Stowaway snake catches ride on bonnet of family’s car near Coffs Harbour in NSW

A family returning home from holidays got the fright of their life when they spotted a “little yellow head” poke over their car’s bonnet on the highway. WATCH THE VIDEO

A family captured the surprise of their life when they noticed a “little yellow head” poke over their car’s bonnet on the Pacific Highway on Monday.

Kerry Jenkins said her family had been holidaying at Darlington Beach, 30 kilometres north of Coffs Harbour in NSW.

“We had been on the road for 250km, 30km from home on the Pacific Highway, when we noticed a little yellow head,” she said.

Not knowing what to do Ms Jenkins grabbed her phone and started recording.

She then uploaded a video to social media platform TikTok - along with hashtags including #hitchhike, #snakesoftiktok, #ridealong, #stuckinmycar and #burnthecar.

“We assumed it would just fly off,” Ms Jenkins said.

“We didn’t think it would have held on for so long.”

Knowing their turn off wasn’t far the family continued along the highway.

“We wanted to be safe off the highway before pulling over,” Ms Jenkins said.

“Once we pulled over we could see it was still hanging on to the front grill.”

Bystanders saw the reptile slide onto the ground and slither back up under the engine bay where it disappeared.

A tree snake hitched a ride on the family car's bonnet on the Pacific Highway near Coffs Harbour.

The family continued to drive home to Forster, checking for the snake at stops along the way.

“With a torch we ended up seeing him, and my son tried to catch him and get him out and he darted back into the motor,” Ms Jenkins said.

“We waited overnight and I’ve looked again in the morning and found nothing.

“I would have assumed he got out and escaped.”

However, the stowaway snake remained in the engine bay.

Ms Jenkins partner saw it sitting on top of the engine after popping the bonnet.

“I opened it back up and we could see his tail sliding back into a crevice,” Ms Jenkins said.

Creator of Facebook group Snake Identification Australia, Matthew Hampton said the reptile was a common tree snake.

“It’s rare that a tree snake would climb into an engine bay,” he said.

“Usually snakes that end up in a car do so for two main reasons – shelter or after being startled.”

Mr Hampton said that in this case, the tree snake felt the engine getting too hot and climbed on to the bonnet to save its life.

“The heat from the engine would have cooked him,” he said.

“It couldn’t get traction on the bonnet so that’s why it’s flailing about in the video.”

Snakes feel the heat and vibration of vehicle engine’s starting and flee to save their lives.

“This is where you will see them turn up on bonnets or even windows even while the car is travelling at speed,” Mr Hampton said.

Motorists facing a stowaway snake should find a place to pull over and allow the animal to leave on its own.

“Pull over, put your hazard lights on, and if the snake won’t leave get onto a snake catcher to remove it,” Mr Hampton said.