Moroccan Serpent

In Morocco, up in the Atlas Mountains we were heading from Marrakech to Ceuta, and it was very hot and dusty! Down below was a gorgeous blue lake about an hour’s drive away. We couldn’t wait to hit that water.

As we finally approached the lake we noticed that even though there was a village quite near, nobody was in the water! “What the hell, let’s go swimming!” we yelled, tearing our clothes off as we ran for the water.

I was one of the first ones in. The lake was quite shallow with very sharp rocks that hurt your feet. Finally I was in up to my waist and then I turned to see what was taking the others so long. I was about to ask when one girl’s eyes got real big and she blurted out,

“Behind you….a serpent!!”

“Whaaaaat?” I say to her, thinking she’s just joking, but as I turn around, “Holy Shit!”

Sure enough there is some kind of huge water snake with about 1½ feet of it’s head out of the water and it was heading right for me! This thing was huge, easily 6-8 inches wide at the neck, with an even bigger head!

“Swimmmmmm!!!!” everyone was yelling, “Swim for your life!!!”

Well this was the part that kills me. Have you ever had a dream where you had to run, but couldn’t? Well, that was my real dilemma! It was too deep to run, and too shallow to swim! So I’m flailing myself through the water frustrated as hell! Just as it’s about to get me, someone has the smarts to throw a rock at it! That was just the break I needed, because the snake veered off enough to let me beat it out of the water!

On shore we could not believe what had just happened! And then, through the total adrenaline rush to my head I heard a little kid laughing his head off. I looked around and hiding in some rocks was a young Moroccan boy who had been watching the whole thing. Not able to speak I gesture to the kid,

“Do these things bite?” as I made the gesture of one hand biting my arm.

“YES!!!” he nodded his head in glee.

It was then that I realized why nobody was in the water! We never stopped to think we were on the African continent and we should have looked before we leaped! I sure learned that lesson that day! I later found out that those snakes keep approximately 10% of their body out of the water, so that would make that snake about 12-14 feet long!

To this day, 30 years later, whenever that gal wants to give me a rise she goes…”Look behind you, a serpent!!!” and everyone laughs!

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