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 Right
in the heart of downtown Brisbane is Chinatown. Chinese restaurants and
food stores are concentrated in the several city blocks that make up
Chinatown. Donna is standing next to one of the lions that guard the
entrance to the pagodas.
Chinatown is a great place to sample Chinese, Indian, Cambodian and Korean
food. It is also offers the opportunity to buy Chinese and Indian spices
for cooking on our yacht. Donna comes up with some excellent cuisine using
her large collection of exotic spices.
Chinatown also has upscale camping stores in abundance. We thoroughly
inspected at least six of them finding some nice items that will be useful
when we are Outback and Beyond. We picked up a water-proof pelican case for
our digital camera so that we can safely transport it in our dinghy. The
case will also protect the camera from the severe bull dust found in the
outback.
 We continue
to tick off the items found on our To Do list. The ignition switch and oil
pressure alarm were broken on the starboard engine panel. That meant a trip
to the Yanmar dealer in Brisbane for spare parts. Fixing the problem is the
easy part. The hard part is the hours spent diagnosing the problem.
Similarly, we diagnosed that a microswitch was broken on our windlass that
pulls the anchor chain up. In short order, we installed a new microswitch
and the windlass is 100% functional once again.
Finally, Dave’s brain has switched over to ocean cruising mode. When you
return to your boat and move on board, it takes time to run your mind like a
sailor once again. You must inspect the critical systems onboard the yacht
and make yourself comfortable that everything is as it should be. After two
months, all things electrical and mechanical seem to be under control and
Dave’s brain has started to say, “No worries, mate.”
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How do Aussies go camping? We wanted to know and so we
went to the Camping Show on the Gold Coast south of Brisbane. As it turned
out, the show had Aussie style fold-out camping trailers by the dozens.
Lots of them. There were also a few tents, camping refrigerators and lots
of fishing gear.
The best part of the camping show was the “Reptile Awareness Display of
Australia”. You can go to their web site
www.radoa.com. During the presentation we got to pet two different
Aussie lizards as well as see three poisonous snakes found in Australia. We
saw the Black Snake, Tiger Snake and Taipan Snake. The snake handler kept
the snakes and lizards in long green cloth bags. He also took up a
collection of money at the end of the demonstration and he dropped the money
in a long green bag as well. There isn’t much risk that anyone will steal
his bags.
We learned some interesting facts about these critters:
1. There are no poisonous lizards in Australia. The two lizards shown
in the pictures are the Blue Tongue Lizard and the Shingleback Lizard.
 2.
Oz has seven poisonous snakes.
3. Most of the poisonous snakes have short fangs. Only one snake has
long fangs and that is the Taipan Snake. Fang length is important. If you
wear boots and heavy blue jeans, most of the snakes won’t be able inject
venom into your feet or legs because their fangs are too short to
penetrate. Of course, that doesn’t protect you from bites on hands and arms
if you put them where they don’t belong.
4. Venom is not injected through the center of the fangs. Instead,
it runs down the outside of the fangs. That means that venom will get on
your skin and clothes if the snake bites you where you are covered by a
garment. This is important because the hospital will swab the area of the
bite and identify the type of venom with a chemical test. Then they give
you the correct antivenin based on their test. You don’t need to catch or
kill the snake in order for the hospital to give you proper treatment.
Don’t wash the area of the snake bite because you will wash away venom on
the surface of the skin that will help identify which snake bit you.
5. The longer fang Taipan Snake is especially dangerous as it has a
tendency to bite multiple times.
6. Snakes have relatively poor vision. They don’t see things clearly
beyond ten to twelve feet and they see mainly in a forward direction. If a
snake is headed away from you, he may not even see you and won’t know that
you are there unless you move and create vibrations.
7. Snakes strike at things that are moving and making vibrations. If
you stay perfectly still, there is a high probability that the snake will
ignore you. The snake will regard your legs as a log or tree trunk if you
don’t move. The snake handler in the picture let the deadly Taipan and
Tiger Snakes crawl over his feet and wrap themselves around his legs, but he
did remain very still while the snakes were doing it.
8. If you are bitten by a snake, you are supposed to take a wide ace
bandage and wrap it around your arm or leg. If your leg was bitten, start
at your toes and wrap it tightly all the way to the groin. If you arm was
bitten, start at your finger tips and wrap it tightly all the way to the
shoulder. Then immobilize the limb with a splint. The tight ace bandage
compresses the veins and the lymphatic channels and thereby slows the spread
of the venom. The immobilization of the limb also slows the movement of
blood in the veins. The ace bandage must be applied within two minutes of
the bite in order to have a positive effect. If it isn’t applied quickly,
the venom will rapidly spread throughout your body. In medical school we
used this same principle when we performed orthopedic surgery. We used ace
bandages to force most of the blood out of an arm or leg and applied a
tourniquet to create a bloodless surgical field. It’s much easier to
perform surgery when there is no bleeding in the area where you are
operating.
9. If you are bitten by a snake, don’t try to kill the snake. You
will only kill yourself. Since the ace bandage needs to be applied within
two minutes to be effective, you don’t have any time to waste. In addition,
the physical exertion used in going after the snake will increase the rate
of blood flow and spread the venom rapidly in your body.
10. Snakes are not sensitive to sound. If you are close to a snake,
you can yell a warning to other people or yell for help without aggravating
the snake.
11. Aussie snakes rarely chase people. No worries mate. They can’t
slither faster than six kilometers per hour and so you can outrun even the
most aggressive snake. Just don’t fall down.
12. Even if a snake bites you, there is only a seventy percent chance
that the snake will actually inject venom. So you have a thirty percent
chance that you will be OK.
13. Small snakes (baby snakes) have venom and are just as dangerous
as full grown ones. Don’t mess with small snakes.
--- If you are going Outback and Beyond, here is a summary of what you
need to know:
1. Wear high boots and heavy loose fitting jeans so that if a snake
strikes it will get a mouthful of leather or denim.
2. If you have leg protection and get too close to a snake, don’t
move your legs. Pretend that your legs are logs and hopefully the snake
will just crawl away. Hmm, I don’t know if I could do that!
 3. If you
are out of striking distance (greater than half the snake’s body length),
run for it.
4. If you do get bitten, wrap the limb tightly with an ace bandage,
apply a tourniquet and immobilize the limb .
5. Do not wash the snake bite with water.
6. Go to the nearest hospital for antivenom.
7. Don’t waste your time trying to kill the snake. You will only kill
yourself.
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