Nearly trod on this blighter today

I had to walk over to the house today to chcek on some plumbing works.  It was baking hot and I was walking quite slowly so probably not making much noise or vibration on the concrete path as I slothed along.  Nipper the ever faithdul pooch was dawdling along behind me when a beautiful, red necked keel backed snake, about two to three feet long slithered onto the path in front of me.  I barely had time to stop walking, I was so close to it.  Another step and I would have certainly stood on it if had not been looking.  Nipper took absolutely no notice of it all (thankfully).  It's apparently not lethal but does deliver a venomous bite.  The snake eventually took refuge in the leaf litter at the side of the path where despite its colourful markings it had superb camouflage.