SNEAKY PUFFADDERS

The lodge director was up for a weekend at Matla recently and had brought some guests for this trip. They were sitting and having a drink at the bar. As the converstaion continued we started to talk about drinks, and one in particular called a sneaky puffadder. The concoction is 1 tot of Cane, 1 tot of Vodka, half soda water and half lemonade with a dash of bitters. It tastes great and is quite refreshing but comes with a bite! You really don't feel anything until it creeps up on you.

Talking about sneaky puffadders, it's getting quite warm in Madikwe now and this heat usually brings out the snakes. One night Kim and I were having a small braai. We poured ourselves a drink and I went out to start the fire. I had a few peices of wood in our little boma area from the last fire we had made. As I picked up the wood I noticed a puffadder under the pile, curled up and ready to strike. Luckily I moved away in time and the snake was pretty chilled. We got the snake tongs and stuck him in the cooler box and released him away from our house.

Puffadder bites are extremly painfull and there is a large amount of swelling with the venom causing necrosis(rotting the flesh). Not very popular. They are among one of the most common snakes forund in Africa, found from the Cape all the way up into Northern Africa.