Day 5: Sleeping with snakes
Zeron: I have been worried all day. I seemed to be cured of my phobia but I have lived with this for a long time. I'm still not sure that my fear has gone for good and now I have to spend a night in a python's cage with two of the things! This is not going to be easy for me, since it had been when I was asleep that my phobia had taken root. All I would need now is a thunderstorm to kick off while I'm in with the snakes and I could end up a real mess.

I was worried that I was going to get bored in the snakes' cage. A whole night was going to be a long time. So I packed a book in case I woke up during the night. I kept myself busy during the day and kept a low profile - I didn't want my nerves to show, and at breakfast Mike had been going on about how a reticulated python (my bed companions) can eat a man. So I wanted to stay away from scare stories.

Mike: We leave the hotel at about four in the afternoon and Zeron seems pretty calm. When we arrive at the safari park he isn't quite so chilled out, but after a few words with Peter Naish he soon calms down and seems remarkably laid back. I get my first chance to talk properly to the guys in the reptile house - one of them has suffered a venomous bite. Can't say that I'd want their job.

Zeron: I impress myself because I can now actually walk into the reptile house on my own while looking at the snakes. I feel cured, but I can still feel signs of the old fear rattling around. I confide in Peter and he takes me outside for a hypnosis session.

He appears to put me under quite deep - all I can remember is relaxing by a stream with fluffy bunnies bouncing around. Whatever he did it has worked. I feel ready for the challenge.

Back in the reptile house we are treated to the skills of Mark O'Shea as he toys with a bad tempered Egyptian Cobra called Harsh. "Right - get ready for bed," says producer Steve. Mark opens the door of the cage and gestures me in. It was very warm in the cage. I was thankful for that because if my body temperature was going to be colder than their surroundings they wouldn't want to come and curl up next to me (or, even worse, on top me). Mark closed the door and I was on my own!

There were two ideal sleeping places in the cage: one was covered in a lot of snake shit; the other was currently held by the female python. Stupidly I decided that I wanted the place the python had. So I had to move and shoo her away. Taking all my courage I did just that - I physically pushed a reticulated python off her sleeping rock and claimed it for my own.

Mike: I can't believe my eyes when I see him walk through the door of the cage and push the female python off her resting place. It surprises me even more when Zeron lies down and seems to doze off!

Zeron: Encouraged by my bravery I laid myself down on my freshly won rock and stretched out to sleep. Mind you, I kept one eye on the female snake now curled up reluctantly in the corner of the cage and the other eye on the snake 8 feet above my head on a ledge.

The time was ticking away. Amazingly I didn't feel scared. Dr Peter Naish and Mark O'Shea had done a great job curing me. The heat of the cage and the adrenaline rush I was having really took it out of me. I closed my eyes and promptly fell asleep. The next thing I remember was a presence hovering above my head. I opened my eyes to see the female python looking at me. For a second my whole body was filled with panic. I had fallen asleep and forgotten where I was. It took a second for my faculties to come together. When they did I realised she was trying to get her rock back. Tough! I had it now. I turned away from her and went back to sleep.

Mike: I watched him as he went to sleep in the cage, only to be woken by an inquisitive python after half an hour or so. I thought that he may freak because he would have had no time to work out where he was or what he was doing, but he just jumped a bit, moved the snake and went to sleep again. I don't think I would have been so cool.

After a few hours we got bored watching Zeron sleep and decided that he had done enough. He had entered the cage thinking that he would be spending the night, and had happily gone to sleep with two snakes of a species that has been known to kill and eat humans. Anyway, we were too tired to stay up watching him to make sure that he wasn't eaten. Mark gave us each a bottle of banana beer; we said our goodbyes on camera and hightailed it to the pub to catch last orders - where I bought Zeron a snakebite. Cool!

Zeron: I have confronted my fear but I'm not sure if I've overcome it fully though. Since the making of the show I haven't handled a snake. I haven't even touched a worm. I must try both of these again to prove to myself that I really am cured. But I no longer flee the room if a snake appears on the TV and I can handle and read books with pictures of snakes - this has been an amazing and emotional programme to make. Wow!

  < previous   Page 8 of 8

Content last updated: 25/08/2005