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I can tell you HE, he was carefully assessing the situation!

Definitely a very scary story WildTom, very glad you are able to relate the story to us!

I can also recall a few years ago when we were travelling in a rental Combi near Skukuza on the tar road, I was sitting in one of the back seats and suddenly out the corner of my eye saw something rear up quite high and strike at the car as we passed by.
Only then did we realise it was also a Black Mamba and a big chap.
I think while lying sunbathing or crossing the road they tend to get a fright and react aggressively.

A couple of years ago, whilst on our way to a private reserve next to Kruger, we saw a "branch" in the middle of the road.
As we came closer to this "branch" it suddenly came alive.
And yes, it was a black mamba.
Just as were next to it, it lifted its body and struck at the vehicle.
His head was level with mine and we were driving in a 4X4!!!.
Fortunately my window was closed.
The single Brandy and Coke quickly changed to doubles (after a quick Jaegermeister)

Wow Wildtom that does sound very very crazy ...glad you enjoyed the experience though! I guess someday someone will get bitten by a black mamba through their window though as this happens quite often but usually not so near a miss!!

@Berkhead...another great story but you had me in absolute stitches...such a funny story...I can only imagine your wifes shock!

@JenB...woooooowwwww!! Brave photograph...really love it !!!

Just outside Biyamiti camp in about 2001 we came around the corner and disturbed a scene of the interaction of a tree squirrel and a black mamba in the middle of the road...they were so into the confrontation with each other with the squirrel teasing the mamba, that the mamba only saw us last minute and got such a fright that it reared up at least as high as the top of my dad's 4X4.
Now we were nowhere in risk but it was amazing to see this snake in full flight as it reared towards the vehicle and then off the road.
I believe everything people say about these relatively common snakes because their speed is mind boggling and its mostly in the north of the park that Ive seen them usually making their way off the road at great speed.
Even one time there was Mamba in one of the prominent trees above the Pafuri picnic site and we realized how toxic their venom is because it was attacking a family of Woodland Dormouse and one of them fell out of the tree completely paralyzed/dead within a couple of seconds.
Felt sorry for the poor little thing.

Another encounter I had was perhaps my scariest.
I drove guests in the Sabi Sands for about 2 years and the guys who work as trackers will always tell you how they've had experiences with Black Mambas rearing up at them (especially as they sit on the bonnet of vehicles to look for animal tracks) and by the sounds of things there have been some very scary encounters!
On the one particular day I had about 4 guests with me and I was going down this 2-track dust road with lots of Terminalia shrubs on either side and as I came to an area with a relative clearing this mamba reared up much higher than the open land rover (no roof even)... it all happened in an instant but myself, my guest behind me and my tracker who was sitting at the back got a great visual of this snake which was reared high up in the air (higher than me but about head height for my guest) standing its ground literally only 2 metres from the car...at that instant of seeing the snake my instinct clicked in and i swerved the car off the road right into the bushes on the other side.
All the other other guests got a fright because of my driving thinking I wasn't concentrating but when we explained the story they were kind of glad they didn't see the snake

If my memory serves me well a person on foot in the Pretoriuskop area was bitten by a black mamba some time ago en he died. I think he was a student.

I had a similar experience on the H10 some years ago.
Not with a Black Mamba, it was a green Snake and she stood with her Head directly in the front of my open window. Then she disappeared up into the branches of a Tree.
First I thought it was a green Mamba, but I read that there are no green Mambas in the KNP.
This was a very frightening experience.
But it never prevented me from driving with open windows.

Does anyone remember the newspaper article a few years back, about a couple who drove most of the way from, I think, Olifants to Gauteng with an illusive cobra in their car?
Apparently it was eventually found among their spare blankets which were on a chair in their hut and placed on the back seat when they left.
It kept rubbing up against their driver's leg while they were driving but disappeared every time they stopped. Only after they stopped at a reptile park and the entire vehicle was unpacked and searched was the snake found.
It was a fair size too, 2-3m.

I wrote it before about the experience we had with a Black Mamba at Shingwedzi.
We were maybe 40 meters out of the gate when a black mamba came with speed out of the grass on the rivers side.
I quickly stopped to take a photo since it is such a rare occurrence to take pics of these very poisonous and aggressive snakes.
It already started to lift it head so, I made sure my widow was about 3 quarters up when "wham", it struck the next moment.
He went right for my face and if the window was down another 5 cm’s, be would have got me.
Even had a streak on the window where he left some spit and poison.
Its amazing how quick your heart and bladder react to such things……
So close that windows a bit while driving through very bushy narrow roads.
We ended up with all kinds of nasty goggos in the car a few times when scraping past bushes and trees.
On the farm my sons ended up with a tree snake on the back of the bakkie once, after driving through some very low-branched trees.
You should have seen how quick that evacuation took place!

This seems to be more common than one thought!

Happenend to leachy too, on the Sable Dam road near Phalaborwa about two years ago.

The thing gave a full blooded smack at him, hitting the window which was fortunately closed!

(Honda CRV)

Teachers rarely get excited, but he was in a bit of a "toestand"!


At least we know black mamba are widely distributed throughout the Park!

A colleague of mine just got back from a week of camping at Skuk's..... His second last day there, he wakes up with a massive rucous going on outside his tent and people yelling..... Turns out a 2m black mamba was cruising around his tent

He was not a happy boy......I told him it served him right for camping

Scary experiences!
I never thought something like this is possible.
In fact, I was only scared that one of the branches/twigs could take one of my eyes out, or something like that. But a snake at eye level?
From now on I will definitely watch out for snakes.
We only saw them crossing the road, but never any closer.
Maybe those that we saw were not black mambas.
I don't have much knowledge of snakes, and always try to look up in the book what it was.
Because they are always on the move, we are not even sure that we have identified it correctly.

Indeed BM's are known to lift their torso's
2/3 plus depending on the pickings!!!,
other than that, yah well it seems they
prefer to lay belly on the grass and bake
in the sun!!!

I came from a Morning Walk with the Lower Sabie guides and then went on to take a drive. On the S28, (all windows open), I stopped to get something to drink from the cooler and then heard a noise in the grass. I looked = nothing!! I looked again = nothing!! And then I spotted the Black Mamba raising its body at least 1,5m from the ground to reach the first branches of a tree. I dropped the drink and grabbed the video camera and followed the snake around in the tree. After a few minutes, it decided to come down again and as its head touched the grass, I left...

I was having a chat to the gentlemen running / owning the lodge just accross from Croc Bridge (I think it is the Elephant Lodge) and he told me they are frequented by Black Mamba.

Interestingly he also mentioned that when they are startled they give off a scent similar to that of curry powder.

Maybe the gurus can confirm this.