Snakes
cannot be so fast, is a good defence. Hit him anywhere on his upper body and a really hard blow will dislocate his spine and make him unable to continue his attack, as he is struggling semi- paralysed you can then take your time and beat the daylights out of him until he well and truly dead. Personally I would advise anyone never to try and be clever and attack one unless it is a matter of the last resort as they are so very fast and deadly If you do have a stick however , never ever turn your back on him and walk away. Instead walk backwards and watch him intently as you quietly retreat. If you are without a stick then again walk back quietly with no jerky movements, and start feeling for your handkerchief to make a tourniquet and knife to cut out the poison. Also start to say your prayers because you are in serious trouble! Never ever approach a large vicious snake of this nature without a stick in your hand and also wear goggles or glasses in case it is spitting cobra or similar that can wound your eyes. A stone is useless as they are so fast that a hit is impossible.
Once I lay on my camp bed under a shady tree on the banks of the Luangwa, not so far from the bridge, which actually was in sight. It was about 4 pm and I had nodded off whilst reading a book which was still lying on my chest. As I lay on the camp bed, wearing only a pair of shorts I just felt something that woke me up. My head was propped up on my pillow and looking down I was shocked to see a cobra with its head that had already reached somewhere by my navel, passing slowly over the bed. In a situation like this the golden rule is to be cool and to think quietly and rationally. My left hand luckily was hanging down by the side of the bed, and so without moving my body which I kept absolutely still, I used it to gently tap the bed. He immediately stopped and put up his hood showing the white band across the bottom. He had not liked the vibration which was odd and suspicious to him, and so he turned and slowly went off the bed to safety. He was a large snake about 5 – 6 foot in length and could easily have killed me. The golden rule with snakes to remember is, no jerky or sudden movements, stay calm and you will stand a good chance of getting away without any trouble. The amusing sequel of this story was that I was determined then to catch him, so I grabbed a pair of glasses which turned out to be too dark, and so I grabbed a torch much to the amusement of my boys who saw their Bwana in broad daylight chasing a cobra with a torch. Eventually he got into some bushes and as I could not see him clearly decided it was best to leave him alone
PYTHONS:
The extraordinary thing was that in Africa in spite of all the time spent in the bush I went for years and years before I ever came across a python. Once I did shoot a really big one floating on driftwood in the middle of the Luangwa River. I shot it with my .22 and when I came to retrieve it found that the driftwood was full of other snakes as well. As I steered the driftwood to the shore I very nearly stepped on a dangerous adder, which I spotted just before my foot came down across his back, and somehow I managed to throw myself to the side and avoid it. But then after that episode it was again years before I saw one again. Even in Ceylon which has a lot of pythons I never came across one in the wild. And then suddenly I caught three alive.
The first one I got when I was on the banks of the Zambesi in my boat. I had gone out for a week-end of fishing not shooting or hunting, but just a relaxing trip to unwind. As I travelled along the quiet river in the boat I spotted a Goliath Heron which appeared to have a nest in a mass of creepers covering a tree. So I brought the boat to land to see whether there was a way I could climb up to see what was in the nest. On landing I immediately spotted an egg lying below the tree that had only just been freshly sucked out by a snake or some other animal. It was an extremely neat
