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Ghana, 6.30 am in the morning. The sun is rising now.
A nice and mild climate. It would guess that right now it's about 26°C.
Today we'll do something very special. Ghana is not only a Ball Python country. It's the country of Gabun Addas, Cobras and Mambas.
Today we are going to search for Mambas. Even for me this is something completely new. I'm not that experienced with these venomous animals.
I'm really looking forward at what we'll experience today. Have fun!
As you can see behind me, I'm still in Africa. Accra is about 40km away.
Apart from Ball Pythons, you can find Puff Adders, Cobras and Mambas. Today we've planed to go looking for venomous snakes.
I'm here with Jow. He converted one of the hooks that I brought with me 10 years ago. He even extended it to two meters.
He uses it to hunt Mambas. They are rather aggressive and it's better to keep your distance.
We'll go into the outback and try to find some of them.
We're wearing appropriate clothes!. As always, shorts and sandals. The right equipment, but if you walk at the end of the row, probably nothing will happen.
Have fun!
Just to give you a short impression where we are. This is the main road, which leads from Accra into the north.
This is also the road we came here on.
We parked our car in a small village, as you could see in the intro.
We're walking in that direction. The Mambas shouldn't be that far away. Now I have to run, otherwise it's not the Mambas that will kill me, but the trucks on the road.
We are now 100m behind the road.
This is a small trail that leads deeper into the bush.
The area where there are supposedly at lot of snakes. It should be somewhere around here.
Jim is walking in front of me. He's also got the best equipment for the trip: shorts and sandals.
Rule No.1 Always walk at the back. The people up front get bitten.
We've been walking for an hour now.
I would guess that out here in the sun it's about 35°C. However, it feels more like 45°C.
But Jow is calling us at the moment.
Let's hope he found something.
I'm not quite sure.
He found a piece of skin somewhere. Let's hope that there is also a snake somewhere in the vicinity.
Ahh, there she is.
He found her.
What's funny is that we are just walking around and not paying attention to where we are walking around.
All right, the Africans take the head.
As always, the phone is ringing.
Jim was pooed upon by a Mamba.
As you can see, here we hurt her a little bit , while we were trying to catch her
It should be all right. Because she is moulting at the moment and what we can see there is a lot of skin.
Our method of catching it is quite harsh. And it doesn't correspond with European standards.
You have to take into account that we are in an agricultural area and the people probably are glad if they can get rid of a Mamba sitting in their palm tree.
We had success! Here you can see our object of desire.
We found a pretty female Mamba. He fetched her out of a tree.
He was the one to find her. And together we were able to catch her.
As I said it's a female. It's the West African Mamba. I can't remember the scientific name at the moment. But we'll fade it in, right here, down below.
Here you can see the fruits that grow on these palm trees. I really don't know the German name. In English, they are always called palm tree.
Palm oil is made out of these fruits.
But is mainly used for cooking. They cook some kind of sauce out of it. You can also cook a soup.
This is the chow rodents feed on. Rodents climb the trees and eat the fruits. In the meantime, the Mambas are waiting in the trees and eat the rodents.
If you want to keep Mambas, then you have to feed your mice with these fruits. This way you can keep your Mamba as if it were in nature.
15. On a good day, he can catch 15 snakes.
Due to the rain period, everything here is green and the animals have a very good camouflage and are very hard to find.
Everyone around us has a lot of advice for us. They say that the Cobras split when they here us walking around and making noises.
That's also what I'm relying on. Some words about our outfits.
We are always joking about our sandals and shorts. I think the risk is justifiable
It's more a fooling about. Don't declare me a complete idiot, because I'm wearing shorts and sandals in the middle of a Cobra, Mamba, Gaboon Adda territory.
The animals are very shy. They split when they see you coming. Therefore, the risk we're taking is justifiable.
A public service announcement for all the children. If you are in Africa, don't stop on the road and go looking for Mambas. Especially not in shorts and sandals.
Only go looking for them if you've got an experienced guide with you. Just like Jow. And remember to always walk at the rear. Then it's ok and a lot of fun.
Here they are putting the snake inside a bag.
This method is really interesting! He's still holding the head.
I was asking myself the whole time ...
The snake is bagged safe and secure. Now we can go.
We're taking a break right in the middle of our Mamba hunt.
We found this hut here. Here they produce the palm wine.
Just like a real Englishman, Jim has to ...
Let's have a look what they are cooking together in their buckets.
They are using a really interesting method.
Here they filtrate their substances.
Here you can see how they transfer it from one barrel to the other.
Ahh, now I understand. Back there they cook it. They cook with fire, as you can see below the barrel.
The condensate flows through to the next barrel and is discharged here.
Then it get's filtrated. In addition, here we have the ***.
Not bad! Then they pour it into the next container.
Of course, they adhere to all hygiene regulations that apply for this kind of business. Once a week a special firm monitors these hygiene regulations.
That was all for today's Mamba hunt.
We were successful. We found a really gorgeous animal.
I'm really happy that we found one. My fear was that we would be out hunting the whole day and would have to return with out finding anything.
They say that there are plenty of animals around. But with the green leaves it is really hard to find them.
We only needed 2 hours to be successful. And thanks to the great M&S equipment, the altered snake pliers - now I know why it is almost 3m long - of course you need something like this.
We'll produce a convenient tool for that. I hope you enjoyed today’s show. I hope you'll watch our next show.
Check our Balls and check our Mambas!
They wanted to tell me that someone is calling me at the moment.
Ouch!
Forget everything I ever said about Crocks! I somehow managed to step into a thorn with my heel
One part is still in my shoe, the other part is stuck in my heel.
And now I'm having some minor African surgery.
So much for closed shoes.
Let's do it again.
So now, the next surgeon is trying his luck. I've got the impression that more and more dirt is entering the wound.
But now I'm finally able to see something black inside.
Now the third person is trying his luck.
That was great!