Imagine heading to your job on the coffee plantation and stumbling across a group of tourists depositing a venomous snake right next to the rows of plants you tend. You probably wouldn't feel too great about that situation. Well, that's exactly what happened.

After leaving the Karatu market, we took the T K Eyasi Road out of town as it is the only route from Karatu to Hadzaland. En route, the field course has traditionally stopped at a secluded coffee plantation to discuss geopolitics, land rights, and the situation of the Hadza. The spot is usually serene and disturbance-free. But not this day.

We arrived at the usual pull-off and parked the trucks on the trail under the Australian silver oak (Grevillea robusta) trees that shade the coffee plants. We decided this would be the best opportunity we’d get to finally evict our uninvited guest. At the Karatu market, we had purchased a wooden mpekecho, a kitchen implement used to mix millet porridge, that we hoped could double as a snake-wrangling stick. Pascal modified our tool into a makeshift pole, and, miraculously, it worked. Within seconds the puff adder was coaxed off the fuel tank and onto the ground.

Unfortunately, a plantation worker chose that exact moment to drive by on his motorcycle and saw us wrangling the adder. He stopped, wide-eyed with amazement, made a phone call, and drove off.

We began our meeting about the Hadza and land rights issues and within minutes, more motorcycles began to arrive until the whole of the village council was there to see the serpent. They were not pleased with us and gave us the option of recapturing the snake and taking it with us or they would "dispose" of it (an option we knew the snake would not like).

So, we improvised a snake containment unit out of a medium-sized canvas trash bag, and using our snake stick, we carefully guided our snake friend inside. Prisca bravely tied the opening shut and then lashed it to the back of the truck, dangling off the accessory shovel handle. There the snake remained, riding with us for the next four hours until we could find a safe new home.

With our successful recapture, the village council clapped and cheered before departing as quickly as they came. We like to joke that our misadventure has entered the mythos of the village and they tell inflated tales of how the council defeated a band of villainous outsiders and their ferocious venom-spitting death serpent.