PYTHON!! 28/2/12

My first Python- 23/2/12

Forgive me but the following account has become much longer than imagined but this was a great experience for me and fully deserving of no detail being spared.

Now we have all seen a picture of a python at some point or another. They look like big, sleepy, slow animals. Now, a couple of days ago I’d have concurred with all these adjectives. It is true perhaps that these would be fitting descriptions if the python was left undisturbed. If however you are otherwise inclined (such as my morbid curiosity led me to be) then your going to need some new words. Lets start from the beginning though. ..

What the inside of a pythons mouth looks like without gums

Myself and Busoti were casually strolling along the Eastern ridge of an unnamed mountain about 300/400m above the valley below on one of our safaris. We are about a days walk from our big camp and 4 hours or so from our temporary camp. As were going I spot a good place to get a picture of the valley. It’s a sloping rock face free of trees and as predicted it is a good spot to take a pic. As I’m enjoying the view I scan around subconsciously until my eyes settle on an oddly patterned bit of rock about 7m from where were sitting. Hang on sec now, that aint no rock I ses to me self.  That is a South African Rock Python. Now I’ve been wanting to see one of these for a while now and despite their size they seem pretty hard to find. Its taken me 7 months to find this bugger. Now he aint the biggest there are out there but by no means is he the smallest. This fella is between 6 and 7 feet long (about 2m long) and thick as girls waist at the thickest. The dead one that Simon found 2 months ago was about 14 feet long (4m) and they are known to grow up to 5m long!! Anyway, I point him out to Busoti who immediately stands up and backs away despite the snake clearly being fast asleep. Now there is something you should know. I’ve been chatting myself up to all of the guys saying “If I see a rock python, im gonna catch it” so I was now under a bit of an obligation.. There were a mixture of feelings here. Fear and excitement prevailing mostly. There is a fairly big but innocuous looking python over there and im gonna catch it! Only I knew it wasn’t quite as innocuous as it looked, the teeth on these guys are long and numerous. (see pic of skull from Simon’s dead python). Anyway – push negative thoughts out of head, roll up sleeves, take deep breath, count to 3, approach..

Fast asleep

Has no idea whats about to happen

Busoti has the camera, and there I am, 2m away from now hissing rock python in a very threatening striking posture. I figure im just out of range.. Im waiting for him to turn away so I can get a grip on the safe end. About a minute passes when he decides to make his dash, moving much quicker than I could have imagined. Its now or never! I lunge forward and grab his tail end before he disappeared off down the slope. With great effort I haul him off the awkard ledge and up onto a flat bit and relax a bit thinking the hard part was over. WRONG. Now I thought I was grumpy when I’ve been woken up. Obviously this guy has never had a girlfriend because the moment we were on the flat (his tail in my hand and the rest of him on the ground) he swings his head around and strikes at me with surprising speed. I make an awkward shape as I get my precious parts out of the path of the gaping mouth. He strikes again but this time I know its coming and am out of the way in well in time. This process goes on for what seems quite a while, grabbing him around the neck to put him under complete control is out of the question. Steve Irwin failed to bring out a ‘How to’ video before he went swimming with Sting rays. But that is fine with me, I am quite happy partaking in this little dance until I figure its probably time I should let him be. I let go of him and shocked by his sudden freedom he remains still for a  second or two, then he shoots of into a thick bush. I stand there in awe, shaking a little from the adrenalin watching him go.

Python

Python time

John Travolta - saturday night fever?

Now I feel I should offer a small explanation as to the reasons for my actions. Sadly I’m going to have to disappoint those that agree with me on this. I don’t know why. I do know I got one hell of an experience though. What I will say though is that pythons are quite phenomenal beasts and should be treated with the upmost respect. A pity I didn’t read this first.. 

The Rungwa Bush Viper

Even more recently I came across a Rungwa Bush Viper. Now this is no ordinary snake. I have fantasized about seeing this snake since I arrived here. It looks like a dragon. They are very rare snakes and the people who have seen this snake in the wild are few. I was so excited that I couldn’t simply leave it where I found it. I collected it in my head net whilst avoiding a few mock strikes, took it back to camp. This way I became possible to get some proper photos and generally nurture my enthusiasm for these fantastic creatures by observing it daily, feeding it and photographing it. It appears to greatly like frogs. Sadly though when I return to Camp I will have to take him back where I found him. To keep him any longer would be selfish to my own wants – despite the free meals, im sure the wild is where he’d rather be! 

R.Bush Viper

R.Bush Viper

Just after i caught the guy - posing with my quarry

R.Bush Viper

R.Bush Viper

Boomslang/Random photos

On the topic of snakes I also came across a beautiful juvenile boomslang. Great big green eyes. Awesome. 

Boomslang junior 

Boomslang junior part 2

Boomslang junior part 3

Red Tail monkey 

Issa Valley at dawn

Helmet headed terrapin - shibby

Me and Fiona putting our heads together to change the tyre

Myself in front of the view of our valley

Me posing again - but im standing this time

Fiona holding a Slender chameleon

Back at Camp

4^th Jan – Back to the grind. The journey back from kigoma was quite adventurous as well. Largely due to the fact that the car was already at camp. So me and Simon (who met me in Kigoma) did the food shop for the month and then got a taxi to dump as outside the town on the right road. Here we waited with our optimistic thumbs well up. Lots of cars passed us by. Being white i thought we'd have no problem. I was quite wrong, maybe it was the mountain of food behind us.. who knows. Anyway, we finally got a ride out of town which dropped us at the next cross roads. From here we were lucky to get a pick up truck to take us to the next village. I sat in the back with all the food. Fun stuff. Then from the next village we got another pick up truck to Uvinza. The only complication was it was rammed with alot of other people. Every bump threatened someone falling off the side. Luckily i was wedged between the rice and the flour. Characteristically for Africa, this was not enough and decided to throw in another variable. We started towing another car. Quite a bizzare site im sure. A pick up truck full of people towing a small van. Needless to say progress was very slow. Eventually made it to uvinza though but too late to get another ride to camp. Instead we found a guy who says hes going in our direction but at 5:30am. He's happy to give us a ride. For a fee for sure. 

We wake up bright and early and we (with the help of some other passengers) brought all our stuff to the road to load onto the car. Only its not a car, its a lorry. Wait no its not a lorry either, its a cattle truck! So for the next for hours there we are bumping along in a cattle truck with all our stuff. quite a fun ride actually. 

Me on 2nd pick up at Kasalamimba village

Simon on Cattle truck

Me on cattle truck providing entertainment for other passengers

Me on 1st pick up

Oh yeh

I discover that some of the guys found a monstrous dead 3m long rock python. Knowing my passion for these kinds of things they do the right thing and take some pictures then lop its head off as a gift to me. This probably seems like a pretty sadistic ‘gift’ to give someone – a python head… Its eyes glazed, its teeth poking out from sloughing gums and offcourse the smell.. Quite the contrary, It was a great gift – I have since turned the head into a skull (which needs to be glued due to two miss placed machete blows in the severing of the head) but the teeth are impressive. Long, sharp and numerous they line the jaws and are angled towards the throat preventing potential prey from escaping its jaws of death. It should also be noted that a python of 3m could quite comfortably take a small person as a meal. 

Rock Python head

The Departure of family

29^th Dec – Mum, Jules and Jonty left on the 9pm flight on today of all days. It was my birthday and I turned 23. That’s always seemed like a fairly adult number and to be honest I don’t feel very adult. I need to shave more often but that’s about it. Anyway, after their departure I managed to salvage my birthday by going out with some friends I’d made. It ended up being a fairly spiffing evening. Keeping in mind Arusha is quite a Western place, so there was a fair number of other white people there. Quite an odd bunch all in all. Not sure where I fitted in with them. There were the tourists, there were the orphanage workers, aid workers and safari tour operators. Needless to say I had my fill after that one night. However things are never that simple because offcourse it was New Years eve not long after and off course I felt obliged to go out. I wasn’t going to but then I met a pretty mad dutch guy who gently persuaded me that it was for the best that we go out and get smashed. I decided his argument was sound. 3am rolls in and its time for me to go and get a bit of sleep. My bus back to Kigoma leaves at 5:30am. In the end I manage an hour of sleep then pack my stuff and crawl to the bus station. Bags on bus – check. Self on bus – check. Forgotten anything – No. Good. Sleep. The next two days rolls away in a bit of a blur and before I know it im back in Kigoma and ready to go back to camp. After Arusha, the thought of Camp could not be more surreal. In a good way. 

Black and White

Everyone thinks they have an artistic side. This is mine – my portfolio of Monochrome wildlife photos. Ha

the Eyes of the Leopard

Male Impala

Protecting its kill

The Ostrich dance

Bull Elephant

Mum, Jules, Jonty posing with 2 bull elephants on Crater rim

Zebra munchin

3 Zebra munchin

Gettin rid of parasites

Post meal digestion

Affectionate fight?

Giraffes at Serengeti

Safari part 2

The Ngorogoro crater is absolutely magnificent, it is an unbroken, unflooded volcanic caldera (if you want to get technical). It was formed 3million years ago when a giant volcano erupted and collapsed on itself. It is 2000 feet from the rim to crater floor and it covers 260 square kilometres. Basically its bloody massive and supports a HUGE amount of wildlife, including the critically endangered Black Rhino (there is only 20 in Northern Tanzania). Which is not actually black – I think it was just a bad translation from its original dutch name.. Magnificent beasts they are – we saw 7 or so of them but sadly none up close. They do resemble natures version of a tank to its full extent.

Wildabeest mid run - NCA 

Lone male bull Elephant in the Crater

Posing on the rim of the Crater

A snippet of the Great Migration

Flamingos 

Flamingo

Black Kite

Black bellied Bustard

The plains of the Serengeti

Olduvai Gorge - Earliest human remains found here NCA

Fossil of extinct herbivore with cool horns

A view over the NCA