A Deadly Venomous Black Mamba Snake Startled Me in South Africa

Even our guide was aghast

Six years ago today, 5 of my family members and I boarded a South African Airlines flight from Dulles International Airport in Washington DC to Cape Town, South Africa. My niece was working in Botswana so we decided to take a vacation and pay her a short visit. From Cape Town, we went to Johannesburg and Pretoria. Then came a 5-day stay at Entabeni Safari Conservancy Game Reserve.

Here is a description of Entabeni Safari Conservancy Game Reserve where you can book a safari yourself if you’d like:

We visited the surrounding countries as well. Zimbabwe first, and then on to Zambia to view the majestic Victoria Falls. Each place had breathtaking views and unique opportunities to photograph scenery and animals up close. We had fun besting one another on the pictures we took. A little family competition my brother seemed to always win.

Entabeni National Conservancy was a fascinating experience. We were assigned a 6 person jeep, perfect for our family, and a marvelous guide named Reuben. The lodge was phenomenal and not exactly roughing it. We did have large mosquito nets over our beds and bars on the windows. Vervet monkeys liked to hang around and peer in at us and screech, usually around 5 AM!

There were no curtains.

When we went on our safari drives it was just like you see on National Geographic documentaries. We had 8 drives at different times of the day and night. Different animals are active at different times.

We had a run-in with some elephants that yanked out small trees and laid them in the path of our jeep so we were stuck. There was too much mud for Reuben to back up. These elephants seemed to know just what they were doing! They approached us in the jeep in a fake charging manner. We sat there perfectly still. Our driver had a huge tranquilizer gun mounted by his seat but we would have been mortified if he had to take down an elephant. He called for another jeep that came with several men who cleared the path for us.

We were able to closely observe giraffes, lions, crocodiles, warthogs, cheetahs, water buffalo, zebras, hippos, antelope, wildebeest, white rhinos, kudus, dung beetles, and, very unexpectedly, a Black mamba snake rising out of the grass 3 feet high next to my seat on the jeep.

The black mamba is a species of highly toxic and aggressive venomous snake. It’s “known to strike repeatedly and inject a large volume of venom with each strike.”

Just two drops of black mamba venom can kill a human. The venom is “fast-acting.” It shuts down the nervous system and paralyzes victims.

It is native to parts of sub-Saharan Africa and the second-longest venomous snake after the king cobra. It can grow to 14 feet long and crawl at speeds of 12 mph.

They can raise the top part of their bodies 3–4 feet high and make the back of their heads into a hood similar to a cobra, although not as prominent. This is to intimidate enemies. They range in color from dark olive green to brown. They get the name “black mamba” for the black interior of their mouths.

When threatened, a black mamba will open its mouth to show the black lining as a warning signal.

Antivenom is not widely available in the black mamba’s native southern and eastern African habitat. 20,000 people die in Africa from snake bites a year. I could not find how many specifically died from a black mamba bite.

In the USA, 5,000–6,000 people are bitten by snakes, not all venomous, per year. Only around 5–6 die.

The U.S. has a good supply of antivenom for most all poisonous snakes.

Without antivenom, the fatality rate from a black mamba bite is 100%.

So, back to my experience. We were sitting there on the dirt roadway, in the parked jeep, when a black mamba rose out of the tall grass next to me. My niece screamed, “what the hell is that?” as I turned and saw the snake. At that moment our driver, Reuben, turned around, took a look, then gunned the accelerator to where we all thought we were going to fly out!

Sufficiently far enough away he stopped the jeep and had the look of sheer terror on his face.

“That was a black mamba”, he blurted out. “The most deadly snake of all”. He said he had not seen one in many years.

I was feeling very thankful for my nieces scream because I would have frozen with that snake’s head a mere foot away from me!

After all the excitement, Reuben called back to the lodge to warn the other driver to take caution using that roadway. Reuban was a native to the area so after seeing him so freaked out we were a little in shock, but relieved.

At the time I had no idea they did not have antivenom at our lodge up in the mountains, so far from civilization. I guess I would have been a goner.

My brother attempted to play down the incident and inject some humor. True to form, he turned around from his safe seat in the front, looked at me, and said, “Well, did you get a picture?”

Thanks, bro. What a guy!

But, we did all relax and started laughing.

Side Note

Since this is quite a well-known nickname for a great legend in basketball I am adding this for anyone curious:

Late NBA legend Kobe Bryant gave himself the nickname ‘Black Mamba’ in 2003. Kobe took the name from ‘Kill Bill’ wherein an assassin uses a black mamba snake to kill another character. … Bryant had said he created ‘Black Mamba’ alter ego to separate his personal and professional lives. Cork Gaines. Updated Jan 27, 2020

All information for this story was obtained from these 2 sources and personal experience:

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