Jan, very interesting safari summary. I've just come back from Amboseli and with the current drought there it's really difficult to imagine a lake from Amboseli / Ol Tukai Lodge til Observation Hill...

You really seem to attract snakes !!!

Get well soon, Cody!

Tobi: Lake Leakey is very unusual. Of 16 times I've been there, it was the only time I've seen it, but it was lovely to see all the flamingos.

My friends in Tsavo now call me the snake magnet. They tell me they might not have seen a snake for several months and then I show up, and so does nyoka

Kat is the one on bushdrums who loves snakes. She'll be on a game drive and have the driver stop, she'll jump out of the vehicle and pick up a snake in the road to the total astonishment of the driver/guides.

Thank you for your well wishes. Tomorrow night will be back home in the stick and woods of Tuscany! The hospital is quite close to the Vatican museum but no sign of the Pope yet calling in - strange! I thought that he may as well come and say hello and perhaps bring a glass of wine to a bushdrummer. I guess if I was called Kipper it would have been very different....

Jan - your stories are great and what a way to go on safari and experience 1st hand such wonderful events. I use the word wonderful in a context meant for experience as you have witnessed cruelty to an extent where my Sicilian character may not remain calm or diplomatic.

The 15 foot “python” – from reading the latter end of your paragraph it would be more related to a mamba – as pythons are not that fast and tend to disappear rather than confront – although they do not bask as much as pythons in the sun due to their colour. It is large for a mamba however mambas are known to be very long in size and the late James Ashe told me about very large mambas on the coast of Kenya. It would be fantastic to see one of those – I wish you had a photo or 2. Maybe Kat can expand.

I have thought of a new business plan –

Company name – “GSS” – Guaranteed Snake Safari
A company that guarantees snake sightings from red cobras and world record breaking mambas to brown twig snakes….

The secret behind the success of the business –

1 – Jan walking up front to attract every slithering slitherer in a 5 km radius
2 – Kat to pick them up when they are in sight
3 – Simba can smoke them out when they get too many
4 – Kipper will prepare the sundowners
5 – All organised by Pippa

And I guess Tobi and I will just watch and enjoy the fun….

Cody: I think the Pope probably visited you during the night while you were asleep and left the wine, which you have now found and gotten into - either that or you are hallucinating from the anesthesia!!

There is absolutely no way under the sun that I would go on a snake expedition (unless I had total body armour of safety plate glass like in a windshield that would protect me from ANY bites or spits).

Seriously though, RoyJan Taylor of Bio-Ken does do snake safaris. You can learn about them at:
http://www.bio-ken.com/2nighter.htm Are you game to do it?

jan/cody - sorry for the short email but just had hand surgery today and typing one-handed is a bummer.

bio-ken does have snake safaris but they are quite expensive...im sure theyre very well done though.

i know another excellent snake man on the coast who will take us snake hunting for free or at a very reasonable fee...

The "15-footer" could have been a large mamba or a juvenile python....no other snakes are that large....but I caution that it may have been less than 15-feet....like in fish stories...

Large mambas will grow to 4 meters (over 12 feet), are slender in build and move like lightening... and a juvenile python much more slender than an adult... can reach at least 9 or 10 feet and move very rapidly, when motivated...yes....take a picture next time, jan...

Ciao Jan - maybe the Pope did leave some good Vino... but then again he may have had most of it without me noticing.

Kat - surgery as well? Looks like the 2 of us make a good team this week. Me with the knee and you with your hand. I hope it is nothing too serious and I wish you a quick recovery! A good glass of wine does miracles to red blood cells etc etc