Freefalling Fearless Fred nabs mamba

RENOWNED local snack catcher ‘Fearless’ Fred Lubbe’s, Friday had its fair share of action.

With Fred also being a professional photographer, the day started on a great note when he was notified of a Palmnut Vulture nearby and he was able to get the shots he had been after for a while.

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‘Then, just as I was packing up my biltong sales in Meerensee a call came in for a snake at a house in the golf
estate, a stone’s throw from where I was.

‘I got there to find a cute little harmless Marble Tree snake, reports Fred.

‘And then on my way home a call comes through for a possible black mamba in a small tree just outside Empangeni – yes my day is made.

‘Get there to find the small mamba in a tree but curled up between branches. Get my tong on him but I can’t budge him from the branches.

‘So I get his head in the right position to neck him (hold him behind the head) with my right hand, but to do that I need to stand on a thin branch so as to reach him.

‘That all done I now have him behind the head with my right hand and trying to move his body out of the branches with the left hand while standing in an awkward position.

‘All was good and he was just about loose when the branch I was standing on breaks and I go down to the ground with the mamba.

‘There was no way I was going to let go of his head so he just came down with me; not a high fall luckily and no injuries to us.

‘He is now in a safe place away from people and domestic animals with lots of shelter, water and food.’

Word is that Fred is now looking for a new branch manager.

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