Thought it would be interesting to hear other people's thoughts on what scares you the most or what you dislike the most.

I have always been terrified of snakes. A friend of our family was killed by a rattlesnake way back in the 1950's when I was a kid and I have feared them since.

Reptiles must pick up on that fear because I have had six close calls with deadly snakes (cobras, green mambas and black mambas) in Tsavo (green mamba slithering up on my veranda within 3 feet of my bare feet). Never realized how fast this old lady could run!!! In fact a year and a half ago I was driving over the little bridge at Aruba Dam and the driver pointed out the dry river bed below. Looking down I thought it was a python, it was absolutely HUGE. All of a sudden it slithered up the dry river bank (about a 30 foot climb) in about 3 - 4 seconds! My driver told me it was not a python but a huge black mamba. We got out of there extremely fast.

Who do you dislike or fear while on safari (not people).

Jan

i give you some examples of my most hated creatures:

- all sorts of sniders....... except tarantulas which i find really elegant when they move so slowly with their toe pointing up like a ballerina i could bet you don't agree on that )))

- ants in masses like soldier ants

- jellyfish

- stonefish

regarding snakes - i would not say that i hate them i like to watch them but don't like them close to me

to be continued

pippa

I actually like snakes - and have had one as a pet for a very short time; a small puff adder which was called puffy. I had it together with a friend of mine in Kenya during school days (it was cool at the time... I think...) and now that I am a father quite stupid..... At that time naturally mum and dad on both sides had no idea about this. Puffy grew fast and turned into Gruffy and then it was time for Gruffy who was allowed to stroll free in our garage where we had the bikes had to move on as it was getting slightly too big; we were around 13 years of age at the time. I hope now Gruffy has turned into a wonderful snake and enjoying slithering around the Mombasa coast.

I do not like Stonefish, Portugues Man of War as they have given me their share of stings whilst on dives.
Now Pippa mentioned ants - Siafu or Safari Ants.
That brings back memories....

The joke was to find a trail of safari ants on the road, remember the place so that we could come back at night. What we then did was pick up a friend and ride on our bikes to the spot and all of a sudden stop.... when the friend asks what is going on, you ask him to get off his bike as there is a problem with the rear light. Naturally without him knowing, he gets off, looks at the rear light and you drive away a couple of meters and wait for the theatre to commence; grand moment when he starts jumping up and down as he is getting those little bits in the legs....
Well that was my teenage times in Kenya and our fun days - it kept us out of trouble and we loved that life. Thinking of it - I think Carsten may have fallen for this as well.

I do not like those centipieds - the red ones that run fast and give you a high fever if you get stung.
They are horrible and fast -

Nico:

You were really a little devil weren't you?!

I was shocked to read your story of Puffy. You guys were really lucky! From what I have read, baby snakes can be even more deadly than their adult parents. Glad none of you got hurt.

When I read the story about the safari ants I broke out in laughter (though I felt sorry for the victim) and read it to my boss, also of Italian descent, and he got a kick out of it also.

You and Carsten should share more of your childhood shenanigans with African wildlife us.

Jan

Sorry to disappoint you Nico, but I never was a victim of this trick

But I remember an incident where I had walked down to the Sheldrick falls in Shimba Hills with a whole bunch of friends. On the way back up one of the girls stopped to catch a breath. Silly enough she stopped right on a track of Safari Ants. Unfortunately they wouldn't just leave because of her "spiritual rain dance" and hence the only solution was to get stark naked and ask someone to help her get them off her.

Conclusion: Siafu do NOT count to the animals I hate

And Puffy, yeah I remember her well. Jan, we grew up with snakes, scorpios, centipieds and God knows what else. We were used to them, yet treating them with respect.

Creatures I fear? Hmm, need to think a lot. I guess ´fear´is the wrong word. It is respect that I have for many of them. The nasty ones that you don´t expect the danger like the spitting cobra. You think you are safe some 2 meters away, but nooo ...

The Portuguese Man of War is definately a nasty one too. You don´t even see the damn things, but you know straight away what struck you. Had one ´thread´slide along right between my regulator (mouth-piece for scuba diving) and the mask. Hence, the upper lip. I spent the whole dive swearing into my mouth piece.

Funnily enough, one of the animals I hate the most are cockroaches. They never harmed me, so I have no clue why I hate them. And out of all animals I grew up, those are the ones you find in Greece, too So glad I have cats

I will think of some nice childhood anecdodes to share... so many to tell...

what the hell is a "portugues man of war"?????????????????
we, who are not kenyan cowboys, just dont know these creatures )))
thanks in advance for giving me a clue!
irma