“Mekong” Mick’s Wildass Adventure–Chapter 15: Just got another dipstach from Mick’s Mum, Lynley (she’s a great lady). The Mekong is getting tamer as Mick crosses into Laos, but he still manages to find a way to kiss death…by annoying a King Cobra:

“As I approached the international border checkpoint at Jinghong I was made aware that another bunch of foreigners had just paddled through the previous day. It was a team of New Zealanders who had also been undertaking a first descent of the Mekong valley by mountain bike, foot and kayak. As far as I know their expedition and my own are the only two attempts to explore the entire Mekong valley since the failed French Mekong Expedition in 1866. I find it incredible that after well over a hundred years since the French were forced to cancel their expedition near Dali in Yunnan that the next two attempts are undertaken simultaneously!

I crossed into Laos and surprisingly was let in without so much as paying for the visa. The border guards just assumed that I was a straggler from the kiwi group and stamped me in on their permit. For the sake of simplicity I just went along with it.

I paddled down long sections of swirl rapids until I noticed that what originally appeared to be a stick swaying in the current was actually a king cobra attempting to swim across the Mekong. Not one to miss a photo opportunity I paddled as close as I safely could and began pulling my camera out. I know cobras were good swimmers as I had seen a few cross-creeks in the past but this guy was exceptional. I watched on as he was dragged into a succession of large whirlpools. He appeared almost completely un-phased as each whirlpool swirled him around until he would reach the apex and be sucked under but with a few quick whips of his tail he would fight his way free before slowly getting dragged into the next brooding whirlpool and so on.

While getting my camera out I took my eye off the eight ball for a couple of moments and before I new it I was inadvertently sucked into a whirlpool with him. He disappeared under the boat and there was a tense couple of seconds as I waited to see where he would pop up. I saw his tail flick just to the right of my kayak and he was gone again as the whirlpool spun me around. To be bitten by a king cobra in remote country such as this would almost certainly be fatal so I kept my elbows up high and my paddle at the ready to fend the snake off should he try to attack.

Eventually to my relief he popped up just 3 meters in front of me and as the whirlpool dissipated he decided to play dead. “Perfect chance to get that shot” I thought as I proceeded to get my camera out and start snapping. Just as I lined up for the second shot he turned and started swimming straight for me. I clicked again and quickly clenched the camera strap in my teeth before reaching for my paddle by which time he had his head up over the bow and was closing in fast. With instinctual speed I flicked him back into the water with my paddle blade and he disappeared again. This time there was a very tense couple of seconds as I waited, paddle at the ready imagining the cobra launching up out of the water for my throat. Fortunately when I next saw him he was heading for shore so I took another couple of snaps of him in flight. It was a pretty wild experience. I estimate that he swam over 2km during his crossing of the river.”

Tomorrow: Mick gets drunk, gets his butt kicked in a race with some locals, and hurls his breakfast into the Big Muddy…



“Holy Sh*t! The snakes out here are even tougher than I am…”

(Photo: Courtesy Lynley O’Shea)

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