I am reading a very enjoyable book by William York, Out in the Midday Shade. Most of the book is the story of York's elephant hunting exploits which he commenced in 1949 at the ripe old age of 16.

However, one story he relates makes my skin crawl. York was also an amateur herpetologist and one day on a trip from Mombasa to Nairobi he saw a spitting cobra cross the road. He wanted to collect the cobra and climbed down into a ravine to try and catch it. He caught up to it and captured it. Climbing out of the ravine another spitting cobra that he had not seen sprayed him from the side and the venom got through the vents in his goggles and into his left eye. Somehow he caught that cobra too and had one cobra in a bag in one hand and the other cobra in his other hand. As he proceeded to try to get back to the Land Rover with a cobra in each hand and enable to see out of his left eye, he is bite in his left arm by a boomslang. He manages to get the other cobra and the boomslang in the sack with the first cobra. Then he drives on to Nairobi, another 100 miles away. His eye clears up after several days, the boomslang bite took months to heal. Reminds me of the Daniel Powter song, Bad Day.

Of course, I have no way of knowing the veracity of the story.

We've all had those kind of days.

Yeap, today I spent all day with my mother in law..

L

Just think how dull his life would have been if he had only kept driving.

Keith

I hate snakes, but they do make for good tire target practice.

Having, in younger and dumber days, kept venomous snakes and hunted them in locations like Thailand and Sri Lanka, I find the reported encounter with three snakes in short order a bit hard to swallow. It comes across more like the literary compression of events seperated by time, if in fact true. At least it wasn't an account of someone falling into a "nest" of water moccasins here in the U.S.

I haven't read that book, but have read African Adventures and Misadventures which I enjoyed very much. He a good story teller, be they fictional or non-fictional.

Damn, That is the way to make me cringe early in the morning...

Jeff

I thought that boomslangs were an Australian snake? Or is it being used in a generic sense here?
Peter.

MJines,
I read the same story and thought - what a tough way to make a living. Reminded of the Australian croc hunter that is no longer with us.

It is an interesting book, worth the read.

Being back-fanged, it is nigh impossible for a boomslang to bite a person on the arm

quote:

Originally posted by Rikkie:
Being back-fanged, it is nigh impossible for a boomslang to bite a person on the arm

He actually comments on that. The snake was apparently hung on his shirt by the back fangs while it was biting to create a wound to flow venom into. Because the fangs were caught on his shirt, he could not simply knock it off.

Lorenzo, does she spit or bite or what ?

. . . probably depends on whether or not her dentures are in . . .

quote:

Originally posted by MJines:
Reminds me of the Daniel Powter song, Bad Day.

Reminds me of some of the fishing stories I've heard over the years!

One of the PHs that I met in Namibia (Royston Wright) told us of being bit by a puff adder and spending 6 weeks in hospital for treatment and skin grafts. He swears that it was the most painful thing that he has ever gone through.

He now wears knee high boots everywhere.

Fjold,
Not sure if it is just me but I can´t read what you write in your posts......nothing but the top left corner of your post is seen

+ 1

L

I think the problem is with your eyes! They are locked on that pair of 35 pounders in the top left hand corner, and are glued there. It may require surgery to get them back straight! If your wife catches you, she will take care of that with a butcher's knife!

Lorenzo,
I have sent a coppy of this topic to Corline.Hope she enjoys it as much as I did

Bwanamich,
still too much tissue on the girl.

quote:

Posted 08 September 2008 08:41 Hide Post
Yeap, today I spent all day with my mother in law..

I don't know what it is about mother in laws, I tried to get mine involved in hunting as a nice gesture, but she refused to hold the clays in her mouth......