Wildlife Encounters abroad... (1 Viewer)

snowdrops

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Being obsessed with fauna, particularly reptiles/amphibians, I wondered what was the most wondrous, (tho scary to some maybe), close encounter anyone has had while motohoming abroad ? I am prepared to wince if someone has encountered a very large spider :Eeek:
 
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snowdrops

snowdrops

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No tales of snakes under the bed or geckos on your windows ? Anyone ? :( :cry:
 
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we were on a site north of Carpentras in June and returning to our van from a walk with the dog. we were about 50 meters from our van on the gravel road entrance to the site when our Cocker spaniel who was scouting the grass at the edge of the road ( as they do ) stopped dead in his tracks and started to shake as he lowered his body and literally crawled backwards. :Eeek:

i rushed up to him only to see a rather large brown wide eyed snake coield up and hissing... :shout:

i managed to get the dog back on his lead and away while we watched the snake glide away into the under growth. it was all of a meter long and about as thick as the tube in a toilet roll :Eeek: so not small ... in fact my wife swears it was at least 5 meters long ....:Blush:.

i asked the campsite owner what type of snake and was it venomous, and i think i was given the party line ... that there were no snakes in the immediate vicinity ( funny that as we saw another slightly smaller in the week that we were there ). :Doh:

according to the tinternet it was not venomous but can be quite aggressive, and its only the little ones ( less than half a meter and skinny ) that are venomous :Doh:

Didnt let the dog off the lead and kept to the tracks the rest of the time we were there.:Doh:
 
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Nethernut

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Stationed at Singapore naval base in late 60's so plenty of Chitchats (geckos), giant cockroaches, Bombay runners (maroon type of cockroach, no idea of proper name) - they loved bras to nestle in!! Leeches in the jungle near Mersing (or Virgin Soldiers fame - remember that film!), sea snakes galore - had to look for the direction of the stripes, err really!! Jelly fish galore at the turn of the tide in the Straits, including Portugese man of war and Box jelly fish. Flying ants were a nightmare at certain times of year, had a huge nest of Hornets outside our offices one morning - had to get pest control people in very quickly And of course the ants were everywhere - married friends had to keep their sugar in the fridge!!

White Mountains in New Hampshire - had a place there, regular moose sightings plus the odd bear (just wee brown ones but not exactly friendly). First time I smelt a skunk I just knew what it was!!! Racoons love sweetcorn and will pick it off the stalks as it is growing. Was in friends' house one time when a curious brown bear pushed its face onto the sitting room window to try to see inside - none of us moved!!

Lived in Berlin other side of the Heerstrasse from the Teufelsberg in the Grunewald - regularly had wild board going through the bins - just left them to it!
 
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snowdrops

snowdrops

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Wow Nethernut, lucky to be alive :coolthumb:

I was wild-camping while on a march in the forces years ago, we slept in sleeping bags we called maggots, these days they're ergonomic sleeping bags lol. One evening, trying to get some sleep under a tarp and my friend's inflatable pillow she'd lent me start moving up and down !! After about 5 mins of this I swore at her for messing about as we were shattered and miles to go; she was about 10m from me. I sat up, still zipped into bag and there was an adder on the ground where my neck had been :Eeek: I was so shocked and frightened, I actually managed to leap up still up to my neck in the bag, poor snake went slithering off. I still have dreams about adders, even tho I love to look for them :Doh:

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Chipster

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3 black bears running round us at the top of Whistler Mountain in the mist whilst mountain biking!!!!
 

teddybard

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Wildlife Abroad

I don't know if they are related, but last weekend i was amazed about the amount of drunk people including women wandering around the streets around lunchtime . ive been going to Benidorm for years but never seen it as bad. do you think it is all to do with Smudger or Funsters/Hen & Stag weekends having a good time earlier or just topping up from the night before?:winky:
 
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While on safari in Africa a lion came out of the long grass and ran along side our vehicle then ran back in to the grass:Eeek:
Also came very close to a Rhino which sprayed when it saw us, that was scary:Eeek: but the thing that scared me most was waking up in a tent with a Ostrich poking his head in:whatthe:
 
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I don't know if they are related, but last weekend i was amazed about the amount of drunk people including women wandering around the streets around lunchtime . ive been going to Benidorm for years but never seen it as bad. do you think it is all to do with Smudger or Funsters/Hen & Stag weekends having a good time earlier or just topping up from the night before?:winky:

Best to blame a Funster. Otherwise they blame the English :ROFLMAO:
 

magicsurfbus

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I remember standing on the visitor viewing platform for Launch Pad 39 at the Kennedy Space Center, and noticing that everyone was looking the other way. In a pool a couple of hundred yards away a sizeable alligator was cruising along the surface.

I've also seen Manatees close up at a conservation centre in Florida.

In Europe I've seen the usual array of small lizards, but on one occasion in Brittany I spotted a much larger reptile in the undergrowth near our campsite pitch. More like a large chameleon in size and shape and definitely not a native species.

I've seen the cave bear pits and claw marks in the cave system at Rouffignac - fortunately I was 45,000 years too late to meet their occupants. Likewise the Mammoth at Rouffignac were pretty impressive, but (sadly) they were only ancient drawings.

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we were in the camargue last October and went for a walk across the salt pans behind the beach as we approached the river we could see strange ripples down each side. Once we got to the bank we realised it was small fish migrating down the river towards the sea. Each fish was about 2 inches long and the were swimming in rows about a metre wide in the shelter of the bank either side,with their heads just above the surface we walked up stream for an hour and they didnt stop passing us in a relentless journey towards the sea must have been thousands of fish
all along the bankside crabs were pulling dead fish into the under cut of the banks
when we walked back down stream at the end of the river there was a pool full of herons and gullls gorging themselves on the fish .There wasnt even a direct way out to the sea as the river was blocked by sluice gates there were 2 6 inch pipes that the sea was rushing in in waves and fish were leaping up into these very few actually making it
after seeing this we realised why there were so many fishermen on the beaches no doubt there were bigger fish out there feeding on those that made it out to sea
it was a truly an awe insiring sight especially when you consider it was a purely genetic thing that they knew they had to do it ,was like watching a wild life program live ,this alone made the holiday worth while for us
 
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At the "Old Mans" at Concaernu ,taking the growler down for its last swim of the day,saw what appeared to be a hare,called the dog back,the "Hare " NOT !!.got to the fence,could not get through and came out of its corner FIGHTING. We gave it a wide berth,when i saw the old chap,asked him what i had seen,he thought it was a Bleroit ?? a small badger. Glad we never met a BIG BADGER.
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algill

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Quading in the bush in Northern Alberta we went round a bend in the trail and found ourselves face to face with a large moose, standing in the middle of the trail. Needless to say we went very quietly backwards a little. :Smile:

In the Yukon camping in an RV on a riverside site we had a black bear wandering about for about an hour. We didn't cook on the fire that night and left next morning. The walls on that RV sure felt thin.

Gill

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old-mo

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On a ship just off Puerto Vallarta looking over the side having a fag...

And saw a massive Turtle,,,,, even nine decks up it looked huge..

couldn`t keep up with the ship.. but what sticks in my mind is the size and gracefulness of it swimming along.. fabulous.. :thumb:
 
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Sharks scare me a bit especially when you are swimming or scuba diving in sharky areas.
 

Scout

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we nearly stood on an adder in britiny one May sunny day, being an ex leopard gecko breeder Im allways looking out for lizards and stuff, but never really came accross much interesting sadly

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out in kenya, on a working party from the ship i was serving on

we were camping in the Tsavo West park, had allsorts there

chased by and elephant when we got between her and her calf - elephants are pretty good climbers...up cliffs:Eeek:
a black rhino decided to check us out while we were repairing the fence to keep him in, nearly got chomped by a croc when we were exploring a spring

And the fav...waking up with a pride of lions about 100ft away...:Eeek: didnt rush to get out the tents that morning, fortunately they were full...

But in the van, only one weve had is last year on the top of Mont ventoux in proveance. Admiring the lights of the towns and cities way down below us...something started moving on the scree not far from us, we just thought it was marmots to start with, until i caught a climpse of something more labrador sized, so we retreated back to the van (hastily) - as we had no idea what wildy things of that size were up there. Got back in the van and turned all the lights of and got the torch out to try and spot it, but alas nowt. until the next morning when we were heading down the mountain - saw 2 of them , still have no idea what they were, about the size of a Labrador but with the markings and fur similar to a wolf (pretty darned sure it wasnt the later) so we put it down to wild dog of some kind!!
 

estcres

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Didn't happen whilst Motorhoming but in 1974 when I was in Brunei with the Forces on a Jungle Training exercise I had to do a Belly Crawl towards a fallen tree in order to set up an ambush.

When I had reached the Tree Trunk, I started to raise my head above the Tree Line and place my Rifle in to a firing position, suddenly directly in front of me, resting on the Tree Trunk, was a rather large snake just about to raise it's head in defence and facing me.

I saw this, said F**k the ambush and was gone, back towards where I had come from but this time on foot running, FAST.

Also, whilst in Brunei, I got plenty of leaches attached to me sucking my blood. Used a drop of salty water on them and they would just drop off, never attempt to pull them off as they leave an open wound and that can get infected very quickly in those conditions.

When I stationed in Oman we spent 2 out of 3 nights sleeping in sleeping bags in the "Jebbel" area, every night I would shake out my Bag to ensure no Creepy Crawlies had got in there and msot nights something would drop out and crawl away. Did this for 4 months.

Yesterday, whilst out in the Garden I killed a huge spider, maroon in colour with a great big body, think it might have been one of those "False Widow" spiders. My size 7's were no match for it though. Living near the New Forest we get plenty of "nasty" things.
 

JohnH

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Many years ago I was working in Dacca, Bangladesh, and went to a reception at the French Embassy. Sat in the garden, rather inebriated and practising my dreadful schoolboy French and trying to look like I belonged. I felt something tickling my foot and when I liked down it was a small cobra sliding across my shoe. Reactively I uncrossed my leg and kicked out, the snake went through the air with a shot that a rugby union kicker would have been proud of.
I always thought alcohol could be the death of me.

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Snowbird

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Have seen several moose whilst motorhoming in Norway, along with sea eagles. Have also come across a few wild boar in the south of France. The most worrying was only last summer in Bulgaria. We had gone for a day out to Varna from St Vlass in a hired jeep and on the way back decided to set the Tomtom on the shortest route. It took us well off the main road and into the countryside and after about half an hour of driving through undergrowth we came to a clearing with a run down house. As we approached the biggest boar I have ever seen came running out of the undergrowth right in front of us, followed by two dogs that were from the film Hound of the Baskeviles. All I could think of was, wind the ******* windows up quick :Doh:.
A kid in Morocco once tried to sell me a lizard around a metre long :RollEyes:
 

Welsh girl

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When I went scuba diving in Egypt,a group of 5 lion fish swam past me around 1 foot away from me, my buddy told mine to keep away, they were poisonous.
It was a wonderful experience though.
Another time was when I dived off a boat in Portugal and saw turtles in the depths before me.
 

DBK

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Being obsessed with fauna, particularly reptiles/amphibians, I wondered what was the most wondrous, (tho scary to some maybe), close encounter anyone has had while motohoming abroad ? I am prepared to wince if someone has encountered a very large spider :Eeek:

Having only been motorhoming for 6 months or so our scary encounters are fairly limited but the sight of two enormous people on a naturist beach in France took a few days to recover from. They really should have some sort of gauge at the entrance to such places - if you can't get through you shouldn't be allowed in.

Camping highlights include a Bearded Vulture or Lammagier drifting over our tent in the early morning in the Pyrenees or indeed just seeing the Griffon vultures which are pretty common in Spain, flocks of 50 or more not uncommon where they feed them. Further afield a huge turtle laying eggs on a beach in Oman was a highpoint of a memorable trip but for spiders, you can't beat Belize. Tarantulas were impressive beasts and one which dropped onto the bonnet of our Land Rover once as we pushed down a narrow trail had red knees!

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kcy

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wildlife encounters

The scariest critter I've come across is a sunbathing Adder on a doorstep, dogs and I went into quick reverse.:Eeek:
 
Jun 30, 2010
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We had a purple tongued Lizard living in a clump of Bamboo in the garden of our house in Aus, and a wild Cockatoo used to take crackers from our hands.
 
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does meeting yosser in a french aire count:ROFLMAO:

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snowdrops

snowdrops

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3 black bears running round us at the top of Whistler Mountain in the mist whilst mountain biking!!!!

:Eeek: Now that is really scary !!!!! What did you do ? Were you terrified ? !!!
 
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snowdrops

snowdrops

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While on safari in Africa a lion came out of the long grass and ran along side our vehicle then ran back in to the grass:Eeek:
Also came very close to a Rhino which sprayed when it saw us, that was scary:Eeek: but the thing that scared me most was waking up in a tent with a Ostrich poking his head in:whatthe:

My adder is now looking positively tame !!!! I've been bitten by an emu, they can do a lot of damage !!
 
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snowdrops

snowdrops

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Well, a fair mix of scary things and nice things there. Think my worse of the lot would have been the 3 bears and the pride of lions outside tent !!!! I did have a goat try to have sex with me once, that wasn't scary, it was humiliating:Blush: I wasn't camping then tho so it doesn't count ::bigsmile:

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