A Green Mamba Story

As Annie and I were leaving Kumi we saw one of the most poisonous snakes in East Africa - the Green Mamba. It is a thrilling tale, but unfortunately I don't have any pictures to accompany my story so I have taken one from the Whozoo website in addition to some interesting facts.

Green mambas are very poisonous but are less aggressive than their relatives, the black mambas. (Black mambas will hunt you down if you make them mad and they will probably be successful in their attempts to kill you as they can travel as fast as a human can run, climb trees and swim). Anyway, green mambas don't get upset as easily but they are still very dangerous. There was a joke in Tanzania that the "medicine" for a green mamba bite is this: you see that you have been bitten by a green mamba and then you get out a piece of paper and and a pencil and write a quick note, "Mom and Dad, I love you." You then have just enough time to put the piece of paper back in your pocket before you die.

Back to the story: Annie and I had just packed our bags and were taking two motorcycle taxis to catch the bus when Annie's motorcycle, which was riding in front, swerved drastically on the dirt road. Annie asked what was going on, and the driver said something about not to worry because it was "a green one" and the motorcycle didn't hit it. My motorcycle also swerved to miss a 5-6 foot long snake that was bright green. The motorcycle driver told me it was a green mamba and that they are, "Very common" in the area. He said it that he was very good that we didn't run over it or make it mad. Anyway, that was my second close-proximity story to a poisonous snake in East Africa.