Puffy encounter

[Stretch]

If you let the videos run one after the other, the fourth vid shoes a Black Mamba sneaking into a shop at night!

 

https://www.news24.com/SouthAfrica/News/watch-quick-thinking-durban-driver-narrowly-escapes-hijacking-20191218

I saw that on the snakes of South Africa Facebook group... It's a massive Mamba

[sawystertrance]

Koeberg Baby:

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

[100Tours]

Strike first - ask questions later..

 

I had an incident where a mate of mine riding ahead of me clipped a cobra on a piece of singletrack out near the cradle game reserve (I would have said cape cobra given the yellow colour, spread hood and being a bit over a metre long, but AFAIK Gauteng is not within their regular range so I'm unsure of species).

 

Nevertheless the bump made the snake rear up, with the back of its hood towards me and looking down the track at the other rider. I braked rather hard, locked the front wheel and vaulted the handlebars. The few metres gained in this manouver putting me now vertically above the snake and bearing down on him. I picked left, had a close up look at said snake on the way past and landed mostly on my head and shoulder just off the path. The somewhat frightened snake disappeared off to the right, seemingly shaken but unharmed. The whole thing happened much too quickly to make decisions about acting differently.

 

I'm not sure what you learn from this - the riders behind me stopped somewhat more gracefully and had a long chat about whether they wanted to do any more riding. I'm hoping the snake learned its lesson.

[stefmeister]

Koeberg Baby:

 

Koebergpuffy.jpg

Nice juvenile Mole snake

[Chingy182]

Strike first - ask questions later..

 

I had an incident where a mate of mine riding ahead of me clipped a cobra on a piece of singletrack out near the cradle game reserve (I would have said cape cobra given the yellow colour, spread hood and being a bit over a metre long, but AFAIK Gauteng is not within their regular range so I'm unsure of species).

 

Nevertheless the bump made the snake rear up, with the back of its hood towards me and looking down the track at the other rider. I braked rather hard, locked the front wheel and vaulted the handlebars. The few metres gained in this manouver putting me now vertically above the snake and bearing down on him. I picked left, had a close up look at said snake on the way past and landed mostly on my head and shoulder just off the path. The somewhat frightened snake disappeared off to the right, seemingly shaken but unharmed. The whole thing happened much too quickly to make decisions about acting differently.

 

I'm not sure what you learn from this - the riders behind me stopped somewhat more gracefully and had a long chat about whether they wanted to do any more riding. I'm hoping the snake learned its lesson.

This exact scenario has crossed my mind countless times.

 

What do you do if you spot a dangerous snake around a corner and it's, virtually, too late to stop early enough? Or just ride right over the snake?

 

My one fear is braking so hard, I come flying over the bars and rugby dive right onto the snake, which I think would guarantee me a bite or two.

[sawystertrance]

Nice juvenile Mole snake

Lekker Braaf ne?

[100Tours]

This exact scenario has crossed my mind countless times.

 

What do you do if you spot a dangerous snake around a corner and it's, virtually, too late to stop early enough? Or just ride right over the snake?

 

My one fear is braking so hard, I come flying over the bars and rugby dive right onto the snake, which I think would guarantee me a bite or two.

 

I have thought it through a few times:-

 

The area we were riding is really rocky - often not possible to veer off, so you're stuck on the path with the snake. I literally only saw the snake at about 2-3 bikelengths away because I was right behind another rider.

Riding over/past the snake is a bad idea (in this situation) because there's lots more time and target for the snake to strike you. The track is maybe 20cm wide and you're doing maybe 15kph. The snake is already a bit upset.

Falling on the snake is a really bad idea.

The best option is probably to stop better. I've heard that staying on the bike, right-way up, is best for braking performance. Uncleat away from the snake.

The one thing I wished I had known was which direction the snake would choose to escape.

[stefmeister]

Lekker Braaf ne?

Wait till that one gets 2m in length. They grow pretty big on the west coast.

[Kranswurm]

Wait till that one gets 2m in length. They grow pretty big on the west coast.

Then you better learn to bunny hop big time

[Bonus]

If I had a Euro for everytime I look at a picture on here and say no, no, no, no, no I'd have enough money for a large pizza and some beers by now! 

[MrJacques]

Someone took this photo in PE's Baakens valley:

 

 

* I think he / she has the right of way

Edited January 4, 2020 by Jacquers

[Dexter-morgan]

For sure! That is huge

Someone took this photo in PE's Baakens valley:

 

photo_2020-01-04_14-39-59.jpg

 

* I think he / she has the right of way

[Patchelicious]

Someone took this photo in PE's Baakens valley:

 

photo_2020-01-04_14-39-59.jpg

 

* I think he / she has the right of way

Looks like the type of thing Jon Voight would try and catch.

[Kranswurm]

Looks like the type of thing Jon Voight would try and catch.

God help us........

[Jbr]

after months of not seing a single snake on our trails, I ran into a cape cobra that was crossing on trail Z the other day (hoogekraal). I barely managed to stop about 2 bike lengths from it as it was looking at me. When it saw me stop it finally started going again and left the trail, but damn it was scary, what if it took me a split second longer to stop... getting bitten at the bottom of the trail Z is bad news, coz then you have something like a 20mins climb to get back to the top + another good 5 mins to get to the parking lot, then I'm not so sure where the nearest hospital is...

 

Anyways, I think I'll avoid Hoogekraal during peak Snake season, conties seems to be much better to evacuate quick quick if anythings happens... especially since I do most of my rides alone

Edited January 5, 2020 by Jbr

[ivan888]

Someone took this photo in PE's Baakens valley:

 

photo_2020-01-04_14-39-59.jpg

 

* I think he / she has the right of way

 

My heart would stop. I need to move to Iceland