"You need to go hiking in Africa and see some Anacondas and Pythons!"

Some of our latest news involves close encounters of the reptilian kind.  You might remember our post featuring a baby night adder snake several months ago.  We had been placed under strict instructions to "go hiking in Africa and see some Anacondas and Pythons!"  Well, we did go hiking in Africa recently, as part of our anniversary weekend away (more on the area we went to later) and much to our delight  from the standpoint of wanting to fulfill our oath, we had some up close views of various and sundry reptiles!  The first encounter was the closest.  While we were standing on the edge of a cliff (yes, there was a guardrail) Matt glanced down and noticed this creature not a foot away from our feet.  Remembering our sincere promise, we stopped for a picture, rather than running away.

I felt pretty safe, as it was quite chilly out and this snake was likely freezing too and not likely to want anything to do with us.  I don't know what kind of snake it is though. Maybe Mr. E, Mr. J or Mr. I (all from our most recent place of residence) can fill us in? 

The picture was worthy of a post of it's own.  However, the story doesn't end there.  The very next day, Matt and I took a boat ride and got up close to more reptiles.  We approached some sun baked rocks and saw a fast moving......PYTHON!  We were so excited that we couldn't remember how to use our cameras and get a picture before we saw him splash in the water in front of us!!  Oh man!   It was so cool.  We were sad not to get footage of it.  The boat slowed next to the rocks and we scanned them for signs of other pythons.  First to catch our eye was a monitor lizard.

Wait a minute!  What is that moving above him....oh man...another PYTHON!  And this time, we got photos.  (Maybe they would be better if I saw it sooner, or if I had a bigger lens.  But they are Python pictures just the same!

Do you see his shiny body in the grass?  Now for a shot of his head.

He was cruising down the rock face and soon disappeared into the rocks.

We were thrilled to see it, and immediately were saying how much fun it would be to share these pictures with the 3 young friends we mentioned.  If we see any more Pythons in the wild, we will be sure to share them.  Sadly, as Anacondas are not indigenous to Africa, the chances of seeing those in the wild here are quite slim. 3 snakes in 2 days though. That shows how many snakes there are here.  Kinda made me rethink my whole "lets go on a long hike through the jungle this afternooon" brainwave I'd had before these close encounters.

Well, that wasn't the end of the reptilian encounters for the day.  As we continued up the water, we saw a croc basking in the sun.

Do you see him?? How about a closer look..

He wasn't the biggest croc we have seen, but its the closest look we have had at one in the wild.

Well, we did see one more animal on our boat ride, it's not reptilian, but it is my favorite animal to see in the wild here.

This was the best picture we got of the hippos there.  They were stubborn and not posing for photos.

Well.  We have more pictures of the beautiful scenery we saw that weekend.  Let's save that for later and just dedicate this post to our friends we mentioned.  We love you and miss you, and all our friends from Worland.  We send hugs to each of you.

Love, 

Us