Last weekend I flew up to JHB and drove up to Hoedspruit for a brief herping stint. Many of us had never visited this part of the country & did not quite know what to expect. Before I left I felt nervous as I always do before proper herping trips. Nervous because I'm excited & scared at the same time that the trip might disappoint. It's weird to explain, but in this instance this feeling was totally in vain... This was possibly the best trip of my life!
Before I get started I want to thank Mittone & his wife for putting me up for a couple nights in JHB & also Froot for getting us there & back in one piece!
The team Consisted out of Quinten, Eugene, Klein Louis, Groot Louis, Franscois, Andre, Alison & myself...
The scenery was breath-taking!
We found 18 snake species in total. Only 3 where DOR!
I've never been to excited about finding a wolf snake, however the ones from this locality are truly striking.
Lycophidion capense - Common Wolf Snake
Dasypeltis scabra - Rhombic Egg Eater
Gonionotophis nyassae - Black File Snake
Boaedon capensis - Brown House Snake
Elapsoidea boulengeri - Boulenger's Garter Snake
Megatyphlops schlegelii - Schlegel's beaked blind snake
Leptotyphlops scutifrons - Peters Blind Snake
Telescopus semiannulatus - Common Tiger Snake
Lycodonomorphus rufulus - Brown water snake
Atractaspis bibronii - Stiletto Snake
Amblyodipsas polylepis - Common Purple Glossed Snake
Dipsadoboa aulica - Marbled Tree Snake
Psammophis subtaeniatus - Western Sand Snake
Species not pictured include Herald snake, Bibrons blind snake, Mozambique spitter & Vine snake.
We also found a nice variety of Lizard & Gecko species.
A personal highlight for me was this Rock Monitor that bolted across the dirt road in front of our car.
The guys got stuck in removing ticks from its nostrils & ears, there where so many it must have had difficulty breathing!
Alison then gave it a drink of water before we released him up a tree.
Smaug vandami - Van Dam's Girdled Lizard.
Trahylepis margaritifera - Rainbow Skink
Pseudocordylus melanotus - Drakensberg Crag Lizard
Chondrodactylus bibronii - Bibrons Gecko
Lygodactylus ocellatus - Dwarf Spotted Gecko
Homopholis walbergii - Whalberg's Velvet Gecko
Scelotes bidigittatus - Lowveld Dwarf Burrowing Skink
And lastly a couple amphibians also, most of which I never got around to photographing...
Amietia fuscigula - Cape River Frog
Pyxicephalus edulis - Edible Bullfrog
Breviceps adspersus - Bushveld Rain Frog
All these gems in a mere 3 days! What a way to end the year!
Thanks for looking!
Dean