Brush with Scary Namibian Snake

Smart thinking, Karl, I thought as our guide shut off the jeep's engine just out of reach of the tree. Ever since seventh grade, when my mother had to bring a change of clothes to school for me after a magician’s bird landed on the light fixture directly above my head, I have gone to great lengths to avoid being under birds. So I certainly did not want to be parked under the biggest bird nest I had ever seen.

"It is a community nest," Karl explained, as hundreds of birds were chirping and fluttering in a huge swarm around the tree. The warm breeze and clear blue sky with its white, puffy clouds was deceptively calm for Namibia. My heart seemed to suddenly begin thumping when I realized that it was an ostrich charging toward our jeep. "Oh. It's only an ostrich," Karl said. What an understatement—only an ostrich. “Stay quiet and he will not bother us.”

As the ostrich trotted on his merry way, our sights returned to the chattering tree. It was then Karl very calmly asked my husband to "shoot the snake." It was winter in Namibia and snakes, we thought, were not supposed to be a part of our adventure. My husband and I had to take a moment to process what Karl had said when he pointed to the tree and, again, very calmly said, "Please. Shoot that snake. The one right there on that branch." Squinting into the sun, our eyes scanning the acacia tree, my husband and I both spotted the dancing snake at exactly the same time. My husband reached for his gun as I reached for my camera. He was about to shoot.

"Wait! Let me get a picture first!" I shouted. My husband mumbled something with the word ‘crazy' in it. "It will only take a..."

BAM! He missed.

Now was my chance. I lifted the camera as he lifted the gun. Unfortunately for snake and me, the ‘BAM' came before the ‘click.' This bright green snake suddenly thrashed wildly in ribbon-like curls.

"Green Mamba," Karl said. The Green Mamba is a very poisonous snake that is seen quite frequently in Namibia we learned. Even in winter.

The men went toward the tree with a giant stick. This time I mumbled the sentence with ‘crazy' in it. No, a snake cannot bite without a head but that is no reason to tempt fate.

I still have not been able to confirm whether or not there is any way a green mamba can kill without a head but I do know that they fight for quite a while without one. But I did get a photo (headless) and Mamba rode back with us in the bed of the jeep, thrashing wildly all the way.

"That is why we do not park under trees," Karl said on the drive home.