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Great having you back Martie! Enjoyed seeing those snake photos again!.

It is very possible to have snakes in the roof of your accomodation. Luckily I have not had one yet.
And also a bit off the point, we saw a goog sized Puff adder this past long weekend on one of the gravel roads towards Malelane from afsaal

When we stayed at Orpen recently the employees showed us a juvenile boomslang? (about the size of a ruler) in the vegetation in front of the shop. People were passing it within a few centimeters, including us, without noticing it. It was very green. Our cottage attendant, a very friendly man whose name I forgot, told us that here are quite a few snakes in the camp especially in the summer months . He further said that he thinks it is nothing to worry about as the snakes and humans somehow try their best to avoid each other and few visitors actually encounter or see a snake in camp. He also mentioned that some snakes seem to be “attracted” to human activity .

In the media today (Beeld and Nuus24) I have read that a man who was an overnight guest at a nature reserve in the North-West Province was bitten in the face by a Mozambican Spitting Cobra. When he woke up from being bitten he said he heard a hissing sound next to his bed. According to the report he grabbed the snake and threw him aside and sprinted to the bathroom. He saw the snake slithering up against the bed from the bathroom and he then ran away to call the field ranger. Whether the snake came from the roof or not is not known.

Johannesburg - A Kempton Park bookkeeper has been bitten on the face by a Mozambican spitting cobra while sleeping at a lodge in North West, it was reported on Tuesday.

A severe pain in his left eye woke Werner Bronkhorst, 25, at the Pilanesberg Game Reserve at the weekend. He heard a hissing noise and realised it was a snake, Beeld reported.

"You instinctively know it's a snake. I felt it bite me again, on the eye, and I grabbed it and threw it to one side. I felt blood running down my face," he told the newspaper.

He ran for help, pausing only to grab a packet of cigarettes, "because I knew I was going to need them".

According to Bronkhorst, the snake also went after a water bottle and an empty cigarette box lying on the floor next to the bed.

"That snake wasn't right," he said.

According to Beeld, rangers captured the reptile and released it into the park.

Bronkhorst was admitted to the Ferncrest Hospital, in Rustenburg, where he was reportedly in a stable condition.

Professor Graham Alexander, a snake expert at the University of the Witwatersrand, said he suspected that Bronkhorst might have rolled onto the snake in his sleep, and frightened the animal.

"Snakes don't just attack," he said.

- SAPA

Report in English.

I did smile at the need to grab cigarettes.

A rather creepy thought that you might be sharing your bed with a snake

Aaaannnnd that is why I ways jump up and down on my bed before I get into the bed! My SO still looks at me sometimes as if im a crazy person But after having loved in tzaneen and finding scorpions and spiders in my bed before I learnt then to eliminate the possibilty before it bites me

SL I do exactly the same thing!!!

But what if it falls from above? or comes slithering into your bed later?

I`m going to start sleeping in a motorcycle helmet

Lol Jeanni believe me after youve been trapped on a toilet one of the times when I was 7 months pregnant with a black mamba and a cobra in front of your face you tend to learn to look everywhere for the things before even venturing into a room guaranteed lol

LOL thank goodness now I can tell SO you see so im not crazy hahahahaha

SL

but thanks for the good advice SL and CV. I for sure do not WANT to be woken with a hissing sound in my ear, let alone in my face.

Well, I almost stepped on a Mozambican spitting cobra at Orpen as a child. So maybe I should be a bit more aware of what is lurking around.

In certain aspects Moz spitting cobras are more dangerous than mambas. There seems to be relatively more encounters with them as they come closer to human dwellings. They are also nocturnal which makes it difficult to spot them, they are very acurate in spitting their venom (can do so even from a lying down position) and their complex venom is a combination of cytotoxic (painful and damaging to body tissue) and neurotoxic (potentially fatal). Having said this I would still rather be bitten by a Moz than a mamba.

I wish that guy that got bitten in the North West reserve that starts with a P a speedy recovery with minimum damage.

This year I had a black mamba go into my home's roof as well as a brown house snake in the tv lounge.

I've got the perfect T-shirt for you to sleep in with your helmet on, JeanniR. It says on the front "I AM THE STIG"

Thanks Porridge!!

Maybe I should get the rest of the outfit as well

Hopefully I will get out of bed faster than the Stig around a racetrack when there is a snake in my bed