Wildlife

In the true spirit of our blog along with the more serious updates on what we’re doing, we’ve also shared a few ridiculous moments, which go hand in hand with moving to another country and culture. This little exert focuses on wildlife (kinda) of Hyderabad.

Let's talk gekos (lizards). We have had a few running around our bedroom in the past week, they’re not bad for getting rid of mossies but they also have a habit of running across your face as you sleep.. They've generally eventually left by the bathroom window however on the evening of Gareth’s departure to Chennai for a few days with work, I was alone in the apartment…

Now don’t get me wrong I’m not a particularly queasy or girlie girl and quite happily cope with spiders etc, but that night there was just me and a fair sized lizard sharing our bedroom and one of us had to go.

Considering sleeping on the couch I decided no! this was our bedroom and I was tired after a long day so would take the 'little' beast on by myself. Grabbing a bowl we had a playful chase around the room as I tried to stifle screams anytime it crossed by my feet or over my head.

Taunting me with speed I couldn’t match it ran round and round the room, till at last after having pulled every bit of furniture into the middle I trapped it in the corner. Raising the bowl I went to close over its body however though my intention was just to trap it then release outside, I actually managed to chop its tail off while putting the bowl down.

This is where it gets a little nasty - the nerve endings in the tail were still active, which meant the tail was still alive and wriggled about for minutes after, so I had to get another bowl to cover that, while keeping the almost intact though tailless lizard under the other bowl. I felt like I was in a horror movie.

Following this little drama I stood there feeling like a murderess, red faced and exhausted, though secretly relieved. The next half hour consisted of me inching both bowls little by little across the carpet to the main door to get both bits of animal outside. Eventually I did this and locking the door went straight back into the bedroom, where taking wads of newspaper I stuffed every conceivable hole I could see with paper, the room looked ridiculous but I felt better and slept like a baby that night. Am sure in the future I'll be used to sharing a room with them, but am looking forward to seeing Gareth on Friday!