First off, Thursday night a cobra was killed here on our compound. It slithered up from the swamp and almost bit one of our guards. Instead it was captured and promptly killed. It was fairly small but these snakes have the same amount of poison regardless of their size and its enough to kill a human being. We went down to take a look and it was still twitching. The guards had quite the laugh as we made a big deal about this snake, taking pictures holding it and making squeamish faces. Our house is high enough up in the compound that it is quite unlikely to have a snake venture up. They also tend to come out at night so as long as we avoid any moonlit walks, we should be okay. In Kibaale, however, snakes have been found in the guesthouse. Hopefully we won’t see any during the week we will be living there.
The second big event was our field trip to Camp Croc on Friday. This crocodile farm and ‘resort’ area is about a 45 minutes drive north of Masaka and is located on the shore of Lake Victoria. Unfortunately it poured rain the entire day (not a common occurrence here) but that didn’t seem to bother the kids. There were several rows of enclosures (and by enclosures, I mean very small pens made of low brick walls) with lots of smaller crocodiles up to three years of age. By the time they are three years old, they are ready to be ‘harvested’ (ie. made into burgers). In the middle of the farm were two larger enclosures (slightly higher walls but not high enough in my estimation) with three massive man-eating crocodiles (quite literally…one had eaten 84 people). Mark was chatting with one of the Danish fathers about how they knew this croc had eaten exactly 84 people. Ole joked back that they must have counted the SIM cards. After getting a short lecture about the crocodiles from a Bob Marley look-alike, the guide hopped right into one of the pens, poked a few of the crocodiles with a stick and then picked one up asking if anyone wanted to try. Round the croc went, as we each had a turn holding it. He even asked Maya if she wanted to hold it and thankfully she said no. Although I attempted to keep the kids at a safe distance, they ended up right in the middle of things and petting the croc. The Danish parents didn’t seem to mind so I gave up. Clearly they don’t have the same liability issues here in Uganda as we do in Canada. After we’d had our fill of crocodiles, we headed over to the campsite area where they had a small, covered café which we used to eat our picnic lunches. Afterwards the kids headed out to the beach, despite the pouring rain and had a great time digging in the sand. Overall it was a great day and a great adventure. Definitely something to write home about!
Our third reptile experience happened Friday night at the Café Frikadellen where we attended the fabulous BBQ buffet dinner. They have a little pond at the café and had recently brought home a small turtle. The kids had a great time holding it (maybe a little too much fun) and we took the opportunity to snap a few more photos.
We have come to the conclusion that this might be a good opportunity for an impromptu reptile unit =)
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