SANParks.org Forums

Well, as a child in England I didn't have much wildlife to blame...

Managed to find Jenb's one and it still cracks me up to this day when I read it!
(Hope you don't mind me dragging it up again Jen?)

SO wanted to give me a surprise by unexpectedly taking me to the park for our anniversary. We arrived just before gate closing time, and in my own defence, it was pretty dark by then. We booked into the safari tent and settled for the night. Now SO is the man who HAS to be at the gate FIRST, make no mistake. He is also last to wake up, 2 min before the gate opens is a good time. He then flies out of bed, grabs the car keys, takes about 3 paces to get to the car, starts up and goes! Game viewing first, ablutions later! If he does not get out first - bad mood for the rest of the day!

So I set my alarm for nice and early, made the morning coffee and packed it all in the car. About 5 min before the time I nicely woke him up and darted to the ablution block for a last visit before leaving. By that time I was quite sure that I was spending the rest of the morning in camp all by myself. I ran back to the tent ripped open the door and in the twilight I saw a body still fast asleep in bed. Believe me, I was not amused. In one fell swoop I ripped the blankets right off the bed not shutting my mouth for a single moment. " Um.........." I hear an unfamiliar sleepy voice, "I think you are in the wrong tent". I closed my eyes for a millisecond of total disbelieve and looked again. (Censored...................).I think I muttered something like "sorry" and hightailed it out of there!

When got to the car, there So was sitting, fuming from the ears because he could hear the gate's hinges creek! "Were the heck were you?" he asked. "To the loo, just took the longer way back." was the only thing I could say.

Do you have any idea what it feels like to spend a whole weekend dodging every guy in camp? Not nice!
(I hope there was no YR on "his" wing mirror!)

Still have to try and find MM's story, it might have been in one of her early TR's. but if I am not mistaken I think it took place at Biyamiti.

Men, men, men….. Makes you wonder why there are men in WOMEN?
In July, we took the whole family to Kruger, rented a taxi bus (Toyota 10 seater) and off we go to the wild east show.
WE were taking a siesta under a Jackal berry on the Salitje road, minding our own business. Calmly Ouma (80) tells Karen to look behind her.
Karen was sleeping on the backseat. Everything happened at breakneck speed, Karen ended up on the second row from the front, Anlie was hiding behind Karen and Ouma….. She was still sipping her condensed milk tea.
It was only then that we realized that a monkey had jumped in threw the rear window trying to grab a teatime snack.
After everything quieted down, we saw Pa standing outside the bus. His explanation .... He wanted to open the rear door…….
However, I think he knew that we could handle the situation; after all……. we are the WO in WOMEN!!!

'k.... in my defense, that was a looong time ago!

Why are you guys so nervous, RP and Imberbe? I've just admitted that you have nothing I haven't seen before.

During my last visit to Kruger I had taken someone with me. During the long flight over to SA from the USA I had reviewed the many rules of the bush, if you will, with him. One of the rules was to make sure you shake your shoes out before putting your feet into them.

It was around day seven and we were in a Lataba permiter hut. My SO and I were sitting on the edge of the bed putting on our shoes. He, as advised to do, shook his and to both of our surprise out came something quite big.

We both jumped onto the bed. I screamed. After we regained out wits and crept back over to the edge of the bed to see what it was we discovered it was a dead bat. I felt horrible for the bat but to this day we do not know if the bat fell from the roof and fell into his shoe; the fall killing him. Or if he crawed into his shoe and the smell killed the poor fella......

I felt bad for the bat but we did get a few laughs.... and if I could ever figure out how to post images I would post some really good close up images of this bat. Not sure the species....



What are your funniest moments in the park?

@Travelstory, we can add another rule to the "many rules of the bush:Sleep with a hat!
I can laugh at this story now but trust me when it happened it wasn't funny at all. We were staying in Pkop. At half past 11 one night I suddenly got the feeling that we weren't just 2 people in our bed anymore. I leapt out of bed and saw to my dismay that - wait for it - a bat was sharing the bed. I freaked out! Screaming like a pig, my SO thought that I was being eaten alive only to discover the poor disorientated bat on the bed. After a few minutes he managed to get the creature out of the bungalow, very wary I must add. He laughed so hard he started to cry, I on the other hand was very traumatised...

I've just had the most embarassing Freudian slip on the "Nile Crocodile" thread!!

I was trying to post this pic:



Instead I posted as follows by mistake:
Do you guys think this is real?":

I hope the tour guide is not on this forum. Last weekend I was in the Lower Sabie swimming pool where a tourguide and SO, pitched up with his guests. after telling everyone of his great sightings , he told us that he had seen a Tierboskat A.K.A Serval, earlier that morning.
He told his wife to bring us the camera to show us . I looked at the photo politely, but then had to break the news, it was an African Wildcat !! Poor tourguide

Great sighting but not great if you are an Afrikaans tourguide and do not know the right name for your animals.

Can't believe it but I'm about to put my foot into this thread again!

Well see, the story goes like this.....
We grabbed a quick weekend to Kruger last week to celebrate SO's birthday. On the much awaited birthday drive we came across a large pack of wild dogs. Seeing that it was the first dogs for us in ....... well, just call it a very long time.... we pulled over and decided to enjoy the sighting. Next thing a yellow ribbon approached from the front. After a few minutes a sizable traffic jam started building up. I was the luckiest one of the lot because the full complement of the pack was right next to my door!

Next moment a very fast and irrate BZZZZZZZZ...... came through SO's open window and headed straight for me! The content of this tread raced through my mind. Yes, I'm pretty sure it was the very same wasp! With my hand on the door handle I weighed up the available options, wasp (circling my face at that stage), dogs, lots of clicking cameras, forum member?? ..... choices, choices, choices. Someone told me just to stay still! Stay still?? Are you out of your mind?? I slid down under the flying thing and halfway down to the floor and started yelling (involuntarily! ) for SO to GET IT OUT NOW!

Fortunately the thing decided that the heat was too much for him and kindly departed (alive! ) and I could breath again. The dogs were still there, all lined up and giving me a very funny look!

My.... my....

Hi

Again overseas visitors Balule, late one lovely sunny afternoon, three girls and one gentleman
decided to walk from the ablution block to their campsite in their birthday suits, my children
teenagers at the time nearly die from embarassment! shock! horror! that their mother saw them eyeing out naked girls. SO was off at the fence taking photos, so missed the entire show.

Any recent stories to tell?

I remember a story from several years back, when I was still at varsity. There was this girl in our class that approximated behaviour of a spoilt diva: always, and continuously, fastidious over every bit of make-up, every strand of hair, and the lie of her garments; mostly self-absorbed and boasting about everything she felt was her special achievement in life (like how much she paid for the latest fashion pieces or the latest trip overseas, and which famous stars she met there); and so on and so on. As it turned out, she got engaged to a similar type of man, and, for the first time that we could recall, they decided on a local summer holiday - to a very upmarket lodge in the Eastern Transvaal (now Mpumalanga).

When she got back, she was in her usual mood, boasting wildly about this and that; however, she was quite a good storyteller, and so she had a fair audience absorbing all the skinder and juicy tales. It turned out that they had spent a good few days enjoying every amenity available at the lodge; whereupon they decided to visit the world-famous Kruger Park, where no doubt they felt they would see every single important sighting in one day. They could see no reason to go longer than a day, so they had entered at gate open at Crocodile Bridge, and made their way right through the Park, exiting at gate close at Punda Maria! That is a distance of about 400km.

As it turned out - and why was I not surprised! - she was disappointed about that drive. Yes, the luxury car drove like a dream; and the air conditioning was perfect, so that they didn't feel the 40+ heat outside, and her make-up didn't melt. But Kruger, she felt, had to stop making exorbitant promises and misleading the public. Where were the famous lions, the huge herds of buffalo, and the mighty elephants and rhinos? After all, they had driven more than 400 km, and all they had seen the entire day was a few lousy SPRINGBOK!!!

Dotty, thanks for reviving the thread

OWN, I must remember to look out for the Sprinkbok in Kruger

thinks to meself, Jenb has better be careful of birthdays.

Great stories here, but JenB still takes the cake.

Last Saturday an OSV stopped me on the S100 looking for lions supposedly close by. I told him I had seen no lion yet. We then drove about 100m around the corner where I spotted a male lion and 2 lioness'. It made me laugh that they had all just driven passed the lions in hot pursuit of 'the reported lion sighting'.