https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Rinkhals

The Rinkhals is an infamous snake in as it is probably one of the most feared snakes in Southern Africa, tied with fiends like the Black Mamba and Puff Adder.

https://www.africansnakebiteinstitute.com/snake/rinkhals/

But it's not actually that deadly. "When threatened it is quick to disappear down a hole, but if cornered it will stand its ground, form a hood and spit. The Rinkhals is also quick to play dead with the body turned upside down and the mouth hanging open. The venom of this snake is largely cytotoxic causing pain, swelling and potentially tissue damage. Bites are extremely rare and fatalities virtually unheard of. Polyvalent antivenom is effective."

The encounter of the Rinkhals is often unfortunate because the main defensive strategy it has against it's own predators, is to play dead - which is often a failing strategy against loud blind humans, who don't have the sensitive senses of other animals, and often go stomping through the veld, and unwittingly step upon the snake, which leads to biting.

My grandfather was also a landsurveyor 70 years ago, and a story my father tells me is that in the deepest rural uninhabited parts of the Free State, he had once been required to climb one of the few mountainous hills in the usually flat lands of the province. This endeavor required him to climb with heavy instruments, including a tripod and theodolite up the tall hill in order to measure somethin.

As he was climbing over the crest, he saw himself faced to face with a Rhinkals just a few feet away, hissing at him. His hands were full of equipment, and his face unprotected, and he slowly regressed back down the hill, to find an alternative path.

For many boers have an almost primordial fear of rhinnkals, as does most of the black population in the middle provinces of South Africa, despite the snake not being that deadly in modern times with anti-venom and compared to Black Mambas.

The most widespread myth is the range the snake can spit when it feels threatened, is how far it can spit, many believe it can take pot shots from as far as 10 meters, when in reality it can't really accurately hit anything further than 2-3m - something I myself believed until recently until another dramatards pointed out the snakes lack of range.

Well basically recently in December 2023, we heard my mother shriek with a note of high panic one day, and we all rushed back home at the speed of greased lightning

She yelled there was a snake right next to the gas-stove in the kitchen, and to our amazement there was! A fricking Rinkhals - she actually had cause to shriek, while the Rinhkals venom is not nearly as deadly as Puff Adders, they can still cause you serious harm, and even death if you are so fricking far away from civilization, that the nearest hospital is 70 minutes of fullspeed racing aways

While the fairer s*x of my family was yelling and panicking and my father had went into the shed to collect his Artillery gloves (which he kept from his term serving during conscription in the SADF artillery) - i instead went full r-slur trying catch pictures while the fricker was hissing and trying to spit at me

My father came back with his thick Artillery gloves which he uses when handling hot material like when he's welding in his handyman moments, and used his initiative to fricking grab the snake, as the padding was way too thick for the Rinkhal's bite to penetrate. My father grabbed the snake's head, and successfully isolated the fricker, and endeavored to go far far in the veld, away from the house, to throw him away, as he is a natural conservationist and didn't wish Unnecessary cruelty to the animal

Unfortunately the plan went awry when the bugger tentacled himself himself all over my father's arm like a Hentai villain

And my poor father was stuck in this predicament, as he needed both arms to hold the panicking snake in a stranglehold, and could not even let one hand go - thus with all the other family member cowering dozens of meters away, it was left to me to come and rescue him (after quick autism pic)

and i had to with my bare hands uncoil the slimy scaly snake as it tried to resist both me and my father, from father's arm, allowing my father to throw it away like a boomerang.

Initially my father was all like: He'll be gentle with the poor snake, but after it coiled around his arm, and I loosened it, he was like: YEET THIS FRICKING SNAKE AWAYS

And that @Corinthian is my holiday snake story.