A group of 11 excited people headed north early on a December Monday morning. Many in the group had never been on a herping trip to northern Limpopo, and those who have been before, had not visited the region in many years. We arrived at our accommodation just south of Musina at around mid-day. The views were wonderful, and everyone made full use of the inviting pool over the next few days as temperatures soared.
While the main purpose of the trip was to find cool and interesting snakes, we were also interested in some of the other smaller creatures. During the first few days I found 2 lifer Scorpions. The first was an Orange Lesser-thicktail Scorpion (Uroplectes planimanus) that was having a meal.
I also found 2 Eastern Nomad Scorpion (Hottentotta trilineatus) Scorpions.
During a morning walk one of the guys found a massive Transvaal Thicktail Scorpion (Parabuthus transvaalicus). He grabbed it with small snake tongs – a good idea as the scorpion proceeded to squirt a lot of venom! I’ve never seen these guys properly in daylight, and I was thrilled to get some photos of one of the region’s venomous scorpions. A stunning creature but one that has to be treated with care and respect.
We also found a stunning Great Horned Baboon Spider (Ceratogyrus brachycephalus) on a walk.
I found a couple of Jumping spiders. This one remains un-identified for the moment.
The familiar Hassarius adansoni was running around in my room on the morning that we left.
One night I found quite a few Hairy Field Spiders. The first was a Neoscona blondeli. and then a few more Neoscona species.
My spider finds also included 2 lifers. The first was a Long-bodied Grass Crab Spider (Runcinia flavida).
The 2nd was a Violin Spider (Loxosceles simillima), one of the few medically significant spiders in SA. This is another spider I have been looking for for a long time and a very exciting find. 
Baobab Trees are some of my favourite creatures. This part of Limpopo is known for many of these ancient trees. As we drove north we saw many along the road, and even on the sidewalks in Musina! The farm where we stayed was also home to many. I love being close to these trees, and always wonder at the stories these trees could tell if they could speak.
Another interesting encounter on a walk happened when we found a Rock Monitor.
It wasn’t a large one, and it was very relaxed. We gave it some water before releasing it again.
Most of the snakes we found during the evenings when we were road cruising. All 3 vehicles had varying levels of success.
One of the first finds was a Horned Adder. A stunning specimen with very different coloration compared to the ones we have found near Pretoria.
A cool little snake from our first night was this little Shield-nose Cobra (Aspidelaps sculatus sculatus). A little snake with a BIG attitude.
Another feisty snake was a Long-tailed Garter Snake (Elapsoidea sundevallii longicauda).
Other road-cruise finds included a Puff Adder (Bitis arietans) and a Black File Snake (Gracililima nyassae).
We had left one of the snake hooks at a spot where we walked one afternoon, and we had to go and get it when we went road cruising. It was rather fortunate that we had to drive that road as we found our first Mozambique Spitting Cobra of the trip.
I find this highly venomous snake completely fascinating.
After taking photos, the experienced guys posed for a few photos. I was not going to handle it, but the snake was very relaxed, and my brother helped me to hold the snake. I have to admit, my heart was racing at full speed the entire time! But it was a really cool moment.
We found 2 snakes in the camp. They were both lifers for me.
The kids found a Western-Yellow-bellied Sand Snake (Psammophis subtaeniatus) on the first afternoon.
The next day they found a really pretty little Bark Snake (Hemirhagerrhis nototaenia).
We found many geckos during the first 3 days. Arnold’s Velvet Geckos (Homopholis arnoldi) are stunning creatures, and when you stroke them you know exactly how it got its name – the skin is velvety soft.
This adorable Speckled Gecko (Pachydactylus punctatus) was a Lifer, as was the Transvaal Flat Gecko (Afroedura transvaalica).
We came across a rather large Flap-necked Chameleon when it went for a stroll near the rooms.
I also added 2 rather odd-looking lifers to my list. We found a Kalahari Round-headed Worm Lizard (Zygaspis quadrifrons) on a morning walk and some of the other group members found a Long-tailed Thread Snake (Myriopholis longicauda).
A fascinating moment involved a Diederik Cuckoo, a Lesser Masked Weaver and a Crocodile. There was a small enclosure on the property with a few crocodiles. Red-headed weavers made their nests high in the tree above the water, but the Lesser-masked Weavers nested in a bush much lower down. A Diederik Cuckoo flew into the weaver’s nest. The Weaver followed, trying to block the Cuckoo. While they were hanging onto the bottom of the nest, a crocodile slowly rose from the water and in the blink of an eye grabbed both birds! A quick shake of the head and the test remained while the crocodile munched on the little birds. I stood mouth agape, not quite believing what I had just seen.
During our second full day we visited the Hangklip picnic area near Louis Trichardt. The lifer count continued.
The near=threatened Northern Forest Rain Frog (Breviceps sylvestris taeniatus) has a very small distribution area and one of the guys was lucky to find one.
This pretty little Natal Sand Frog (Tomopterna natalensis) was also a lifer.
A Soutpansberg Black-spotted Dwarf Gecko (Lygodactylus incognitus) was yet another new species for my list.
Girdled Lizards are my absolute favourite lizards because of their scaly, dragon-like appearance, so I was very happy when some of the guys found this Zoutpansberg Girdled Lizard (Smaug depressus).
A rather large Jumping Spider made its way onto my hat. I later identified it as a Hyllus brevitarsus Jumping Spider.
After 3 nights on the farm it was time to make our way to Vivo south of Alldays where we would spend the next 2 nights.
Road cruising outings on both nights delivered excellent results.
Lifer frogs came in the form of an African Bullfrog (Pyxicephalus edulis) and a Knocking Sand Frog (Tomopterna krugerensis).
On our first drive we found a very gravid Bushveld Rain Frog (Breviceps adspersus).
I just love how these cute little frogs run!
Egg Eaters was the most common snake of the trip. The colours on this one was rather pretty.
We found another Long-tailed Garter Snake, a younger one that the first one a few days earlier. You could still see the remainder of the bands that make the juveniles so stunning.
Another Garter Snake was a Boulenger’s Garter Snake (Elapsoidea boulengeri), a lifer for me and many of the group.
We found another Black File Snake and a beautiful Brown House Snake.
I saw my first even Eastern Tiger Snake on a sunset drive near Satara way back in in 2018. I was therefore very excited when some of the group found this gorgeous Eastern Tiger Snake (Telescopus semiannulatus semiannulatus).
Stiletto Snakes (Atractaspis bibronii) are not large snakes and no fatalities from their bites have been recorded, but something about these snakes have freaked me out since the first time I saw one. We found many during this trip, including this rather handsome specimen.
We were driving along when we saw a snake on the edge of the grass next to the road – our second Shield-nose Cobra of the trip.
The kids once again added to the lifer count when they found a Bi-coloured Quill-snouted Snake (Xenocalamus bicolor bicolor).
They also found the second Mozambique Spitting Cobra of the trip.
I saw a little bird nest in a bush near the swimming pool at our accommodation. On closer inspection I discovered that it was the nest of a little Blue Waxbill. When she flew out, I saw a couple of tiny little eggs in the nest. This was one of the coolest finds of the trip.
The kids really rocked the lifer finds during the trip and added another scorpion lifer when they found this Banded Burrowing Scorpion (Opistophthalmus boehmi).
All the lifers of the trip were fantastic, but my second sighting of a lifer that I saw on my birthday earlier this year was another highlight for me. While road cruising, the guys in the other vehicle found a Barking Gecko (Ptenopus garrulus). This is the coolest, most adorable little gecko ever.
When we came back from lunch we saw a teeny tiny Leopard Tortoise crossing the road. It was a recent hatchling and wasn’t much bigger than 2 golf balls.
While walking I flipped a rock and found something not so cute – a Red-headed Centipede.
On our second night at Vivo we found 2 interesting Dead on Road (DoR) sightings. The first was a DoR Western Yellow-bellied Sand Snake. It had obviously had a meal just before a car had driver over it and the mouse was protruding from its belly. The second sighting was of a dead Stiletto Snake that was busy swallowing another snake with a dead blind snake right next to it.
We spend the last night of our trip at Lephalale.
Road cruising is all about timing, and this night was the best example – we found many snakes, the second vehicle found none and the third vehicle only a couple. We found many of the same species that we had already found during the trip including another Mozambique Spitting Cobra, Long-tailed Garter Snake, Stiletto snakes and Egg Eaters.
We found 2 Bi-coloured Quill-snouted Snakes. The colours were very different to the one we found a couple of nights earlier. Unfortunately my camera decided it had had enough of photos so the photos I took do not do them justice.
A new trip species came in the form of an African Python (Python natalensis).
As I arrived back at my room I saw an Eastern Olive toad (Sclerophrys garmani)
Two last spiders for the trip were a teeny tiny little Flower Crab Spider and an Ant-mimic spider that had lost a leg..
While road cruising we also saw many mammals. Near Mapungubwe there were many elephants next to the road. We saw Bush Babies, Scrub hares and Porcupines. We even saw a Spotted Hyena. But the best moment of the entire trip was when we saw the mammal that has been at the top of my wish list for many years. We were not far from the Mapungubwe gate when we saw a Civet next to the road!!! We stopped to get a better look. While I have no photographic evidence, we had excellent views of the Civet. I could not believe it and did a little dance of joy next to the car. And would you believe it, 2 nights later we had another Civet sighting while road cruising near Vivo!!! I could not have been happier.
We saw many more species during the trip – I did not take photos of everything.
Everyone was in agreement – this was one of the best herping trips in a long time. I got 7 lifer snakes, and my total life list across all species was 25.
It was an exceptional Trip.