Rambo's End?

We are returned unto Frogknot.We were unhindered as we had expected by Cunningham's Gap. I always glance up the mountainside as we head up just in case I spot another large rock tumbling down on us and I can warn Will to speed up or brake!Just past Warwick we passed the scene of a dreadful accident. A truck with two trailers had come off the road and was lying down an embankment completely burnt out. We later heard that the driver was killed. It had happened at 3.40am. From the marks on the road it looked like he had gone across onto the oncoming lane scraped along the barrier and headed back over and down the opposite embankment. The truck had apparently exploded and by the time the fire crew got there it was so badly burned that they could not tell which company the truck belonged to and had some difficulty finding out about the driver.We arrived at Frogknot at about 1.30 after getting provisions from Stanthorpe. There was the distinctive, sickly smell of death and decay at the front door but when we got inside could not really smell it any more. We opened up all the windows to air the place but it was pretty much as we left it and I spotted only a few rat droppings near the door.The vegetables in the garden looked pretty sad and wilted. Something likes eating the corn but there were a few weird shaped courgettes and one sickly looking squash. The dam was much lower and everything was very dry. It has been about 2 weeks since we were last here. It has been pretty hot in our absence but there was 6mm in the rain gauge so there had been some rain.It was  very hot but not as uncomfortable as it gets in Brisbane. We sat and read our books. I lay by the open window to catch the breeze coming in.Will went for a wander and came back asking if I wanted to see a snake."A dead one?" I asked hopefully. He shook his head.It was a red bellied black snake and was curled round a clump of reeds down by the dam. It looked very healthy and had probably gorged itself on frogs. It watched us and looked a bit wary but did not move away.[gallery ids="1453,1454,1455,1456,1458,1457"]They are venomous...yikes!... but Will said they are not aggressive...good!I found some different tracks in the mud. Some were definitely from a hoofed animal and the others were from a large bird.

We left the snake alone and headed back in. I looked a little later and it had gone....but where?We heard thunder and it appeared to be getting closer. We looked forward to getting some rain but it never materialised. We watched the clouds pass us by.We had a phone call from Dave next door and he invited us over for a drink. We went over and spent a lovely hour or so chatting on their verandah. He said he had seen a red bellied black snake about at his place too but we were unsure if it could be the same one. We told him about the tracks in the mud. He reckoned the hoofed prints would be deer and said there were a lot about. I wondered if the bird prints might be a heron. He said he had seen them by his dam.Back home I discovered the sickly death smell was coming from 'The Pit of Despair.'I entered bravely armed with one of our solar lamps. Looking up there were so many spiders webs that a few months ago would have sent me scampering out but I was on a mission. Following my nose I found what could only be a rats nest on a wire shelf amongst a pile of Will's old undies. I gingerly pulled it out but could see nothing.I went out again having found nothing but was not satisfied and later decided to go back in  and pull out the wire shelving and look behind. I did and there behind it was the dead rat. My work was done. Will came with a plastic bag and while I shone the light he reached in and picked it up with the bag. It did not look as if it had been dead that long. It's fur was brown and white and looked very clean and neat. Will said it was a bush rat...was it Rambo?We wondered how it had died. Earlier I had found what looked like a bit of dried blood on the sink draining board that I could not imagine I would have left there from our previous visit. Having seen the snake earlier I wondered if it had been bitten by the snake and crawled off to die in 'The Pit of Despair.'We shall never know.Will carried it off and threw it in the bush.Goodbye Rambo?