SANParks.org Forums

Scariest:-
Unpacking our boot for breakfast at Nkuhlu - the men were down at the fires already - (this was about 38 years ago - I was ten) - a huge baboon crept closer and closer until my mum tried to shoo it away.
It then charged at us, although I think to try to grab the oranges in the boot, but landed on my back instead!
I screamed myself sick, father came running, baboon jumped off and I locked myself in the car in tears, refusing to come out for brekkie.

Funniest:-
Naughtiest really and it was my mum actually.
This must be about 60 years ago - she was about 18!
They were travelling in two cars between L/Sabie and Croc Bridge.
Her sister was in the back car, but about 1km away and out of sight.
My mum got out of the car - hid behind a bush (!!) as the other car drove off and as her sister's car came around the corner she jumped out and shouted "boo'!!
I know, I know - really bad and dangerous and these are avid Krugernites that never transgress any rules! But you must see the funny side....

I had the same experience at Nkulu and it was also about 38 years ago.
Except I have a few scars on my back where the bugger bit me.
Nkulu sure was a dangerous place back then.

My scariest (and funniest but only afterwards) was years ago in Satara.
Late one night, we took a walk up to the waterhole just outside Stanley House.
We could make out two forms crouched down, drinking.
I had the torch, and shone it in the direction of these two creatures.
The moment the beam landed on them, four red eyes looked up in our direction.
It was an unbelievable sight to see - these eyes reflecting in the light of the torch and water dripping from their mouths as they looked up from drinking..... It was caracal!
But it doesn't end there.
In a flash, they both came running towards the fence at full charge. .
Well, I was off, left my SO in the dust. (Remember I had the torch!).
Big strapping male, hot on my heels, shouting at me to wait.
Who was more scared - him or me?
Once back at the hut, in complete safety, it became hysterically funny...but he has never let me live it down - leaving him in total darkness with a caracal possibly scaling the fence to pounce on him.

Many years ago i was a rep. for a canning co. and one of my calls was to pick up the orders from skz-----anyway,-on my way to exit at croc i stopped to watch a herd of buffs, and have a coke/ smoke, there was i all relaxed, window down, phil c, [another in paradise] ,super song----------when in a second, up popped a hyena's head, not 2 feet away, looking at me TALK ABOUT A FRIGHT!!!! i still think about that moment, even now------ mike

The scariest thing i saw in Mahlangeni Bush Camp.
a herd of Elephant came to the waterhole.
At one moment a huge Bull ran towards the fence.
Indeed it crushed with full speed in it.
I was only a few meters away, this attack was mine and I wasn't even prepared nor I recognize it! but after that my heart was pumping like hell.

The funniest thing was a night drive in Punda Maria where I spot almost everything eg a Leopards and an African Wild cat. and so on.
It was funny because I was a teenager I even spot more then our driver!
It was one of the best night drive that I have done.

Also at Nkuhlu.
This was about 30 years ago when I was 7, the little shop at Nkuhlu was way down at the bottom of the stairs (the building is still there),
I was walking up to the car with my packet of sweets when a baboon came at me from behind and grabbed the packet out of my hand and jumped up onto the roof of the car and scoffed the whole packet within a few seconds.
By the time I realised what had just happened, I was ready to give chase for my packet of sweets.
With my dad quickly pulling me back I realised that maybe that would have not been such a good idea.

A funny experience I had was quite a few years back at Satara's restaurant veranda one night, my cousin and I were sitting chatting to some girls we had made friends with when we decided to walk down to the fence (where the webcam now is).
Well ... the girls decided that the night was far too quiet for their liking and started screaming and running back up towards the restaurant complex.
My cousin and I, not hesitating for a second (call it survival instinct kicking in) sprinted as fast as humanly possible without even looking back to see what they were running from (the hair on the back of my neck even stood up and overtook me), experiencing a numb panic and rush of adrenalin feeling and I could just imagine how prey feels when being chased.
Needless to say, when we reached the restaurant we looked back to see them rolling on the ground laughing.
All I can say is that "embarrassment" was never even an option because my *ss is my *ss and I didn't want it chewed off.

This was about 20 years ago - my mom and dad had a Golf GTi where we could put the back seats down totally to make a big nice viewing area for me.
I was sitting right in the back looking out the rear window, eating snacks and drinking juice.
Driving on the Sabie river road to Lower Sabie we had a nice sighting of the impalas and the resident baboons on their way back to their tree for their evening sleep;
back in the days they still quite regularly hitched a ride on the bonnet or roof of the cars and when I heard a little non threatening noise above me
I really truly did not expect to have a massive baboons face 2cm away from mine flat on the back window....


Needless to say the snacks and drink was all over my dads seats and I was safely on my moms lap in the front seat within a second crying my heart out.
Tey never knew what happened until an hour or so later when they got me to calm down and explain and they off course had a good laugh


Another time about 3 years ago my SO and I was staying at Lower Sabie in the lux River front Tents; we were fast asleep when a BIG BIG bang right next to us woke us up (ok well it felt like right next to my pillow) so peeping out of the mesh windows we saw our metal bin next to our stairs had fallen over and that was all we though of it so went to bed.......silly us
all good wasn't it.
The next evening we had a late`ish night enjoying the fire and surroundings and river on a clear night, not wanting the same noises to disturb us, we opted to earlier that day move the bin to a more stable area on the grass a bit further away.
So on my way to throw away the scraps of our dinner "in the bin that is now a bit further away",
I was just making my way down the steps of our tent turning the corner to see in the dim light of our tent and my flash light a hyena trotting my way
a scream and a few good old Afrikaans words gave him a fright and I don't know who kicked up the most dust.... ( I made the most sound for sure!)

So my SO handed with his Mag light and a stick showed alot of bravery and got our trash thrown away and we had a good nights sleep once the tiredness and adrenalin wore off

I always love staying at Tamboti. However, during my visit last week (2011-07-29), it was the first time in one of the tents where there is no bathroom, and you have to make use of the communal bathroom.

I woke up that night at 01:00 from the noise the honey-badger made trying to find food. That is when I realised that I had to go to the bathroom. It was very cold and also not a big fan of walking that time of the night to a bathroom 60 meters away, I decided to just sweat it out until early morning.

At 04:00 I was woken up again by the honey-badger, now walking on the wooden floor in front of our tent door. That is when I realised for the second time that night, now I HAVE to go.

I waited a few minutes and heard the honey-badger left our stoep, and then grabbed my torch and went for it. I was walking to the bathroom through the thick bushes remembering that they have shot a leopard in the camp about two weeks ago. That is when I started running, not at full speed, as I have delayed the unavoidable since 01:00 also shinning my little torch light in all directions.

After several minutes I was back in bed, out of breath, listening to all the night sounds, just knowing the Scops Owl is laughing at me and shakes it’s head saying ….. “prrrrrrroep” ….. and then the silence….

The next morning, my friends who shared the tent with me, wanted to know why I was running to the bathroom, in which I just replied, "I really had to go... mother nature called".

They also wanted to know then why I was also running back to the tent...

Leeukos, classic post I have done the same at Tambotie

Scariest - I had 2.

Walking down from Tshanga lookout and feeling all the hairs on the back of my neck rise.
You know that feeling that you're not alone?
Being watched?
There were 4 of us and we all felt it.
We got to the car in record time.
Probably just a baboon or monkey or something, but still.

Camping in Skukuza right next to the fence.
Woken around one in the morning by a hyena "screaming" right next to the tent - on the wrong side of it, inside camp.
Campers around us agreed that the sound seemed to come from inside the camp.
We never found out if it was true or not.

Funniest or rather embarrassing actually.

We stopped at a hyena den not far from Mopani.
This was not with DuQues btw.
I was driving my dad's old Honda Ballade with an immobilizer/alarm that's rather difficult to turn off .
It has to be done with the side of your foot.
The car in front drove away and we wanted to move closer.
I missed the button....

As I started the engine this thing went off and to make it worse it sets off the car's tooter.
The vehicle in front slammed on brakes obviously thinking they'd missed a lion or something.
How do you explain that to them?

Oh, the hyenas with cubs?
They disappeared rather abruptly into their den.

I experienced that last month when I went for an afternoon drive and stopped at Nwanedzi at about 16H00 or just after.
As I arrived there, the last lot of people were getting into their car and were heading off.
The caretaker, his wife and kid were on their way back to their house and I was basically left on my own. Anyway, not having been to Nwanedzi for some years, I wanted to experience the view and casually took a stroll up the pathway to the lookout.
After some time I realised that I better get going if i wanted to have a slow late afternoon drive along the S100 back to Satara.
As I stood up the realization that I was really on my own started to sink in and the little path back down to the car seemed like a never ending walk.
I really felt like I was being watched lol!!

Another incident was a couple of years ago, we were staying in the safari tents at Skukuza, one that was had its back to the fence, so my bed was essentially about two/three meters from the fence.
I was awakened at about 1am the one morning by Hyena's whooping.
Being one that loves the night sounds I tried my level best to stay awake and listen but my eyelids were winning the fight and i was soon starting to drift off to sleep....you know that stage where you can feel yourself just starting to drift off......when all of a sudden ...WHHOOO--OOOOP!!!!!! right next to my tent.
I nearly hit the roof with the fright I got.

In November 2011, Patatjie (my wife), Don Tour Guide (friend) and I went to the Kruger to stay at Skukuza. This was a last minute trip and the only place available was Skukuza.
We decided to enter the park at Malelane gate and drive around in the South until such time that we can book in.
The problem was that a heat wave has hit the Kruger and at 09:15 it was already 34 degrees centigrade.

Now Don Tour Guide has higher education training (a degree of some sorts) in Nature Conservation and hence he got his name from the telling us great stories and facts while in the Kruger.

Then all of a sudden we heard the strangest sound... A Night Owl... at 09:15 in the morning in this heat...

We stopped the car and listened ... there was the sound again... amazing....

We were so impressed to hear the sound of the Night Owl at this time of the day and in this heat.
This must be better than any other sighting...
This is truly unique...

After a few seconds we realized that it was in fact the CD player with a list of bird sounds that played softly in the car...
The sound of the Night OWL was a bit more clearer than the others...

Don Tour Guide lost some points as a proper guide in my opinion.
He still believe that I have set him up as a trick.

My funniest was the SO's scariest.
We were south of Satara and watched a lone Hyena walking towards the road, so we stopped and turned off the engine.
The Hyena crossed the road less than a metre in front of the car and then started sniffing around at the side of the car about a metre and a half away, SO had the video camera up to her face saying boy is he close -
all of a sudden she said, roll up the window - ROLL UP THE WINDOW! -
the car was turned off, and the power windows would not move until I turned the key.
She was panicked as the hyena stood about a half metre from her with direct eye contact, still sniffing frantically.
The video is pretty funny as you hear her saying over and over ROLL UP THE WINDOW!

Our scariest experience ever was last year at Mooiplaas picnic site.
It is just after 6.30am, July, we are the only car.
We are standing under the thatch lookout point, we are totally absorbed in what is around us, the smells,the sounds and the bush,
My hubby says quietly to me "I get the feeling that we are being watched",
I am panic stricken to the point of struggling to breathe, my hubby takes our daughters hand and he says that we have had enough and we are moving on,
The walk to the car felt like a never ending hike, when we are back in the car I tell our daughter what her dad told me and she says "I thought I saw a cheetah earlier but I did not want to say something because I wasn't sure"
After I controlled my breathing we just burst out laughing because it could have been a cheetah or cheetahs watching us from the bush somewhere.
Mooiplaas happens to be our favourite picnic site

Mooiplaas was also the scene of our scariest moment in the park.
When we were on the entrance road we saw a few elephants among the trees.
Once we were at the picnic spot and settled under the thatch roof, we all set about making our breakfast; the children went off to buy a cool drink, husband went to fetch the skottel and defrost the still half frozen bacon and I cracked an ice cold kilkenney (pre no alcohol days) and unpacked the rest of the bag.
There was another family sitting under the thatch too, they were just about finished their breakfast.
I stood looking down into the riverbed and then turned to see what was taking the others so long to come back, only to see them all cowering in terror behind the assistant at the kitchen.
Between me and them were two elephants!
These two were quite calm, browsing the trees as they walked through the picnic area.
They were followed by another much larger bull who was ripping branches off the trees and tossing them around, flapping his ears and kicking up dust.
This elephant mocked charged the assistant who told everyone to get into the bathrooms as this was "a naughty elephant".
The elephant stayed in the picnic area for about 15-20 minutes, displaying pretty aggressive behavior. Eventually he went off in the same direction as the other elephants.
My son took video of the elephant through the bathroom window, it looked fairly hectic as they were much closer than I was.
All through this aggressive behavior, one foreign couple sat calmly at their table, eating their sandwiches!
It was rather funny as my husband emerged from the bathroom still clutching the bacon in his hand.
The assistant later showed us the thatch on one of the bathrooms, apparently this same elephant chased some people into the bathroom a week before then set about trying to rip the roof!

Our funniest moment.
We were camping at Berg n Dal.
My husband moved our car, when he closed the driver door he saw it was going to slam shut and instinctively tried to stop it, only to get his thumb jammed in the door.
It was instantly blue and a big blood blister was forming under the nail.
We tried to drill a hole through the nail with a hot needle, it didn't help, so eventually we decided we needed to go into Malelane to buy a small drill bit to do the job.
We piled the children into the car and set off.
I'm driving and SO has his thumb up in the air, we cruise out the gate and along the road, a little way along the road is a HUGE traffic jamb, lions!
The children have their cameras ready, we wind through the mobs, some with cameras, one with his thumb in the air and cursing under his breath.
After much weaving and quick looks and some thumbs up back, we eventually get through.
Cruising again, around another bend; more cars and a buffalo road block.
More pictures, cursing, thumb in the air, thumbs ups back.
We wait patiently, eventually make it through that lot.
Cruising again, get to the last bend before the T-junction - another jam! Rhinos!
Children with cameras and excitement, husband cursing and getting really agitated - "do we really have to stop!!!"
Weave through this lot, the thumb still up, we get some thumbs up back,
I start laughing. "its not funny!!!"
I can't see the road through my tears.
We get to the junction and turn towards the gate, on a bend up ahead I see more cars!
Leopard lounging in a tree!
Cameras out again, children really happy about this sighting!
We stop to look, he's really close to the road and very calm.
Husband grumbling and getting very annoyed, thumb still in the air, lots of thumbs up back, more laughing and tears.
We weave through the traffic and leave the sighting.
It takes over an hour to get to the gate.
We buy the drill bit at the first hardware we find and drill a hole in the nail, pressure released, husband happier so we set off back to camp.
We enter the gate, leopard has gone, turn down Berg n Dal road, the road is empty!
No cars, no rhino,no buffalo, no lions, nothing.
We get to the camp gate in about 30 minutes!