Caching and snakes!

[+Lotho]

The first attempt on one of my caches near reading:

August 26, 2007 by TheRoundings (320 found)

11h30 26 Aug 07. I thought I'd try and be first on the scene for this one being so close by - and I think I was.

Problem was, as I started my 'rummage about' in the cache zone, I disturbed a snake in the grass. It was probably more frightened of me than I of it and I doubt it was poisonous but being a scardy-cat I decided to leave and let it be - I didn't want to be another Steve Irwin. SO keep your eye's peeled and think about where you stick your fingers in this location.

[+maw, paw + the piglets]

GCJAFA South African Representative Cache ( Scotland) on Arran regularly has a few of the blighters around...see the entry for 13th July 2007. Lots of bracken around so long pokey stick and lots of noise needed. I have always wanted to do this cache but Paw seems a bit reluctant, I wonder why? Last year on our annual hloiday on Arran, I spotted a fairly large adder sunning itself on a rock. I pointed it out to Paw whose immediate response was "Don't pick it up!" What???? Do I look like some snake wrangler?

 

Having said that, the year before some guy had to be air-lifted off the island due to going into anaphylactic shock after having been bitten about 5 times by adders. The idiot saw mummy adder and baby adders and decided to try and have a photo opportunity. They didn't like being picked up and let him know good style.

 

What with ticks and adders, I am a firm believer in long trousers tucked into socks for geocaching in very rural areas.

[+Dorsetgal & GeoDog]

Some minutes later, with GeoDog safely in the house, we went back out to take more pix and it was making its way across the road.

 

 

I am relieved I have taken steps in the past to snakeproof him, today he saw it, took two steps back and sat to attract my attention. I am not terribly sure he is 100% though, at the end of the day, something moving like that may just be too much to pass by without having a look.

Edited April 14, 2008 by Dorsetgal & GeoDog

[+gazooks]

Came across two in one day whilst caching in North Norfolk last year and disturbed another one recently while caching near Huntingdon.

[+reddeeps]

I have seenseveral grass snakes in local woods, but last year came across an adder. We always have gardening gloves in caching bag and I will put them on now.

[+Beds Clangers]

SNAKES!!! ARRGGHH!!!

 

While working in the New Forest, had just come off a mobile phone mast very knackered, and "flopped" down on the grass

 

Had a sudden, really painful, jab in my right VERY upper leg (Won't say "p***k in the arse" ) but bet you can all guess where I mean

 

After loads of laughing from my work mates , looks like I had sat on an adder

 

YEP!!, had sat on and been bitten by an adder

 

Adder in question was "dead" well almost, so they took me and snake to hospital

 

After loads of jokes about "not sucking the venom out" had a few more "pricks" in A&E and was given the all clear

 

They think I sat on a sick/ill/almost dead? adder!!!

 

Adder died I'm still here

 

Bite was VERY painful for a few days but the jokes about sucking the poision out is all I remember

 

Cheers

[+Alibags]

Well they are out already!

 

Just under an hour ago, I came across this is my driveway!

 

 

Aww, pretty!

[+overanout]

Here is the cache log from the DEVILS GAP cache in Gibraltar - GCJR1J

 

Good views from the cache.

An easy find.

However, the walk back down towards Gibraltar town wasn't without incident.

We followed the road leading downhill and after a while and several zig-zags we found ourselves up against a fence preventing further access. We decided to persevere, and managed to squeeze between the railings and continued our descent. Eventually, we came across some steps which were well used and looked as though they led down to the nearby road. We began walking down the steps when suddenly, right in front of me (about two feet away) was an enormous snake about 7 feet long and 4 inches in diameter. It was coloured yellow and black in a zig-zag pattern. It looked at me and I quickly turned and ran back up the steps, pushing astra-nomical as I went. I looked back and saw it slithering away into the undergrowth.

After we regained our composure, and courage, we quickly walked down the steps and into what was a really nice garden.

This was the garden of the big hotel and we must have looked odd, walking through the terrace dining room of the hotel with our rain ponchos on, while the guests were eating lunch.

We left by the hotel front door and got onto the street leading us down into town.

What an experience - talk about snakes and ladders, I nearly threw a SEVEN.

TFTC SL

OVERANOUT

 

I should add that in my hasty retreat, I failed to get out my camera, focus it and take an award winning shot.

I know what it is like to come face to face with a big serpent and I was in no mood to record the event.

[+scaw]

I have just moved to Dorset and think i am going to pack my bags and leaving your infested down here and I HATE SNAKES think i am packing in caching ..................... there horrible

[+sonatellas]

Some fellow cachers may remember last year on the last day of the Carry on Camping event Sam and I went off to do a nearby cache. Sam put his hand into the where he thought the cache was and heard a very loud hissing sound. Being a bloke he called me over and prodded the hole again with a stick so I could hear the hissing sound too. At this moment many fellow cachers turned up at the cache site and went to another part of the grass verge and found the cache. It was all quite funny and I think the snake must of been pretty fed up. We now carry sticks especially on the moors in Summer.

[+cownchicken]

A subject Cow has nightmares about - having stood on a cobra, missed a puff adder by a centimeter and just missed standing on two other unindentified specimens.

Also having a snake in our house (in the middle of suburbia) has added to her phobia.

Snakes can be expected while caching in the bush in South Africa in the hot summer months though - but on the whole they'll keep out of your way if at all possible, except for the lazy, fat and agressive puff adder.

[+The Hancock Clan]

Here's one of our logs from a cache Mr H did last week...

 

After having a bit of a fright at the previous cache by nearly treading on a rather large brown snake, the chances of seeing another one, I thought, would be pretty slim. So off I went, and about ten minutes into the walk there's a rustle of leaves below me; I look down and my foot's actually stood on the tail-end of a red-bellied black snake as it slithers away!!! Thankfully, he didn't turn!

 

Anyway, after my heart beat had normalised I carried on and enjoyed the walk out to this one. Spent ages trying to retrieve the cache and then worked out the correct way once I read the clue!

 

Lovely spot, thanks,

 

The Hancock Clan

[+Dorsetgal & GeoDog]

I have just moved to Dorset and think i am going to pack my bags and leaving your infested down here and I HATE SNAKES think i am packing in caching ..................... there horrible

 

Welcome to Dorset!

 

Sorry to read of your bad back, I'm sure you'll find there are plenty of urban / semi urban caches to ease your way back in when things improve.

 

As for the snakes, generally, unless you worry them, they won't worry you ... just keep your eyes open when you are on the open heathland or woodland glades. Most of the adders I see are basking for warmth.

[+look4box]

I've never seen a snake in the wild.....until today - when geocaching in Virginia Water, Berkshire

 

Green grass snake - thankfully making it's own escape.

Edited July 16, 2011 by look4box

[+FantasyRaider]

I had to go past the pictures very fast

 

I wouldn't be impressed if a toy snake was put in a cache that I was doing. I don't see things like that as funny.

 

This one warns you!

 

Ssssnake pit

[+Birdman-of-liskatraz]

 

An adder at a Dartmoor cache..

 

A link to my log.

[team tisri]

Anyone come across any whilst caching? Wish I would! Never seen a snake in the wild!

 

I've been wary whilst tramping through heather that perhaps if there was going to be a snake anywhere then it would be here. I'd love to see one though!

 

I've seen a couple of adders while out caching although not near the cache itself. One was near Lizard Point - it was about six inches long and just wriggled across the path a few feet in front of us. The other was in the New Forest - this one was more like a foot long and wriggled alongside the path, as if it were walking with us, before turning off and disappearing.

 

The other day I was cycling along a riverside towpath and saw a snake. I didn't get to ID it because I was more interested in not running it over. It was probably about 18" and a fairly uniform dark green. I don't think it was an adder but not sure what it was.

 

Hiking in the US we've seen a few - a black rat snake about 12" long, a garter snake slightly shorter, and the biggest we saw was a black rat snake about 5 feet long.

 

The closest encounter with a snake was when I lifted a flat stone expecting to find a cache and found a coiled up garter snake instead.

Edited July 16, 2011 by team tisri

[+The Patrician]

We had a lovely grass snake doing a bit of frog hunting in our garden last year (we know it was frog hunting because when we accidently disturbed it a frog burst out of hiding and hopped down the garden as though death was on its heels, as I suppose it was!). We've had lizards in the house masquerading as snakes with just the tips of their tails sticking out from under the fridge, that caused a quite stir as I recall. I nearly got a slow worm (not a snake, I know) with the lawn mower a couple of years back, I just spotted him in time.

 

We saw the biggest adder ever at Grimspound on Dartmoor and I've seen them in Cornwall, Pembrokeshire and on the Malvern Hills (where a dog got bitten last week, no fatalities fortunately).

 

Personally I like snakes.

[jadenrich2101]

I didnt even get to the third page of critters while caching on the usa pages! OMG a spider that looked as big as my arm and all these nasty maooosive spider webs I would never cache in america AND ESPECIALLY NOT AT NIGHT!!!

 

i hope i dont come across critters...im happy enough with dogs, cats and butterflys

[+Pharisee]

I've spotted the occasional Adder whilst caching around the New Forest but I've seen many more Grass Snakes. They are great swimmers and I've seen them in rivers and canals swimming along with their head held up a few inches above the surface. My mate and I have a boat on the Broads for a weeks fishing each year and you can guarantee we'll spot at least one in the water in the early morning sun each trip.

[+Simply Paul]

I woke up what I think was a black adder some years ago, as I lifted some woodwork doing a cache along the Oxford Canal. Solly and I both sprung back just as quickly as the snake sprung the other way. I've seen quite a few grass snakes and slow worms while caching too. Also, the odd snake on the forums

[+Write and Mane]

I was bitten by an adder while reaching under a log to retrieve a cache in Ashridge Forest 2-3

years ago. It was early in the year, so the snake was probably half asleep and didn't inject much venom.

My hand swelled and was pretty sore for 24 hours, but I didn't need treatment and didn't see it as a major problem. It hasn't put me off caching, but I am a bit more circumspect before putting my hand into dark places.

While their natural shyness and fear of predators means that you don't see them that often, they are surprisingly numerous and widespread.

[+Gushoneybun]

I didnt even get to the third page of critters while caching on the usa pages! OMG a spider that looked as big as my arm and all these nasty maooosive spider webs I would never cache in america AND ESPECIALLY NOT AT NIGHT!!!

 

i hope i dont come across critters...im happy enough with dogs, cats and butterflys

 

We have cached in Florida and they have all sorts of interesting wildlife. There you certainly do look before sticking your hand in anywhere and a poking stick is a neccesity. It does add to the adrenalin rush when it is getting dark and even though you are in an urban area you are next to water, all the time your brain is asking you is there an alligator watching you? I even jumped when I came across a lizard next to a cache.

 

We went onto a nature trail, in the middle of nowhere and there was a hand written sign up (pinned up with an outdoor knife) signed by the ranger saying to stick to the main paths and keep out of the water as there were some large alligators in the area, we grabbed the one in the car park and left quickly

[+FOX 661L]

Spotted a slow worm while caching up the side of Wastwater in May, and an adder when up on Ilkley Moor last summer - as with most caches on the moors the box was hidden 'under a rock', I came across a rock with a suitable opening underneath it, was just going to put my hand in to feel around when I saw the snake hiding in there move... I backed off and looked under the next rock and found the cache !

 

I've seen a few other adders over the years, mainly sunning themselves on rocks, but they do tend to disappear before you get close to them

[+NickandAliandEliza]

With my nose 6 inches from it's face (as I looked under a crack in a rock face) - I thought this chap was an adder for a split second....

 

[+rickardclan]

Yep, Adder on the way to a cache in Sennen, Cornwall, basking in the sun in the middle of the road, nearly drove over it - parked up the road and went back (but not too close) for a pic....

 

 

Favourite Sites - Sennen

 

Out on a boating lake (in Suffolk) this week and we skimmed the edge of a small island, I turned and spotted a nice fat grass snake coiled up and enjoying the sun - no pic (or cache) but the sudden appearance nearly made me jump out of the boat! Lol

Edited July 18, 2011 by rickardclan

[+Shanghai Joe]

 

Off topic I know, but that's a very nice photo

[+The Blorenges]

... We went onto a nature trail, in the middle of nowhere and there was a hand written sign up (pinned up with an outdoor knife) signed by the ranger saying to stick to the main paths and keep out of the water as there were some large alligators in the area, we grabbed the one in the car park and left quickly

 

Ahhhh... This was your car then? MrsB

 

[+Gushoneybun]

... We went onto a nature trail, in the middle of nowhere and there was a hand written sign up (pinned up with an outdoor knife) signed by the ranger saying to stick to the main paths and keep out of the water as there were some large alligators in the area, we grabbed the one in the car park and left quickly

 

Ahhhh... This was your car then? MrsB

 

 

Very good, but no although I do feel it would be better behaved in the car than the kids and less likely to snap when I ask it to behave

 

But we did see this under someone else's car:

 

[+calibri]

We've had a few encounters whilst caching in Florida, the funniest being during the Easy Series when Mr H peered around the back of a tree coming face to face with a Florida Black Racer. Both him and the snake jumped out their skins and shot off in opposite directions like something out of a cartoon!

 

Also, whilst out there we were fortunate enough to get close enough to a rather angry Cottonmouth for a cracking photo! It was taken at the now archived Conservazen cache...

 

 

I encountered a lot of slippery snakes until a certain family emigrated to Austrailia !!

Edited July 20, 2011 by calibri