Yesterday, over 12 hours without power…The security alarm woke us this morning, set up by ugly animals!…Scary looking visitor in the garden with photos…

Juan, the snake handler, informed us this is a spotted bush snake which, until we knew what it was, concerned us that it is venomous. Luckily, it is not!

A truck hit a power pole in Marloth Park, resulting in several hours without power. Then, load shedding kicked in, and we spent almost 12 hours without power. We put the metal bowl filled with ice in the fridge, so I believe all those perishables survived. But, numerous packages of meat defrosted in the freezer, and we’re wondering if we should toss them. They stayed cold but not frozen. I’m always uncertain under those conditions.

Then, there was a load of dark clothes in the washer that stopped working when the pole was hit, and we were never able to restart it. It was not worth going outside to the laundry area in the dark, so we waited until this morning. Load shedding was supposed to start again at 9:00 am, so I am busy trying to get the two loads done before we lose power again.

We ate dinner at the dining room table in the dark with the rechargeable lanterns on the table. Tom did the dishes by lantern light, after which we headed to the bedroom with the one lamp connected to the inverter outlet, allowing us to charge equipment and use the one lamp on my bedside table.

We streamed a few shows and finally headed off to sleep only to be awakened, hearts pounding, when the security alarm went off. We both jumped up and led to the glass doors to the veranda. Baboon invasion!!! They tried to get into the house by jiggling the door handles and triggering the alarm.

Tom noticed this snake climbing up this tree and chasing a rodent.

They got into everything we had on the veranda, mainly repellent products. After finding no food in any container, they were about to give up when Tom opened the doors and scared them off. I had to call the alarm company to let them know we were safe, or they’d send out a security vehicle to check on us. There’s a fee for false alarms. We reached them in time. They’d be here in five minutes if we hadn’t called.

Yesterday afternoon while I was inside the house recharging my laptop, Tom asked me to come outside to show me something. He had just taken a few photos, which he showed me on the camera. First, he heard a “plop” on the ground after the snake had fallen from one tree, trying to get to another tree to chase the rodent. Quickly the snake slithered up the tree, barely giving Tom enough time to get the camera and take the two shots he got.

How exciting! I was sorry I missed it but happy he got the photos. There are several bright green snakes here in the bush: a green mamba (highly venomous), the green tree snake (mildly venomous),  the boomslang (highly venomous), and more, as listed below from this site:

This is the third snake that visited us at a holiday home in Marloth Park. A venomous Mozambique spitting cobra at the Hornbill house in 2014, the boomslang at the Lovebird’s nest house in 2021, and now at the Ratel house, a yet-to-be-identified green snake. I sent the two photos to a local expert snake handler, Juan de Beer, and I’m waiting to hear back from him on which snake this is.

We didn’t see any point in contacting Juan to remove the snake. We weren’t in danger since the tree was less than four meters from the veranda. However, we must keep a watchful eye out in the event the snake decides to come onto the veranda or get into the house, which is a common scenario.

The veranda and the entrance to the house is at ground level with only a small step to enter the house, a step a snake could easily maneuver. Snakes commonly climb full flights of stairs. “Snakes are flexible movers with between 200 and 400 vertebrae with just as many ribs connected.”

We are watching for the snake, easy to spot with its bright green color, but we will feel better once we know what type it is…or will we feel better?

I just heard back from Juan. Yeah! It’s a spotted bush snake…. nonvenomous!

Be well.

Photo from one year ago today, July 14, 2021:

Our waiter took the family photo at Maynard’s in Excelsior, Minnesota, last year on this date. For more, please click here.

Leave a Reply

Your email address will not be published. Required fields are marked *