Once tightly coiled, the wrestling action calmed down and it was this that suggested courtship, rather than combat.

After a few seconds rest in which the coils loosened, the action would begin once more, with heads close together, each trying to push the other one's head down.

I was wrong in thinking that the mambas were engaged in courtship. There is little doubt that the two mambas were to adult males in combat, a wrestling match that ends up in one of them being exhausted, and fleeing. It is probable that a female was nearby and the males were fighting for the right to mate with her. Harry Green, from the University of California at Berkeley, writes that "male-male combat is recorded for mambas as well as various vipers, colubrids and other elapids. Mating is typically a quieter affair, without the extensive intertwining or the upraised foreparts."

It was one of those incredibly lucky encounters, completely unpredictable and one that will never be forgotten. It lifted the bleak mood of departure as we continued on down the road that led us out of the Park at Gabiro.