Township collecting

[Rob]

Growing up I spent most of my time scratching around in the townships behind Amanzimtoti. It was walking distance from home so was easy. We would go from house to house flipping through rubble etc. Considering I did this from around 1991 to 1998 or so, given the political climate at the time it might seem dangerous but mostly locals were happy to let us remove snakes from their yards. We had our share of trouble though, I was chased by some dudes with pangas while on another trip some mates were shot at. Cops made us leave one day too.

The point of this topic is to find out who else collected out there? We found it very productive and would come across some lovely habitat, but Ive never come across another collector who went into the townships as we did.

Did anyone?

[warbot]

Nope, for the exact reasons as you have given above, I will not put my friends especially my girlfriend in such danger, myself not to worried about it but she wont let me lol.

[rolandslf]

I often do callouts in Umlazi. Rishaad accompanied me on one and was surprised about my knowledge of the different sections in Umlazi and knowing where I was going. An advantage is that with 12 years of having worked in the Fire Department, I worked in all the townships around Durban. Just knowing how deep into a township you will have to go already helps with the decision on whether to respond to a snake callout or not.
I will not respond to township calls like Kwa-Mashu, Ntuzuma, Bhambhayi and Inanda. You are more likely to get killed by the locals in these townships than in trying to capture an irate Black Mamba.
The majority of the other townships surrounding Durban are alright to go into.

As a youngster growing up in Northern Zululand we never had townships as such, but did go into a few isolated Kraals etc to investigate things.

[Johnny]

With out doubt, some of my best results have come from squatter camps. A few weeks back we must have picked up at least 40 heralds & 20 BHS as well as bush snakes & stilettos, over 2 days, with a combined Herping time of no more than about 4 hours. Townships & squatters = snakes. No doubt.

[Durban Keeper]

In terms of sheer numbers those were the most snakes i have ever found in my life. And decent sized, healthy snakes also because the gecko, rodent & frog populations is very high. Good times.

[gaboon69]

A few years ago I was herping at a dump site and to my shock I discovered that a seriously threatened species lived amongst human waste. That thought has been haunting me ever since.

[Amphibian]

Back when I was doing alot of call outs we had set up a really good procedure with our local township residents.
They always used to leg it straight to the police station and report the snake problem. The police would then call us and we would meet the resident there and get directions to the site. Worked very well and had some of my most amazing encounters this way.
As far as actually herping in the townships i was very fortunate growing up i had a good friend that spoke fluent Zulu and as you can imagine this helped a whole heap. We used to spend entire days in the township often having to ask the residents for water to drink everyone was always very obliging so long as we took the time to show them what we had caught.
The only down side to herping in the township was that you almost always ended up with loads of young kids following you flipping rocks and stuff.
I always imagined something horrible happening but fortunately it never did.

[Rob]

Chris that sounds pretty much how we used to do it. We were once offered cooked cow stomach for lunch, I declined but my mate tried it. A loaf of bread or a T shirt was all the youngsters needed and you could be sure next Saturday morning they would be at the corner waiting to go again.
Thinking about it now, many of the "biggest Ive seen" came from the locations. Night adder, monster Psammophis, FSP told us it was the biggest Night adder they'd seen too.
It was cool because you also always had that one spot that always had something. I recall a drain that probably 80% of the time had a Stiletto inside.

So many good memories.

[Fooble]

Ive herped the local rubbish dump around here and i always find snakes. May be common but snakes none the less.

[slangman]

i spent many years collecting in the bluff dump but frequented inanda wilds in toti , looking for black watersnakes . We also visited kwamushu looking for black mambas . As for trouble , i seen many fights break out whilst up toti river including gun fights and the sort . Still didnt stop me going back .

[armata]

In the 1980s while at FSP I used to go to Kwa-Mashu with Ephraim Kuswayo and his son Ernest. Found black mambas there often and also some of the largest BHS I have ever seen.

Also learned a bit about 'Umgangela' - stick fighting, I enjoyed that. I still have a 'Izinduku' fighting stick somewhere; maybe back in the UK though.

[Rob]

Slangman if we knew there were Bluff collectors poaching our Ilanda Wilds we wouldve taken you out!! Kidding

Gone are the days you could find 20 Black Watersnakes there in a day, my most recent trip produced 1. Up the river was a strategically placed carpet on the riverside, it always produced Watersnakes

[Amphibian]

Funny how you always had that one piece of asbestos or tin sheet that always produced and you would happily walk for the entire day just to get to it.
Our days seemed to be made up of walking from one good piece of debris to the next and usually the farms that held these gold mines were hours apart....crazy.
I remember as a lighty being shot at in Hammersdale once, but in truth it was my fault entirely, in fact the shots were probably into the air but I didn't stick around to find out.....
I also remember chasing striped skinks over a concrete wall at that place opposite the bird farm at the end of Niagra dive only to discover it was a nudist colony....needles to say the following weeks I continued to return with different people everytime in order to prove the story true.
Eventually we got spotted with about ten sets of eyes peering over the wall.
Unfortunately one of the last times I remember making one of these all day missions we were following our usual route through the hills in waterfall that linked Mazarat Stables to the old Butlers Dairy Farm at the back of Inanda and one of the areas we used to check on the way was an old irrigation well, at what is now the "Crinkly Bottom Restaurant" but we were completely unaware (I swear) that recently the plot of land and the building on it had been sold to a serious rough neck chap who had turned the place into a brothel. (anyone who lived in the area will remember the HUGE red lights he mounted on the gate....awesome) However when this chap caught us snooping round in the bush he clearly got the wrong idea and came out with a large gun and threatened to "smoke us little peeping toms". I just saw flashes of this MASSIVE revolver being waved in the air buy a huge chap with an even bigger ginger afro...the whole scene was very intense!
I have honestly never legged it so fast in my entire life, to funny.

[Pythonodipsas]

I've enjoyed this topic Rob. I grew up in Joburg so township collecting is a whole different ballgame. We used to dig anthills in fields near Soweto but never came too close.

Campbell always talks about Inanda Wilds, etc that he used to hunt with you Rob. Always interesting stories of monster snakes.

[Rob]

Oh so thats why Byron moved to Niagra drive!

Chris I fully understand, walking half a day to that one pile of asbestos, and spending the rest of the day walking the long way back.
From my current home you can see a big satelite tower faaar in the distance which we used to scratch around and way beyond. When I show it to my mates they dont believe we could walk that far. These days neither can I actually.

I remember one day we came across a few white (and black) folk at a house deep in the location, as if this wasnt odd enough they were all manually sanding all the paint off about 5 cars. We were politely told we would not be granted permission to scratch around on their property so we left. Only a few minutes later did the penny drop and we realised why.

Yeah Craig when I got my first snake my dad took me to see his friends' son who turned out to be Campbell. I remember he was standing on the drift at Ilanda Wilds catching baby water monitors as they swam through, he had one in his hands. From that day he and I spent most weekends collecting.
That would mean Ive known him for 18 years now. Incredible.