Saturday, April 14, 2007

Pythons love me.


Pythons are everywhere. One day after hiking in to my field site it started to rain. Since I am use to working in the tropics, I of course had no warm clothes or rain protection. So I thought "Maybe it won't rain too hard" Then it started to pour. So I thought "This is probably short lived, I'll just wait it out. After all I hiked all the way in here." It was really cold so I made a little thatch covering and sat on the ground huddled under my make-shift shelter. After about 20 mins I looked over and saw a python 1 meter away. Since they are not poisonous I wasn't too scared, but then it decided to move. It wasn't very protected from the rain and he/she was looking for a better spot. All I thought was "Please don't come over here". It started to, but then found a large palm frond to curl under. It was entertaining to watch it curl itself up. This one was only about 2 meters long. Well the python and I hung out for about 2 hours, until I realized it wasn't going to stop raining and crawled out and ran all the way out. Yeah, I was freezing. I now carry an emergency poncho and a long sleeve. Anyways, I finished up the day having coffee with the 80 yr old dutch friends I made at the campground (the trailhead). Above is a picture of a different python I saw hiking in another time.

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