SA Venomous Snakes

I am often asked when out on tour with my foreign friends about snakes or more accurately poisonous snakes. So immediately my first response has to be; snakes are termed venomous not poisonous. The reason being they inject the poison, which then classifies it as a venom not a poison. So an easy way to remember is, venom is injected and a poison is ingested.

So venomous snakes of South Africa they ask, and I tell them 'they are there, just not so easy to see'. Lately however, I have had the fortunate experience of confirming this statement. In fact, 3 in just 2 hikes, and in small reserves but a stone's throw from the urban environs. First we crossed paths with a mozambique spitting cobra, which reared up to display its hood before turning tail and disappearing in a split second.

Then on another hike whilst walking a trail that follows a small cliff face, known for its population of rock dassie, a movement caught my eye. I turned to see a 2.5- 3m black mamba slithering through the branches next to us, so close I could touch it. Adrenaline kicked in and we froze, and watched it poking its head into the crevices as it moved along in the same direction we were moving. We watched for what felt like forever until it came down towards the path about 10m in front of us and then decided to high tail it out of there in the opposite direction, taking the long way home. For those that don't know, the black mamba is the most venomous snake we have and depending on the amount of venom it discharges, can kill you in 20min. It is also the fastest, as we got to witness first hand.

As if that wasn't enough when we got back to camp we were then treated to a sun-bathing vine snake (pictured above). They use camouflage as their means of hunting, making themselves look just like a branch. Although their venom is also very potent, their fangs are situated far back in the mouth, therefore unless bitten on a finger the snake would battle to penetrate human skin.

Interestingly enough, we not only encountered 3 venomous snakes, but also 3 that each carry different types of venom. The cobra has a concoction of cyto- and neuro- toxic venom, but mainly cytotoxic. Meaning the venom attacks your skin tissue, breaking it down. The mamba, and is the reason it works so quick, has a strong neurotoxic venom, that attacks the nervous system, which when reaching the heart causes paralysis and death. The vine snake has an unique venom, haemotoxic, causing the blood to thin and its victim to bleed from all orifices. Until very recently, like 3 months recent, the only way to survive a bite was to have a full blood transfusion, but an anti-venom has finally been found.

So to conclude, 'are there snakes in SA?', do a little exploring and find out for yourself, I can certainly vouch for it.

Thanks for reading, cheers till next time.

Remember to visit our new website here!!

Take a hike in a gorge, mountain bike on a coffee farm, canoe up river, swim with the dolphins, hike to beach fossils, do a gorge swing, 4 by 4 over a montain, take a wilderness walk, track wild animals, go kayaking, go white water rafting........Learn to surf, play with some cheetah cubs, experience an unspoilt beach, snorkel, catch some rays......(sun rays that is)!!! Go game viewing in a World Heritage site, get up close and personal with hippos and crocs and top it all off with some big 5 game viewing in Kruger!!!!

Seem like a lot?? Well it is and we managed to squeeze it all into 15 days! KZN once again proved it is of world class quality, offering diverse amounts of adventure, coupled with natural beauty and even a little time to take it all in and chill.

Unfortunately I have no video or even photos as my electronic equipment packed up on me, but watch this space as I am sure our adventurers Mike, Ryan and Jamie - James Bond will be sharing their amazing pictures and videos with me soon.

As usual after an already amazing trip filled with all the above activities the 'cherry on the top' Kruger delivered more in 3 days then we could ever ask for. The most memorable being the beautiful young leopard that strolled across the road in front of us with a franklin in her mouth. The silent killer must have stalked and killed it less then 50m away, whilst we were viewing 2 African Hawk Eagles.....we never even heard her!

http://www.endless-summer-tours.co.za/tour-packages/adventure/14-night-adventure-package

Thanks to our new friends for an awesome trip, we hope to see you in the near future.........

We Rock!!

Well, as expected the World Cup spectacle came and went in a blink of an eye.

We did have time to 'stop and smell the roses', so to speak and boy were they sweet! South Africa showed the world that we mean business and KZN that we are an unrivalled tourist destination. For us the opportunity to market Durban and the East Coast to the rest of the world was great and we put on our 'Sunday best'.

The comments that we got from our guests were incredible and we are all the more confident in the product this part of the world has to offer because of it. "What a beautiful city", "amazing beaches" and of course "incredible weather" were just a few!

Thank you to all for spending this time with us and we hope to have you, friends and family back again soon.

www.endless-summer-tours.co.za

Keep well
Proudly South African!!

Who has had enough of the 'Jeep Jockeys'?

Well I just returned from another very pleasant trip to the Kruger. The weather was great, sightings fantastic and the joy of the bush soothing.

What is really troubling though is the number of open game-viewing vehicles that are tearing up the south of the park these days. Racing from one road to the next on their quest to find 'The BIG 5!' Over the two days it became quite a talking point for us as we went about photographing the abundance of birds, studying the trees and viewing animals from the tiny tortoise to the common impala.

It felt a bit like the child's tale of 'The Hare and The Tortoise', we were plodding along doing our thing, whilst they were constantly flying past us! We'd catch up when they stopped for the mandatory half a minute to view the 'common game', and then speed off in a cloud of dust. The thing is, if they took just a second to look around they'd realise their clients are sitting there with the longest faces, enjoying themselves only because they have waited so long to travel to Africa.

The prize goes to that so called 'guide' who on our final afternoon we had the pleasure of speaking to. As he approached I waved him down, and then politely asked how his morning had been. His response was fairly direct, "fine, but the kitty cats don't want to come out and play." I then told him that 500m back there was rhino and elephant, and a kilometer after that a huge herd of buffalo, as well as some other nice game. His child like response was, "That's cool, but I want kitty cats!"

I do need to thank the 'Jeep Jockeys' for one thing though, with all your antics you guys made my job very easy, and I ended up looking like a king! As from the photos you can see we had some great sightings of cats. Funny thing was that at all of our 4 cat sightings, we only witnessed one Jeep. Wonder if that jockey ever did find his Kitty Cats????

Well, looks like the tortoise triumphed again!!

Visit Face Book to see more photos of our Kitty Cats........

http://www.facebook.com/album.php?aid=191395&id=159541836718&saved#!/pages/Endless-Summer-Tours/159541836718

Garden Route

Well last week we had a great trip down the Garden route and up into the Karoo.

Boy was it hot though, the further south we went the more we saw signs warning us of the drought stricken area. According to the locals the Garden Route is not so 'gardeny' because of it. Which is clearly why we weren't blown away, but the views were beautiful, the sea water warm and our accommodation great.

We did find the atmosphere rather dull though, maybe because of the heat and drought, maybe because of the season (most coastal areas are quiet) or maybe that's just how they are?? Take Knysna for example; a beautiful water front, packed restaurants and bars but no atmosphere. We barely had to raise our voices above a whisper, quite dissapointing actually.

The Karoo was even hotter, but funny enough had seen more rain than the coast. Can't say we got much time to relax though, suppose we need a holiday....

Watch the quick clip of some of our highlights, at least I got some good waves in water warmer then Durban!

Surfing South Africa

Hi there and thanks for reading my first blog of 2010. I took a little break over the festive season and hope you all enjoyed the holidays as much as I did.

Well we've had a quick start to the new year, with a couple of great tours already in the bag. The best by far was the surf tour with Edouard, our new mate from Holland. We had some sick weather, small but consistent surf, with a really relaxing vibe.

This time of year of course the weather is hot, really hot and not only Edouard was battling with the heat. This however meant long hours spent surfing and enjoying the waves. It worked out quite well for him though because we got big enough surf to have some great rides, but at the same time not too heavy, which allowed him a better opportunity to find his feet so to speak.

Being a lone traveller meant we really managed to get him into the South African way of life, which of course is our main goal when showing guests our country. Hanging out on the beach, a surfer breakfast of rolls and Cheese Naks, cruising around checking different surf breaks and an afternoon braai with a couple of cold ones. All the things that make this country great and allow us to have a lifestyle like no other!

Thanks Edouard for helping us to continue the 'Endless Summer', make new friends and live the dream, hope you enjoyed it my man...

Watch the video of Edouards trip, images are always better than words.