Face to face with Africa’s most dangerous snake; the black mamba, and an agitated one at that!
Our end-of-year 2015 holidays were absolutely packed to the brim. Apart from our ten-day visit to the Kruger National Park (read more about our time at Lower Sabie, Olifants and Shingwedzi in December), we also made day trips to five other reserves, and will be sharing photos from those (except Suikerbosrand, which we introduced in a post all of its own) daily through the month of February, in a series we call “a month of monochrome memories”.
DeWetsWild 
Ek hoop jy het ver weg gestaan… lyk my jy het want jy’s nog hier om die foto the wys!! 😉 (Ek is besig met ‘n kort verhaal… ‘n mamba is die oorsaak van ‘n ongeluk. Dis al wat ek nou sal deel!!
Staats geheim!!)
Lekker naby, maar veilig in die kar 😉
Maar as ek so na jou storie se plot luister, dalk nie so veilig in die kar nie…
I am really enjoying your black & white image series. Lovely!
We’re so happy that you do, thanks Amy!
Te naby vir my!!!
As ek nie veilig in die kar was nie, sou ek ook lankal die hasepad gekies het!
I’d love to see this photo in color! Are they really small snakes compared to others? And are they all over South Africa or only in certain parts of the country?
The black mamba is a huge snake, Zsuzsa – up to 4 meters in length, this one was about 2 meters long. They occur mostly in the northern provinces of South Africa. We’ll make a plan to show you the colour version 😉
Oh, my, then I must’ve retained some very incorrect information along the line… thanks for telling me! And as always, thanks for sharing your amazing photos!
Always a pleasure sharing with you, Zsuzsa!
Yeeesh! Zoom lens, we hope?
Only because that was the lens on the camera at the time! This picture was taken from about 3 meters away – from the relative safety of our vehicle!
Yikes, you’re braver than me–snakes scare the bejezzus out of me…. Cool photo though…. 🙂
Luckily we were safely in our car and he safely outside it, Lori!
Wow! I love black mamba since…. forever 🙂
I agree Monica, they’re as beautiful as they are dangerous!
I know, that’s why I love them ❤
Besonders dat jy hom kon vasvang op jou kamera,Dries.
Hierdie meneer was glad nie skaam of bang nie, Dina.
Pragtige foto!
Scary – hulle het so week of wat gelede in ons dorp se Wimpy ‘n swart mamba van amper TWEE meter gevang. IN die restaurant gedeelte. Hulle vermoed die slang het in ‘n bakkie van een van die plase dorp toe gekom.
Daar was mos so ‘n grieselrige storie van ‘n slang in een van daai speelputte met die honderde balle – ek gril my besimpeld!
O ja nee kyk, ek sal beslis ook tien hartaanvalle kry!
Arme slang sal nie weer dieselfde wees as die kindertjies met hom klaargespeel het nie!
Liewe genade, dit kon baie lelik uitgedraai het!
Dis wat ek ook gedink het!
I think I’d be backing away as quickly as possible! Great capture. 🙂
That would be the best thing to do. Apart from being our most dangerous snake, the mamba is also the fastest!
That gave me a shiver!
Us too, Pat! Especially when it seemed he was aiming to slither underneath our car!