Uploaded December 2024 | Updated September 2026, 2 weeks ago
We recently had the chance to spend a couple of weeks in Botswana's Okavango Delta. We camped in several different game reserves starting with Moremi. We had nice canvas tents with cots and sleeping bags with a shower and plastic toilet over a newly dug hole behind each tent. The tents were zipped up so we didn't have to worry about any animals getting in but the bathroom areas just had canvas walls with no floor so smaller animals could get in there. Our awesome guide, Elliott, took us out every morning and late afternoon to see some of the amazing animals who live in the Delta. The second afternoon we were there we came back from our morning drive, had lunch and then relaxed for a couple of hours before we went back out. Our niece, Suzanne, and I are semi rabid bird watchers so we paid attention to any and all birds. That afternoon the local birds started going nuts calling and hopping around in low bushes. There had to be a predator that had them upset. I got my camera and went to see what they were upset about and quickly found a small puff adder maybe 15 inches long. It was moving slowly through the grass and bushes looking for a meal and the birds did not like it at all. I spent 10 minutes or so filming the small snake and then, using my tripod, goosed it out away from where we were resting so we didn't have to worry about where it was. When I first goosed it with my tripod it made a very distinct hissing noise voicing its displeasure at me. It then decided it was time to leave and headed into the brush.
The next day we went out in the morning and then returned to camp for lunch. I walked through our tent and into the back bathroom area. As soon as I walked out of our tent into that area I heard a hissing noise that sounded familiar but didn't really pay a lot of attention to it. As I approached the plastic toilet I heard the hissing again but much louder. That got my attention. I looked down to see a huge puff adder at the base of the toilet about a foot from my feet. I yelled to everyone else in the camp that there was a big puff adder in there. My niece hates snakes so she stayed away as did our guide who didn't seem too worried about the snake. During the commotion I created the puff adder decided it had had enough and left. Later our guide told us that he worked at cattle posts when he was younger where they slept on the ground with a blanket to keep warm. Three times during his tenure he woke up to find a puff adder had slipped in under his blanket during the night and was using him to stay warm. Each time he woke up the next morning and carefully got away from snake. Like I told him at the time I could see that happening to me one time and one time only because I wouldn't sleep out in the open after a puff adder used me to stay warm. He just laughed and said they were definitely poisonous but not all that aggressive. Maybe so but you still wouldn't catch me out there waiting for one to join me.
We recently had the chance to spend a couple of weeks in Botswana's Okavango Delta. We camped in several different game reserves starting with Moremi. We had nice canvas tents with cots and sleeping bags with a shower and plastic toilet over a newly dug hole behind each tent. The tents were zipped up so we didn't have to worry about any animals getting in but the bathroom areas just had canvas walls with no floor so smaller animals could get in there. Our awesome guide, Elliott, took us out every morning and late afternoon to see some of the amazing animals who live in the Delta. The second afternoon we were there we came back from our morning drive, had lunch and then relaxed for a couple of hours before we went back out. Our niece, Suzanne, and I are semi rabid bird watchers so we paid attention to any and all birds. That afternoon the local birds started going nuts calling and hopping around in low bushes. There had to be a predator that had them upset. I got my camera and went to see what they were upset about and quickly found a small puff adder maybe 15 inches long. It was moving slowly through the grass and bushes looking for a meal and the birds did not like it at all. I spent 10 minutes or so filming the small snake and then, using my tripod, goosed it out away from where we were resting so we didn't have to worry about where it was. When I first goosed it with my tripod it made a very distinct hissing noise voicing its displeasure at me. It then decided it was time to leave and headed into the brush.
The next day we went out in the morning and then returned to camp for lunch. I walked through our tent and into the back bathroom area. As soon as I walked out of our tent into that area I heard a hissing noise that sounded familiar but didn't really pay a lot of attention to it. As I approached the plastic toilet I heard the hissing again but much louder. That got my attention. I looked down to see a huge puff adder at the base of the toilet about a foot from my feet. I yelled to everyone else in the camp that there was a big puff adder in there. My niece hates snakes so she stayed away as did our guide who didn't seem too worried about the snake. During the commotion I created the puff adder decided it had had enough and left. Later our guide told us that he worked at cattle posts when he was younger where they slept on the ground with a blanket to keep warm. Three times during his tenure he woke up to find a puff adder had slipped in under his blanket during the night and was using him to stay warm. Each time he woke up the next morning and carefully got away from snake. Like I told him at the time I could see that happening to me one time and one time only because I wouldn't sleep out in the open after a puff adder used me to stay warm. He just laughed and said they were definitely poisonous but not all that aggressive. Maybe so but you still wouldn't catch me out there waiting for one to join me.
