Scaly guest chucked out of lodge

MBOMBELA – It is not only guests who are looking to book in at Bushveld Lodge.

An employee reacted quickly to remove a large southern python on Monday, after it surprised reservations manager Vicky Moore at around 19:30.

“He was just waiting there for me,” she told Lowvelder.

The office door had been slightly open. She said snakes never got into the rooms.

She added that the approximately two-metre long snake was not aggressive in any way and a colleague with some knowledge about snakes, took it by the tail and placed it in the nearby river.

The prevalence of these reptiles have become rather common in the area.

Two slithery tales also unfolded after two pythons recently slithered their way along into the proximity of The Rest.

Also see

Tereasa Dias reports that, on Sunday, August 6, a woman spotted the first of the two.

“She contacted CSG Hi-Tech Lowveld at about 14:00 to report the sighting,” said Hi-Tech’s operational manager, Callum Mac Pherson. “Our qualified snake catchers, Callen Herbst and Fanie Nortman, travelled to the scene and caught the snake, measuring 3,8 metres. It was released in a bushy area close by,” said Mac Pherson.

A second call reached Hi-Tech on Friday morning. Initially, Herbst and Nortman thought it must have been the same snake they had recently caught. This was not the case.

Herbst arrived to find the python nestled between the houses. “He was about a half metre shorter than the last one we caught, and he was far more aggressive.”

With the help of a snake tong, he managed to grab the python by the back of its neck with his hand. “I dragged him out and Douglas Uruquart caught the bottom.”

Both the men carried the snake towards the remotest part of the surrounding bush, and released it.

Also see