I met a mysterious stranger while walking the dogs on the Rondebosch common today:
It was clearly digesting something, and allowed me to come quite close to take photos. It is a mole snake, which means it is not poisonous but can give a nasty bite. My dogs never noticed it, to my relief.
There was a much larger snake on the common until recently – my father saw it several times – but sadly, somebody killed it. I hope this one is luckier.
Masha du Toit 
Jul 30, 2010 @ 18:22:35
When I was in Augrabies recently, walking along the boardwalk, a black cobra and I had a close encounter, luckily I was on the boardwalk and he was on the ground, but he reared his head, and I stayed far away out of great respect for his hooded stance, unfortunately he decided to deflate before I could take a picture in all majesty, from a decent distance with zoom lens of course…
Jul 30, 2010 @ 18:36:55
Wow! A cobra is a whole other story. Respect.
Jul 31, 2010 @ 17:54:48
Nice picture Masha, did you have a good camera with you or just a “point and shoot”? Nice pink balance with the flowers in the top picture!
Jul 31, 2010 @ 18:31:05
It was just a lucky shot with my little cell phone camera. Although I admit to a little bit of colour balancing in photoshop to improve the contrast 🙂
Aug 02, 2010 @ 09:57:42
Nice. Sad about the other snake. Amazing the dogs didn’t see this one! How big was it? Difficult to tell from the picture.
Aug 02, 2010 @ 10:00:32
Jeanne – I would guess it was a bit more than a meter long. I have no idea what the dogs would have done if they saw it!