Covered in
sweat and soaked to my waist in the putrid swamp water that I have been
marinating in along with Koru (my Puma) and few million variations of insect for
4 hours I finally allow my well walked feet a moment to breathe. 8km walking
and its not even lunch yet. Sigh. As I allow my self a moment to doze,
surrounded by the sounds of the camp and surrounding forest, I am suddenly drawn
back from the brink of eye closure by an excited Irish accent in a beard.
“Hey Corey,
youll love this” Colin, the owner of the beard suddenly jumps into my field of
vision.
“Ok” I
reply, still half asleep. In my head im trying to prepare myself to act excited
in case the situation arises that what he has to say isn’t that exciting and I
may have to fake it so as not to hurt his feelings.
“We were
mapping out the edge of the park, over by the rice paddies, and we came across a
BIG boa. We couldn’t see much of it but it could have been 3m long. It looked
like it had just eaten something big because it looked swollen”
I have made
a name for myself as the go to snake guy so this generally happens when people find
something interesting. Ok Colin, you now have my attention I think as I
sit up a little straighter. A 3m Boa would be the biggest I had seen yet. Within minutes
there were four more guys standing in front of me wearing swamp gear with
expressions on their faces that wouldn’t be out of place on adolescent boys on
their way to an amusement park.
“Do you
think it would still be there, can we go find it” they each ask in a blur of
sound.
“Maybe, if
its digesting there is a chance.” I don’t even remember finishing that
sentence, in moments we were on the road and I was getting asked a barrage of
questions that were really pushing the boundaries of my snake knowledge. After 20 minutes
of walking down a road we suddenly veered left and down into the rice pattie
that was holding knee deep water at the time. Like armatures we stormed strait
in without even the slightest consideration for where we were and what we were
doing.
“Just over
here somewhere.” Colin said after 10m of splashing about. “Keep your eyes open,
he was just sitting in the water.”
Hmmmm, I thought to myself, Sitting in
the water that we are just splashing about in like a group of French wine
makers in a barrel of grapes. Maybe we should slow down a little. I didn’t even
have time to express my thoughts to the rest of the group before there was an stuttering
gargle of verbal excitement.
“There,
that shadow in the water, that’s him.” Colin yelled at no one in particular.
There,
amongst the low reeds, was a rather large protuberance of scales. That’s pretty
big, I think to myself, that must be where he has eaten something……..
Not so.
After a closer examination of the “3m Boa” it was apparent that this may have been an under estimation. Once we were able to follow the shape of the shadow beneath that water from its tail it was apparent that this was allot bigger…. And not your usual Boa.
Not so.
After a closer examination of the “3m Boa” it was apparent that this may have been an under estimation. Once we were able to follow the shape of the shadow beneath that water from its tail it was apparent that this was allot bigger…. And not your usual Boa.
It wasn't until a
head emerged 30cm in front of us, 6m from where we could see the tail, that we truly got an idea of what we were dealing with. An Anaconda.
This is that Anaconda, a huge find and a massive tick in my box of species.
This is that Anaconda, a huge find and a massive tick in my box of species.
No comments:
Post a Comment