When we were in Cape Town we took a tour of a lovely botanical garden that had been created originally by Cecil Rhodes (the man of the Rhodes scholarships, and, to our surprise, de Beers diamonds) We had been wandering around looking at Protea blossoms. One of the Proteas is the national flower of South Africa. On a side path, walking and talking to our guide, Lazarus, a 2 meter snake slithered across the path. I had spotted the thing first because I was watching where I was stepping. Lazarus was walking and not watching. When I pointed out the snake, he really seemed 1.) incredibly relieved that we had stopped and 2.) a bit annoyed with himself for not even noticing it until we were almost on top of it. It wasn’t until today that I looked up to see what type of snake that was. We were close enough to get a good look at it. It really didn’t care about us at all. Good news - it kept going. Bad news. That 2 meter, grey snake was a Black Mamba. I prefer my wildlife views to be from a safari Jeep.
We’re fine. But I’ll continue to watch my feet when we walk.
I refer to it as walk where you're watching...
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