"Water Cobra"

Luke's Bay, Zambia

	Left: Zambian southeastern shore of Lake Tanganyika with main locations indicated
	Above: Luke's Bay

Locations for OBA film 4:3
Lake Tanganyika
(click on maps to enlarge)

Luke's Bay is a secluded sand inlet north of Kalambo Lodge, before the Tanzanian border. Originally established by Luke Powell, it is also known as Mishembe Bay. Visitors come for the small sandy beach and the snorkelling but we came for the rocky outcrops on either side of the bay which are ideal water cobra habitat.

We searched extensively on several occasions, walking the rocks during the day shining heliographs into crevices and fissures in the hopes of illuminating a banded coil, scanning the water surface during calm periods for surfacing cobra heads, snorkelling the shallows in the early morning hoping to see cobras emerge and, when we moved into the dive phase on 19th June, diving deeper down the rocks that extend far out into the lake.

Despite our intense efforts no water cobras were found.

Most visitors come to Luke's Bay for the secluded sandy beach	We came for the rocks on either side of the beach
These rocks are home to the endemic Storm's water cobra, Naja annulata stormsi	We searched the rocky outcrops extensively
Especially the rocks near the water's edge	and snorkelled or dived to search the many metres of rocks under the lake's surface
Mark used binoculars to watch for surfacing water cobras in the shallows