Hello Ken! Welcome
Try to identify your snake here: http://www.herpetofauna.gr/index.php?module=catalogue&id=13 ;-)
It seems to me you saw an Elaphe sauromates 

Dear Ken,

Your exact location influences our guessing. Please specify: near Lom, near Russe, near the mouth, ... ? I think it will be hard to tell for sure what you saw.

g's,

J. 

Hello Ken,

Looks like we've switched places with you!:)I moved from Bulgaria to the UK some months ago,but it won't be permanently!I was born in Rouse and I hope you like my country!

Jeroen,Rusenski Lom is a river and a nature reserve very close to Rouse (it could be confusing since there's a town named Lom:))and I'm pretty sure the snake Ken saw was Elaphe sauromates!Too bad it was dead.. 

Great response thankyou!
Have been looking at examples of elaphe sauromates on the internet tonight, and although they look similar they dont seem to be as heavy bodied, and the coloration seems to be far more vivid than the specimens i saw. Maybe this is a regional variation in the species but i am not entirely convinced!
I have a photo but cant seem to find it, when i do i will post it.
ps I live in Ekzarh yosif 10km from the Rusenski lom national park, and yes Ilian i love Bulgaria. 

Just found another image on the net an example from greece that looks identical.
Thanks everybody.
Does anyone know how big they get,was i lucky to see one this size? 

Until recently Elaphe sauromates was treated as a subspecies of Elaphe quatuorlineata. I'm not really sure about E. sauromates, but last year in Italy I found a E. quatuorlineata of about 170 cm. If E. sauromates grows to that size, your "nearly 2m" doesn't sound impossible at all.
I would love to see that picture, anyway.. ;)
 

Managed to find the picture of the smaller of the two. This one measured approx 1.5m 

Hi Ken,

Can`t wait for a spring trip report from your neck of the woods. It is an amazing place!

Meanwhile, here`s what i found there:

http://fieldherping.eu/Forum/viewtopic.php?f=13&t=50

Cheers!
Vlad
 

Ken,you said you found the photo of the smaller one!Don't keep us waiting,let's see it!:) 

Sorry im not very good with computers. Ive tried to upload the photo but it doesnt seem to work. Any tips would be welcome. 

http://i905.photobucket.com/albums/ac254/borris147/e%20sauromates/DSC00755.jpg
Maybe this is it 

Ken,it's deffinitely E.sauromates!It seems like the snake was still alive!!!Did you move it from the road,what happened with it at all? 

I picked him up to move him and he died whilst i was doing it. 

Too bad,it's a very beautiful and rarely encountered snake!I haven't seen one,yet. 

Well if your ever in this area perhaps we could organise a trip. 

In Greece the longer E.quatuorlineata ever recorded (officially) was 2.60m, the bigger I've ever seen was about 1.80m.
But just see this video from Grevena. It has been filmed by a member of herpetofauna.gr forum



seems it reaches 200cm quite easily... :-) 

At the moment I'm also living close to Rousse, at Kalimok biological field station, 2 km from Nova Cherna and I must agree with you, lovely place! (stop by if you are passing and have a car that can handle ruff roads) I see loads of L. viridis every day, caspius nearly every day, some very big, loads av grassnakes with lovely patterns and green toads, trefrogs, pelobates..... But no sauromates so far, I where at a locality for it further east but no luck, really want to see one, but it will come, I'm still young, ehh rather young at least.
 

Hi Chris, If you are still there in a couple of weeks I might come to see you! I have a friend coming from the UK so perhaps we'll have a drive up to see you. Is there somewhere local we could stay the night? 

Hi Ken! I'm affraid I will go to Sofia around that time and then after some herping etc in that area of the country back to cold herp-poor Sweden, looking so forward to it... :) But might be back in the area in the future. Not great in Kalimok for herps, just the usuall, like D. caspius, N. natrix, E. orbicularis, L. viridis, P. fuscus, B. viridis and a couple of more. Was in your neighbourhood a couple of days ago, in the canjons outside of Rousse. Not much found I'm affraid, most exciting was a N. tesselata in a strange place, under a stone in a very dry area, up on the "ruins of the very old walled city on top of some cliffs", odd.
Best Regards
C