Finally our girl left the darkness of her cave and began swimming up-current (thankfully), to find an exit out of the river.
We didn’t know she was trying to leave the river when she was swimming, we figured she might be headed to another hiding hole.
These snakes are notorious for having quite a few hiding spots in their hunting territories.
When she left the cave, she swam through the roots of the tree that were not only guarding the entrance to her cave, but also offered support to the soft mud that made up the walls of her secret dwelling.
The trees and grasses help prevent erosion by stabilizing the sediment with their tangled root systems.
This in turn helps maintain water quality, filters pollutants and traps sediments originating from land and us humans.
Nature is amazing.
Back to our girl…she slowly emerged from the roots of the tree and out into an area where we had a bit more light, and it was awesome.
We were all there (the four of us), taking turns snapping images of her as she poked her head out of the shadows.
When she began swimming out of the tree, we were ready, all of us were lined up, waiting patiently for her to fully emerge.
When she slithered out, we did not know what direction she was going to take, she chose swimming into the current, my guess is so that the dirt and debris would not obstruct her view.
This was great for us, as we would get clean shots of her beautiful head free of the silt and dirt.
She slowly came out of the darkness, silted debris poured out around her… and damn, she just kept coming.
She was a big girl, at least 5-6 meters long, and thick!
These are the moments that we all live for.
This is the stuff I dream about.
When you plan a trip like this, you want moments for everyone who joins you, where they will see a big prehistoric snake swimming underwater.
This is why we are all here… and what we all dreamed about. A big snake, up close and fully submerged underwater in crystal clear water.
We were all very excited and firing away.
The snake made her way slowly up river and we slowly, but excitedly followed her. Knowing full well, the encounter was going to end the minute she left the river.
We were not forcing the encounter, nor did we touch her.
Just as expected, the snake found the exit she was looking for and slowly slithered herself out of the river, disappearing into the underbrush that made up her mysterious world.
We all surfaced with massive smiles on our faces. The excitement we all felt was electric.
I was beaming with pride, knowing our friends experienced an extraordinary day.
This day was magic and everything I love about wildlife photography with special animals in special places.
Thank you for reading!