Great Snakes Alive !

[SAbottles]

And there I was, hoping for a quiet afternoon, maybe cleaning some bottles ~ BUT ~ the garden service guys came shouting that " There is a snake in your garage !"

As you can see, there is a hole in the planking at the bottom of the garage door -

and a slippery serpent had slid through !

We spotted enough of it to know which boxes it was behind :

 

[SAbottles]

So the snake watcher took up position to see that the snake stayed in place :

while we waited for the SPCA. Eventually the cavalry arrived :

and they started moving boxes - carefully !

 

[SAbottles]

Soon the coils came into view :

and with great care a 6' Cape Cobra comes into sight :

 

[SAbottles]

The SPCA chap placed it carefully into a special plastic crate:

and as it explored its temporary quarters, it was taken off up the valley to be released into the wild :

leaving us wondering how long it would take for it to slither back down the valley and how effective its GPS is ?

 

[SAbottles]

Ah well, all part of living in the beautiful Cape Peninsula with wild animals all around us !
(& no, I didn't get any bottles washed !)

 

[epackage]

Good thing your guy knew it so you didn't surprise it Dale, I'm sure you know how dangerous that snake is...Be safe...Jim[]

 

[surfaceone]

Ye Gods! Dale,

The vicissitudes of Cape life are legion, I suppose. Glad that the garden guys sounded the alert. Have you discovered other poisonous fauna within the confines of Casa Dale?

Porcupines at the back gate, Cobras in the garage... I hope you don't have to contend with crocodillians in the cupboard.

I cannot imagine encountering a Cobra in the garage. [8D]

 

[rockbot]

or a baboon in the bedroom![]

 

[SAbottles]

Tony, that wasn't so far off ! My wife came face to face with one in the little passage leading to our bedroom the other day ! Fortunately it ambled back & out the French doors!

@ Surface ~ well, we have learned to live with them (not the crocodiles at least !) We have had several cobras in the garden, they come to drink from the pond. One just learns to make a bit of a noise going up into the garden, so they can move out the way. The real problem are puff-adders; they just lie there until you walk onto them ! Very nearly stuck my hand down onto one once, but my cat, who was keeping me company, started howling & I saw it in time !

We also have these rather impressive but (apparently) quite harmless spiders all over the garden:

 

[SAbottles]

They are called Golden Orb spiders. Note the much smaller male in attendance. They have to be very creative when mating, otherwise they become part of the honeymoon breakfast ! []

Here's another one :