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After our second geology ramble, this time at Bingie Bingie, we sat down to a lunch of hummus, dolmades, olives, wine – and a diamond python trying to make its way up the pole to its home in the roof. It had a strategy that it has used before, but this time there was a problem. The pole was slippery and the customary loose coils didn’t give it enough grip. In the video, you can see the slow slide down to the point where it settles back on the verandah.

I thought it was giving up easily, but no! It lay on the deck cogitating for a while, and then began the upwards coil again, ignoring the boat-mast J offered as an alternative route. This time the coils were tighter, and the ascent slow but steady. We watched anxiously as the length wound its way around the chain holding the pole to the roof. Finally the tail was drawn up, and roof residence reestablished.

Thinking …

Trying again …

The next day as the afternoon sun reached the roof, the narrow head peered over the guttering. The python spent a good five minutes in deep thought – no forked tongue flicking in and out to indicate imminent action. And then the tongue appeared, and the roof-resident began a careful descent, keeping the coil-brakes on. When it reached the deck it paused a moment and then slithered off to do whatever diamond pythons do late on a Sunday afternoon.