Articles: The Kruger National Park ...
Was This Track the Result of an African Python Looking for Prey?
Shortly after leaving the Shingwedzi Rest Camp for a drive down to Red
Rocks I decided to drive the 3 kms stretch of the S101 Shipirivirhi loop
road very close to the bridge that crossed the Shingwedzi River.
At waypoint 135 there was a fascinating track. As soon as I saw it I thought that it had been made by a snake possibly but there was none to be seen. The track continued for some significant distance leaving me wondering whether I would come across the snake but after a while the track disappeared into the roadside grass.
Take note of the width of the snake" track relative to the car type
track adjacent to it. Also take note of the depth in the softish sand
close to the camera. This suggested to me the snake was wide and heavy.
I was aware that
African Rock Pythons were often seen in this part of
the Kruger National park and I never seen one before so was now hoping
to do so.
The tracks moved closer to the edge of the road in softer sand and were
very regular for some distance. At a later stage the track seemed to
speed up as evidenced by a wider "S" closer together. Once more note the
impression made into the sand suggesting a heavyweight.
The tracks had not been ridden over and to me this suggested they were
quite recent. This image shows where the tracks disappeared into the
grass on the right hand side of the road about 30 metres away (top left
of image not middle right ... the snake changed direction moving more
towards the left in the picture). The image immediately below this one
shows where the track temporarily disappeared because it reappeared on
the road again about 50 metres later, continued down the middle of the
road before disappearing into the grass again.
I never did see any more positive signs of a snake despite waiting and
watching for a re-appearance. So to this day I am not sure what I missed
seeing but whatever it was I'm sure it was large snake probably an
African Python or maybe a Black Mamba since this snake also gets to
become a very large and heavy size.
