‘Be prepared’: Mountain biker's close call with eastern brown snake a tale of caution for others

A danger noodle, a nope rope, a snek, a Joe Blake, a murder spaghetti. Whatever you call them, snakes are part and parcel of the Australian summer.

But what would you do if you were out riding and thought you might have been bitten by one? And not just any snake, but the second deadliest snake on earth – the eastern brown snake.

That was the situation mountain bike rider Andy Barlow found himself in when he was riding in the You Yangs in Victoria earlier this month.

Andy was out riding the trails solo, when he soon discovered he had uninvited company. Thinking he had ridden over a branch, he quickly realised the branch was in fact a snake, and it had wrapped itself in his back wheel.

“I heard sth in the bushes riding past, then sth hitting my back wheel. I thought it was just a branch going into the back wheel, then sth hitting back of my right leg as the wheel was turning, slowly locking my back wheel,” Andy wrote in an Instagram post about the encounter.

“My first reaction was I was bitten for sure. I laid down in shade comprehending what just happened.”

Luckily for Andy just a minute later he waved down two riders who were coming down the trail, and they stopped to help.

“I took off pants/knee pads to check for bite marks, seeing a single red dot and a small bit of blood on right knee. My eyes are not the best anymore so the two blokes helped check any bite marks on my legs, not seeing anything else.”

One of the other riders had a bandage which they applied to Andy’s leg.

Unsure if he had been bitten, Andy weighed up his options: either ride back to his car 7km away and risk spreading venom through his bloodstream, or stay put and call 000.

He called 000 who agreed it was best to send paramedics and within an hour the first paramedics arrived, together with the SES who stretchered him out.

“I ended up staying the night in hospital with many blood tests, in the end I had no venom in my bloodstream. Apparently 90 per cent of snake bites were dry bites,” Andy wrote.

“Over my 50 years I've had many close calls with snakes, but this is the closest yet. Be prepared when out in great outdoors this time of year. I will definitely be having a snake bite kit at all times from now on. BIG THANKS to the blokes for stopping and helping me, the emergency services, and Neil from Parks Victoria for looking after my precious new bike.”

While Andy was lucky to walk away from the experience unscathed and bike intact, he said he felt bad for the snake being on the wrong end of the story this time around.

Main photo: @andybarlowadventures