I've been awfully quite in these parts of late due to other commitments, so thought I would post something.
Last night at around 9:00pm I received a call from Snakes4Africa asking if I was available for a call out in Chatsworth. He had already been to an Mfezi call out on the same very road a few hours prior just a few doors away.
I shot over to the location and found a whole lot of people (+-20) gathered outside. A few of them were in the room trying to get a better look at the snake. They pointed in the direction of a corner within a very small room full of miscellaneous items. From the doorway I could see a very large Mfezi coiled up in the corner and told them to please step out before someone gets spat in the eyes. They assumed it was a "Sand snake" but quickly exited when I told them what it was. I was also informed that the snake had just swallowed a mouse just before I could get there.
Apart from the room being absolutely small with very little space to move, I also had to contend with very scared people screaming and shouting as I was trying to safely remove the snake while it squirted venom at me constantly. They were however very concerned about my well being which is not something you see all that often, they even gave me a towel to cover my mouth. To make matters worse there was one of these old styled bed bases with the square meshing which the snake was using to its advantage.My goggles was unfortunately in a bad shape with lots of scratches and one of the lenses being loose and falling off and I could barely see through them. I am glad that today I have my full visor .
All the while I couldn't stop thinking about the recent sad and unfortunate loss of fellow herper Shaun Moolman who passed away after an allergic reaction to spitter venom that got into his mouth.
I didn't have a very big container and also being very tired and sleepy I was not in the mood to bag this Mfezi which was the biggest Ive seen on a call out. Fortunately residents of the property were kind enough to lend me a large bin to put the snake in as long as I promised to return it.
Here is the pic that someone snapped while I was getting the snake into the bin:
I think there are going to be many more Mfezi call outs this season!