snake presented, is still very real.

**Note, I got this photo from the internet and it was taken by John Fowler.

Every year huge amounts of people make the pilgrimage from Kalgoorlie, Esperance, the surrounding farms and other places, to be near these beautiful beaches.

And every year at Wharton Beach, they hold swimming lessons.

This year, in amongst the hum-drum of farming (of which so much is still happening), our two are doing the lessons and once again my inland-ness in coming out! Regular visitors to my site will know that I find things to do with sea rather difficult, having grown up in the mid north of SA and not a sea within sight.

I watched the kids swim in amongst the waves, diving in and out and having a ball. All the while I was cringing, imagining the seaweed wrapping around my legs and my feet touching something under the surface that I couldn’t see. Let alone what might be lurking in the deep. Nope: it’s swimming pools for me, unless I’m paddling only.

Not even this magic view of the bay where the lessons are held would entice me into the water! I’m happy to sit on the beach, chat to the other mums and maybe indulge in a glass of wine or two!

But I have to admit, when a little baby penguin came swimming over to the kids while they were having their lessons, I was tempted…

One of the last frontiers in the fishing world, on the South coast of WA, is Israelite Bay and ‘The Cliffs’. These are at the beginning of the Great Australian Bite. It’s where the keen fisherman go and brave the wind with the sand blasting and pull in Pink snapper, sharks and Mulloway off the beach (instead of having to be out in a boat.)

The track in is four-wheel drive only with parts being sand and other sections full of corrugations so deep, that I’m sure if you had false teeth, they would jar out!

The sea is a murky deep green, covered in white tops that the wind which never seems to cease whip up.

There isn’t any mobile phone reception and as you gaze out to the spot where the sea meets the sky, then turn around and see nothing but thick bush; you can feel that you are the only person on earth. But it’s not a place that you feel alone or lonely. There are always the odd ute loaded to the hilt with fishing gear, or the ‘locals’ (the people tend to spend six or eight weeks, at a time out there.)

The sand dunes, although not as big as out at ‘The Cliffs’, tower above you and often it’s your foot that first breaks the crust on the top of the sand!

We packed up the ute, threw in the tent for the kids and the swags for us and headed out there, last week. It really is an amazing experience, even though we have been there, many times before, there is still new things to be found.

The camp sites are well protected from the strong winds by native bush, although the bush flies tend to be very friendly there. There is an old jetty to explore as well as a crumbling telegraph station (more info on that, next blog), not to mention the old cemetery, kilometres of coast line, the sand dunes and salt lakes.

A couple of interesting spots were little crops of rocks that pushed out into the sea and made a small bay, calm enough to swim in. Although after a visit from a stingray, we decided that wasn’t a go-er any more! We came across a brown snake – probably a dugite – sunning himself on the rocks as the waves crashed in around him – I wondered what he would eat out there? And there was seaweed piled so high it looked like it had been made into bales of hay.

Anthony caught a whiting and as he reeled him in, he felt a tug at the line… when he got the fish in, there was only half of it left! Something much bigger, with sharp teeth and fins had obviously been hungry! (No swimming on that beach!)

Now, for the winners of ‘What Kate did next’ comp! They were: Kate Williams, Adelle and Angela! Thanks to all who entered and the three Kate books will be winging their way to the winners shortly! Lisa will be signing them before she puts them in the mail.