Imagine taking a journey of 40 hours through planes inclusive of long stopovers and arrive home to discover you have carried a snake along with you through your trip crazy yea. However, for Moira Boxall 72-year-old grandmother of one, this was the shock of her life when she arrived home in Scotland after visiting her daughter and her family in Australia. Mrs Boxall was from a trip in Australia Queensland at her daughter’s home in Mackay where she spent seven weeks with her daughter Sarah Airlie 45 her granddaughter Emily and her son in law Paul 43 year old. On her way back, she didn’t know her suspicion while at her daughter’s home were right until she arrived home.

During her visit at Mackay one night she was woken up by the sound of a bed plant falling at 5 am, and at that moment she thought she saw a snake crawling down from the window into the room. On its way, it seems the 60-centimetre non-venomous python knocked the plant over while crawling down. On informing her daughter, they reached out to a snake catcher, but when he arrived at their home, there was no trace of the snake anywhere. Besides her noticing there was a snake in her room that day, her son in law also said he thought he saw a snake in her mother in laws room. However, from the looks of things, the snake slithered its way across the room and found shelter in Mrs Boxall shoes. Once in the shoe, it was hard for the snake catcher to locate it when he arrived. The snake ended up hibernation for the next three weeks inside Mrs Boxall shoe and made the journey with her up to her home in Scotland mark you Mrs Boxall had long stopovers at Dubai and Brisbane. At Brisbane, she stopped for eight hours while in Dubai she had a nine-hour stop. The trip was so long and with the snake fining a comfortable place to hibernate it even shed its skin during the journey. In Australia, the storms can be crazy, and this forces snakes to find shelter elsewhere. On many occasions, they find their way into houses to seek shelter away from the storm. In this case, the 60-centimetre snake crawled up into the house through the window and entered Mrs Boxall shoe. During her seven-week stay, there were bad storms.

Mrs Boxall Thought It Was a Prank

After arriving home, Mrs Boxall decided to unpack her belongings and in the process saw the snake’s skin and thought it was a prank and her family members were toying with her. However, upon reaching out to pull out the toy, she discovered it’s a snake when she saw the head is moving and the fangs come out. She was shocked but at the same time knew she must act quickly and get the snake out of the house. Though scared she ran downstairs with the shoe with the snake still inside into her garden. Once in the garden, she placed a margarine can on top of the shoe added a bucket and placed cardboard with bricks on top. She went ahead and called for help from the Scottish SPCA. An officer arrived later on after an hour and proceeded to catch the snake from her garden. The snake was collected, and currently, it’s at the SSPCA’s rescue and re-homing centre in Edinburgh. For Mrs Boxall, this was a frightening moment in her life that will remain as a day to remember. Although snakes are common in Queensland Mrs Boxall didn’t think it would be this common. The incidence has left her shocked to the point that she says she might not be visiting her daughter’s place for some time now. However, according to her son in law, she will change her mind and visit them again and again.

For a snake to travel 18,000 kilometres through different airports and survive this rare incidence which is acquitted to a scene from a movie, but for Mrs Boxall it was real. Her shoe provided the perfect shelter for the 60-centimetre snake to hide, shed its snake and hibernate for all those days. Furthermore, it travelled without being detected at any of the airports by the high tech scanners Mrs Boxall passed through during her journey. While the snake is safe at the rescue centre for Mrs Boxall the next time she travels, she will be more careful not to carry a snake in her luggage. Moreover, it’s a wakeup call for all travelers always to be careful and make sure they don’t carry snakes during their trips. The situation could have been worse if Mrs Boxall had worn the shoe. Though the snake isn’t poisonous, it could have bitten her.