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North Africa Topics specific to North Africa and the Sahara down to the 17th parallel (excludes Morocco)
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  #1  
Old 14 Nov 2021
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Scorpions and snakes in Egypt
Three dead and hundreds injured in Egypt.

https://www.bbc.com/news/world-middle-east-59274686

The thing is that this could apply to many locations that have scorpions and snakes - not just Egypt. I guess that the likelihood increases with climate change. So if you have to change your plans due to wet weather then remember other creatures may be moving as well and are probably more annoyed about it than you are.

I’m not sure if this is in the right section - no doubt a kind mod will correct any mistake.
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I read that and was reminded of the unwanted visitor I found under my Thermarest while camped outside Wadi Halfa which is not far from Aswan, it was the last time I camped without putting my tent up.

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During my lockdown in Morocco last year, I was in a surfing resort so lots of fit young people wandering around barefoot or in flipflops.

I was regularly asked why I always wore my boots, a lot didn't believe me about scorpions until we had 2 people stung and went out one night with a blacklight torch to show them just how many were about the campsite
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Ditto
I was living Springbok It was summer walking barefoot down the stairs in my apartment. Something told me to switch the light on when I got to the bottom of the stairs there were two scorpions. If I would have proceeded without the light on I would not be here to tell the story.

When I was stationed on the border during my national service you had to shake out your boots and bedding every morning and evening. In case a nasty crawled in there during the night or day. make sure your tent is zipped up all the time otherwise they will get in. Even Greece Macedonia you have to be careful Flyingdutchman over on ADVRider found that out the hard way.

Take care and use common sense when in the area of nasties never step over rocks or fallen trees you could step on a snake he is going to have a bad day you are going to have a worse day. Kick a stone over before you pick it up there might be a nasty hiding under it. Look before you sit down or lie down
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Old 16 Nov 2021
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When working in the woods here you get the occasional scorpion under bits of old wood, fortunately they're not keen on being around houses and they're not super venomous, but I wear gloves when I'm getting anything out from the woodshed!

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When I was stationed on the border during my national service you had to shake out your boots and bedding every morning and evening. In case a nasty crawled in there during the night or day.
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I was living Springbok It was summer walking barefoot down the stairs in my apartment. Something told me to switch the light on when I got to the bottom of the stairs there were two scorpions. If I would have proceeded without the light on I would not be here to tell the story.

When I was stationed on the border during my national service you had to shake out your boots and bedding every morning and evening. In case a nasty crawled in there during the night or day. make sure your tent is zipped up all the time otherwise they will get in. Even Greece Macedonia you have to be careful Flyingdutchman over on ADVRider found that out the hard way.

Take care and use common sense when in the area of nasties never step over rocks or fallen trees you could step on a snake he is going to have a bad day you are going to have a worse day. Kick a stone over before you pick it up there might be a nasty hiding under it. Look before you sit down or lie down
This is something those of us from a place with few poisonous creepy crawlies take some time to get into the habit of, Britain has no really poisonous spiders, one rare poisonous snake and Ireland has none.
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I read that and was reminded of the unwanted visitor I found under my Thermarest while camped outside Wadi Halfa which is not far from Aswan, it was the last time I camped without putting my tent up.
Same here, except over in West Africa. I was wild camping in Senegal on a warm night and thought it was hardly worth the effort putting the tent up. I was half asleep when something large and black crawled over me.

Years earlier I'd been backpacking through Senegal on a bus when it broke down (again) after dark. While the driver was negotiating with the local village (he needed water from their well) the passengers started looking for peanuts in a nearby field. Thinking that these were under the surface I started raking my fingers through the soil, only for one of the other passengers to come over, grab my hand and slap my wrist. 'Don't put your hand in the dirt, that's where the scorpions are' he told me. A lesson I've not forgotten.
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I think through climate change we have to be aware that nasty creatures like snakes, scorpions or ticks will expand their habitats globally in the future.

https://www.statnews.com/2019/05/24/...limate-change/

https://www.atlasobscura.com/article...climate-change

https://www.arctictoday.com/ticks-an...climate-warms/
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When working in the woods here you get the occasional scorpion under bits of old wood, fortunately they're not keen on being around houses and they're not super venomous, but I wear gloves when I'm getting anything out from the woodshed!
How can I forget this one I was 16 and as a school outing over a holiday we worked on the Otter Trail in South Africa picked up wood for a fire I did not see the WASP nest and I got badly stung my hand felt like it was on fire for the whole day.
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I'm glad not to be in Aswan at the moment, but glad to be reminded of a variety of snake-and-scorpion stories--terribly funny in retrospect, though not always at the time.

There was the time a huge one charged our table at a sidewalk café in Nicaragua--large enough so that it made a distinct galloping sound on the pavement. A time I returned to camp in the Serengeti and found the camp guards rousting a black mamba from under one of the tents--food for thought when I retired to my own, entirely floor-less tent, that evening. A time I somehow suspended the laws of gravity and ended up hovering above a coiled, highly-irritated Mojave rattler while running on a trail in Arizona. A time in Mozambique when the person who used the washroom immediately after me asked, wide-eyed and trembling, if I'd seen the cobra in the corner. Et cetera.

To some degree, it's these stories that make travel worthwhile--what if nothing ever went wrong and there was no discomfort or danger? Of course, that's again more easily said in retrospect; I don't habitually go *looking* for these situations, but I do search out the places where they sometimes occur.

Naturally, YMMV.
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Originally Posted by mark manley View Post
I read that and was reminded of the unwanted visitor I found under my Thermarest while camped outside Wadi Halfa which is not far from Aswan, it was the last time I camped without putting my tent up.
The rule of thumb is the smaller the pincers the bigger the sting. Though some of those fookers I wouldn't argue with either way!
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