It was transect time
again today; and my destination was the Blue Hill boundary with the
Baviaanskloof on the ridge of the Kouga mountains. This is one of my
favourite routes as it is high – over 1400m for most of it, with
views north to the Swartberg, west to the Kammanassie, and south to
the Tsitsikamma mountains and there is always something to see. Its
just usually not a snake, and especially not a boomslang as most of
the vegetation up there has just turned one year old and, well, there
are just no trees anywhere. Probably haven't been for many years!
It was a hot day. In
fact, my first snake of the day was an unidentified colubrid hiding
in the grass that I couldn't get a good photo of. But then as per
usual I was distracted by birds or simply trying to find my way up
the mountain slope over loose rocks and charred skeletal remains of
proteas and the thought of snakes left my mind.
So the dry rasping and
flash of yellow glimpsed out of the corner of my eye caught me by
surprise, and I had to take a step back in a moment of nervous panic
as the boomslang lifted itself off the ground like a cobra, only
meters from me. I stood entranced as it swayed from side to side. It
was almost as if it was the snake charmer and I was the snake. The
big eyes, puffed up neck, darting tongue were mesmerising. Then I
remembered my camera in my backpack and I managed these photos of its
warning dance before it took shelter under a rock.
With these bright
colours, it has to be a male. It was probably 1.5 meters long. Bites
are rare – but with hemotoxic venom that stops the blood clotting
and can result in internal bleeding, one doesn't want to get bitten
as monovalent antivenom is hard to come by and treatment may involve
total blood transfusions.
