After our mom attended a meeting at the Crocodile River reserve one of the ladies invited us to come and remove a boomslang in the roof of their Gardner's shed. We were very eager to take the recue, little did we know what we were getting ourselves into... We had limited time as we had a doctor's appointment later in the afternoon. We arrived at the house and made our way to the shed with only our tong, hook, tube and a large container the lady gave us. The container wasn't ideal as most snake catchers would know, they are difficult to close without getting bit or hurting the snake.

We familiarized ourselves with the surroundings and started to get a grip on the snake. We slowly approached the snake's mid-body and gently tried to pull it out, but it was a rather large boomslang so pulling it out was harder than intended. We didn't want to hurt the poor snake so gently taped it with our equipment. It started to move out and we could grab him and pull him out, although this was harder than it seemed. Suddenly the snake shot out and went inside the shed!

It slithered across the floor with an immense speed! Its agile movements made it nearly impossible to grip with the tong and it slipped behind the toilets pipe! It was now in a small tight space behind a toilet and wedged between the toilet pipe and the wall. We stood and thought of a plan, finally we moved all furniture and possible obstacles. We knew this would be difficult, working with Africa's most venomous snake in small space with little room to move around. We tried flushing the toilet and gently tickling the snake with grass and our forceps, this was quite dangerous as your fingers are near the snake's head. As the time went on the snake went further and further down the pipe and we had to get to the doctor's appointment. We had to leave the snake for a while, so we left our tube and a few towels there in case it went out.

A few hours later we returned to shed. First, we carefully lifted all the towels with the tong, no luck, the snake was still wedged in the same crack between the pipe and the wall. We continued to flush the toilet and tickle the snake with grass and our forceps. He moved slowly each time we tried, whether it was into or out of the crack. We flushed the area with water, but the Boomslang didn't seem to care. With all our various methods we eventually managed to steadily wedge the forceps under its belly and it flashed out its head and we realised it was a male due to the bright green eye! I, Liam, quickly pulled him out with the forceps and when more than 30 centimetres of the snake's body poked out, I further pulled him out with the tong and the whole body slide out of the crack. Sean hurried over and put the snake into the container. We caried the container out into a open space where we could photograph this incredible snake. We put into a small bush in the open. Each time he was put in the bush he would shoot out and we came running after it. Sean finished photographing and it got late so we put the boomslang in our tube which was a little difficult but not as difficult as we ever Imagined, either this boomslang was very tired, or we are very good at tubing snakes. We went home and transferred the Boomslang to our bucket and covered it with a blanket, so it would not feel agitated the entire time. The next morning, we drove to a nature reserve near the snake's original home, the crocodile river reserve. We drove across the gravel road and arrived at the release site. A small tree in the open area served well, and we took out the Boomslang. Before we had the chance to catch him the snake shot out into the nearest bush. We searched everywhere, but we had no choice but to leave him and still today we have not seen that Boomslang again.