Chris just returned from a South Africa Rainbow Route SAag17 German tour and had the following experience in the Kruger National Park on a wet morning departing the park on the road between Lower Sabie and Crocodile Bridge. We were on a morning game drive in Kruger national park when suddenly l saw a big snake from some hundred or so meters.

 

You can imagine something that you see that kind of distance is something big. Everyone was getting anxious and also excited at wanting to see what kind of a snake it was. Many people from the other side of the world have heard stories about our snakes and the most common ones to people coming here to Africa are black mambas and cobras. This was a dead black mamba on the side of the road. A dead snake appears as good as alive and let alone the fear one could experience if they were not so sure that it was dead. Tourists  were busy with photos and l was busy checking the surroundings for just in case. As  we were almost done and ready to go, l checked my rear mirrors as the norm and guess what a surprise in store for us  saw something that looked like a hunting dog and  l contained my excitement before l could get closer to the scene  and subsequently telling the clients that we were in for some great sighting. More dogs appeared from the bush and now we were watching eight dogs running up and down the road and picking up several carrion on the road. There was this one dog that was curious about the dead snake attempting to make move towards it but not getting as close as it would end up backing off.

 

 

This continued for a long time and meanwhile, there   were no other vehicles apart from us. The   other dogs were running around some sitting down on warm tarmac some peeing and doing their droppings so close to our bus. This  one dog who was unsure of the dead snake had a go at it and found out it was dead when he caught it by the tail and dredged it to the bush with the snake showing no response.

 

 

It was thick bush that we did not see what happened there after. The rest of the dogs sat on the road until they were disturbed by a second car that arrived after almost half an hour later.

 
Black Mamba’s are considered to be the most dangerous snakes in Africa if not the world. With lightning fast reactions, they are nervous and when threatened can be highly aggressive. They are not black but rather a grey/brown colour and get their name from the black inside mouth.

 

 

When approached they will lift up to a 3rd of their body off the ground open their mouth and hiss, if the attacker persists they end up striking not once but repeatedly injecting large amounts of a deadly concoction of neurotoxins and cardio toxins that can kill an adult in 20min, it takes only 2 drops of venom to kill a human.