When the lizard moved out

I had a water monitor lizard living under a bushy shrub in my backyard. We were on friendly terms. He kept to his space, and I kept to mine... minus the area around the shrub. He was a pretty chilled creature, but I still didn't get too close. He did, after all, have long sharp claws.

Every night around 5pm he would slide out of the bush and soak up the evening sun. On the rare occasions that I was home during the daytime, I would catch him sneaking into the pool for a swim and a feed on the frogs that were living in the pool. For this medium sized lizard life was good. (I assume. I mean, we never had any in depth conversations about it...)

Then one day, he disappeared. He moved out from under my bush without a parting wave, and I didn't see him again. I should have seen it as a warning. When the lizard moved out... something else moved in.

I first noticed this new resident about 2 days after last spotting the lizard. All I saw was a flash of a tail slithering under the shrub, but it was enough. I had a large snake living in my backyard!

Now, Zambia is home to many snakes. Most of them are harmless, but some, like the black mamba, boomslang and puff adder are deadly. Having grown up in Australia, my default attitude towards snakes is "kill first, ask questions later". I'd already had a snake in my house, and I was not so keen to have that repeated, not knowing what it was.

However, I was also not going to go diving into the bush, and with the light fading into night, I decided to shut my back door and wait until morning. First, however, I went to my neighbours and let him know. They have two small boys and I didn't want them wandering into my yard. I told him I'd wait until morning and he asked if I was okay with that. "Sure. I'll just wear shoes in the meantime, I replied before realising that the only shoes I wear around here are thongs...what good would that do against a snake??!

I had been cooking outside on the brazier, and in my naivety I thought, "Snakes sleep at night. He's at the back of the yard, so it will be fine to cook close to the house." I was watching the vegetables cook in the glow from my house light when I heard a hissing sound. "I'm so paranoid," I thought. I'm imagining snake hissing now!" I walked back to the house to get some ingredients to add to the vegetables. About 2m from my open back door, I glanced to my right (towards the pool) and found the source of the hissing. A long grey snake was slithering past, a mere metre from me. Filled with superhuman powers of jump, I leapt the last two metres to my back door and slammed it closed.

My first message was to a colleague who loves snakes. I was oping she would be able to identify it. I then messaged my neighbour and told hi it was a big snake and it was moving around my backyard. Could he do something about it?

I peaked through my window with a torch and tried to spot the snake. Amazingly, I spotted it...in my pool. It had somehow gotten inside and was struggling to get out. Feeling a bit safer, I went outside to meet my neighbour. We got a brick, and standing a safe 2 metres above the snake, he dropped the brick. Perfect shot.

In the morning light we took a closer look. Measuring at 1.3m long, this snake was a spitting cobra. Not the type of snake you want to meet up close, with the ability to spit venom.

I took some photos to mark the memory, extremely grateful to God for keeping both of us safe that night!

#snake #life #zambia