Bit by a Black Mamba

All of a sudden I got a strong desire to take an early morning walk alone at Lal Bagh. I mailed my friends on a Friday morning stating that I will go on a walk and come back with loads of pictures of birds, trees etc! I was too excited about this and I got encouraging replies too.
On Friday evening, I was reading some novel that featured a snake. I now got a gut feeling that I would find a snake (not Black Mamba though!) the next day. Snakes fascinate me with their skin patterns and hunting techniques. The techniques are so astonishing that none of the other creatures on earth would be close enough to beat them in patience and intelligence that takes to catch a prey!
Luckily, yes luckily, I have had chances to take a closer look at these beauties couple of times before. It is always a thrill to encounter wild creatures un-caged. Once, I was so excited to watch a snake that I missed to take a snap! None would believe if I say that I have scolded myself at least a thousand times now. My favourite of all the snakes is Black Mamba (nicknamed Shadow of the Dead) which lives in Africa. Firstly I have a craze for black and this snake has black coloration inside its mouth and known to be very venomous. Very powerful hunter!
Check this out: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Black_mamba
I had kept the alarm by 5 30 and I placed my camera which I call “Black Bird” near me so that I would wake up to its face and get started! And it worked! I started off by 6 10 am and reached Lal Bagh by 6 45 am. To my shock there were lot many people already and I now I did’t feel like being alone. I was just wandering around for an hour and I realized I had not taken the cam outside its pouch! I somehow did’t feel like taking pictures! I came all the way here early in the morning for taking pictures and question came up as to what am I going to show my friends?
I later on decided to just take it out and snap something. I started off with bees, flowers, trees and birds. I did get excited but something was still missing! Just then a snake showed up in the lake! Yahoooo, me and my cam finally managed to find a snake and I snapped it! It just disappeared in seconds. I was so elated that I almost got the happiness of being “Jeff Corwin", “Steve Irwin” and other reptile lovers. ;) I could’t believe that my long time dream to snap a snake came true :D

With great sense of pride I continued snapping around and to my surprise another snake showed up!! It seemed similar to the earlier one and I even got the feel that it could have been the same snake coming after its buddy ( me !! hehe).
That was too much of excitement for that day! I ended my walk after exploring and spying on kids, oldies, lovers ;)
I was at park for nearly 4 hours and decided to start back. I was not totally alone after all :) I met my buddy twice!
Link to the snaps: http://picasaweb.google.com/anupsz/AWalkToFindASnake
I later described these events to my friends and many called me crazy and one of my friends made a remark that I could have got bitten by that snake. I thought may be I would not mind being bitten by a Black Mamba…