Harry's Tales: Thoughts Of A Coffin
There, staring in through the car’s windscreen, was a huge black mamba snake. Harry Wroth comes too close to danger.
It was a perfect October morning at Skukuza and the gates had opened half an hour before we passed through to enter Paradise.
In the little station wagon were, myself as driver, my elder sister next to me and in the back seat my wife.
We were en route to Mlondozi Dam where I was to paint a canvas of the scene. We would naturally be viewing en route.
We crossed the Sabie river about 13 kilometers out of Skukuza and coming along the gravel road which we would take to Mlondozi, was a large troop of baboons. We had seen the usual animals up till then. Impala, Zebra, Warthogs, Vervets, Starlings, Hornbills, Grey Loeries. The usual.
We adore watching the antics and postures of baboons. So we halted and the wife prepared tea from boiling water in a thermos and we watching while munching homemade rusks.
We moved on about an hour later, sated of baboons. Someone's bladder was sending signals that we should get along to Mlondozi.
We had driven along the narrow road near to the north bank of the Sabie River and had just started to veer away from the river. I stopped the car to view a herd of about 50 Impala standing in a glade. One or two Impala looked up at us, but then carried on grazing.
My wife asked, "Why have we stopped? It’s only Impala!" I replied,
"This scene, except for ourselves and the scraped road, has not really changed in perhaps 10 000 years.’’
I noticed that about a dozen buck on the left of the herd were hopping about a metre to the left or right leaving a path between them which led directly towards the car.
Suddenly I saw it. I said, "Close windows!"
It is an unwritten law in the Kruger Park to obey any request by other viewers.
There, some 15 metres from us, coming gracefully towards us with head about a metre above the ground, was a large, long Black Mamba.
The beautiful coffin shaped metallic-lustred dark head with inscrutable eyes looked at us through the driver’s window. Then it moved to view us through the righthand side of the windscreen. There was an 8 to 10 centimetre wide snake torso in view.
The Black Mamba lowered its head to view us again. Then it turned once more through about 90 degrees, and disappeared into the riverine trees and grass. We lost sight of the snake but could observe its further progress by the commotion and screeching set up by the vervet monkeys in the trees.
In the rush of the sighting my wife never saw it but my sister and I did.
Time stood still while the snake was in views.
.
We were all fuggered (now this word triggers another story!) after this excitement. Even if we saw something else spectacular on our future visits to the Park this would take some beating.
Two passengers wet themselves.
