A BRAVE mum waited seven hours to be brought to safety after she was bitten by Australia’s most venomous snake while hiking in a remote gorge.
Megan Brouwer, 36, was with her husband and five-year-old son when the venomous serpent lunged at her in the Karijini National Park – located 300km from the nearest town.
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It took seven hours for rescue workers and emergency services to lift her from the bottom of one of West Australia’s steepest gorges and bring her to safety.
The family had just started their return hike in the picturesque Knox Gorge when Ms Brouwer’s husband yelled “snake”.
“I just knew in the way that he yelled it that it was either on me or very close to me,” she told ABC News.
“So I jumped around frantically for a moment then saw it in the corner of my eye, slithering away.”
She said she looked down at her legs and saw blood and a puncture wound from the brown snake.
Luckily, an off-duty doctor was nearby and applied a bandage to the wound.
The doctor, who had a first aid kit to hand and a satellite phone, managed to raise the alarm with the emergency services.
Ms Brouwer said: “[The off-duty doctor] had a pressure bandage and applied that for me.
“She also had a satellite phone in hand… but unfortunately it wasn’t connecting, we were so far in the gorge.
“So she then ran to the top of the gorge – which took her about an hour or so.”
It took Karijini rangers, local police, State Emergency Service, and St John Ambulance volunteers a mammoth seven hours to bring Ms Brouwer and her family to safety at the nearest hospital.
She was taken across three pools of water while strapped on a stretcher before she was lifted up to a narrow path lined with dozens of loose rocks.
The mum said the exit route was “pretty hairy” at times and the whole experience was “like something I’d never experienced before”.
“The path itself got quite narrow at the edge of the cliff, and manoeuvring a stretcher around trees and up the cliff face was pretty scary for me,” she said.
“There were also some unexpected things like wasps nests and lots of loose rock so footing was really, really important.”
Luckily Ms Brouwer had received a “dry bite” from the highly poisonous snake.
She said: “I’ve since learned that if he had got me a second time maybe that would have been a poisonous bite.
“But I’m all good. I know a lot more about snakes and I know how best to be prepared when you’re hiking in very remote parts.”
Ms Brouwer thanked the rescue team for their efforts.
“Me and my family thank you all, we are eternally grateful,” she said.
The mum also stressed the importance of having a first aid kit on hikes, saying it “can make all the difference”.
The gwardar, or western brown snake, is among the most venomous snakes in Australia.
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