On day 3 of our 3-day survival trek through one of the most remote, snake-infested islands on the planet, I came face-to-face with the largest venomous snake in the world with no hospital nearby, no antivenom, and nowhere to run. It was a king cobra. One bite means death.
This wasn’t just a survival challenge for the sake of it. Alongside Diaz snake expert, conservationist, and the only reason any of us made it out alive, the entire mission was to carry endangered blood pythons deep into the heart of Snake Island and release them into the perfect habitat before they disappear from the wild forever.
What followed over 3 brutal days was nothing short of insane. We wrestled free from a reticulated python wrapping itself around us mid-river. We waded through swamps crawling with venomous water snakes in pitch darkness. We foraged for mud crabs and clams to eat. A flood wiped out our trail, we lost the boat, and a surprise tropical storm nearly ended the whole thing. Then, on night two, we found ourselves sleeping inside the hut of a man whose ancestors were headhunters — a man whose own name Diaz didn’t even know.
And just meters from the blood python release point, the one encounter we’d been praying to avoid the entire trip finally happened.
A king cobra. In our path. Reared up and ready to strike.
What Diaz did next I will never forget for the rest of my life.
Watch the full thing here — this is the wildest video we’ve ever made:
