'It decided to go me': Hiker reveals bloody aftermath of python attack

Joel Herrington was on a three-kilometre trek to Clamshell Falls on Monday when he and friends came across the giant reptile.

Herrington said he “didn’t see it coming” when “all of a sudden” the beast “dropped down from above”.

“I was at a waterfall and we were walking back up and there was a couple in front of us, they pointed out a snake above us so, we stopped and had a look,” he said on Today.

“I saw it and then I took some photos and went back down because I dropped a couple of bottles.

“(When) I went to grab the bottles, I got a full face slap on the face.

“I didn’t see it coming. Crazy.

“It was so far up above us before and then it dropped down and I had no idea that it was that close to my face and then I started bleeding profusely.

“My mate took a video. Then the rest is history.”

Herrington said that because he owns a snake as a pet – a carpet python over two metres long – he was able to stay relatively calm during the ordeal.

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“Everyone’s saying all these comments: ‘You harassed the snake’, but I didn’t do a Steve Irwin,” he said.

“I took photos, I went back down because I was doing the right thing with the rubbish and the bush and I walked back up – calm and casual like I always am with the snakes – and it decided to go me.

“When I started taking photos, it started dropping down and I left it alone.

“Minding my own business, went down with the rubbish, grabbed it, brought it back up, and it slapped me in the face and I tumbled down the hill.”

After discussions with a wildlife expert, though a rare occurrence, it’s believed the snake mistook Herrington for prey.

“It is very unusual,” Herrington said.

“Everyone’s saying they don’t do anything unless you provoke them, but they obviously react.

“It was hanging down from the tree above me and we theorise – I talked to a mate from Queensland Parks and he said that he agrees with me – that was just sit ing there waiting in the bushes for a bat or bird, and I happened to be close enough to it.”