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It started with the tyre chomping lions of Bitterpan but its now spread to the Urikaruus hyenas who have developed a taste for tow bars.

Last week my tow bar plastic cover was thoroughly mauled by Hyena in a night time raid. They also demolished the hinged lid which protects the plug and the whole plug and housing will have to be replaced.

Thanks heavens they left my mud flaps and tyres alone!

Maybe we need to spray all rubber parts with some bitter substance - any ideas?

Sorry , no ideas, Mistral but am hoping/looking forward to a great TR !

No idea whatsoever. We also had the hyenas sniffing and chewing on some of the vehicle's body parts, don't know why they do it.

Perhaps we should ask Scipio whether his lion remedy works on hyenas as well?

Remedy:
Get camo clothes and hide under a bush while waiting for lions to come and mark their territory. Then hold a cup precisely so you can catch their urine/spray in the cup. Throw that all over your car parts that can be mauled. Will keep hyenas at bay

Not doable with Kalahari lions Heksie.

Why?
Do they even scare the mightiest and bravest of mites?

They are much bigger than those kittys in Kruger and they are fearless.
Kalahari lions eat tyres for breakfast, bumpers and side mirrors for dinner with a few other parts for dessert.
They have torn a city golf to peaces.
I think the saying "Africa is not for sissies" must be "the Kalahari is not for sissies".

Ag hum-bug
Are lions eat illegal immigrants for breakfast
No really? I would love to see kiekies of these so called golf eaters in action...

While I haven't tried this in the Park, we use it around the house to keep pests (skunks, dogs, rabbits etc) away from a particular area.
Eucaliptus oil or Vick's Vaporub should be available from any drug store or chemist. Slather it on the parts you want to protect. Not sure if it will drive all animals away on your approach but could be worth a try.

Myself and SO have just survived a lion mauling at Marie se gat - teenage lion took a fancy to the steps on Babushka (My Landy) and when I spoke to him politely moved over to my mud flaps which required another stern talking to at which stage I got the ICY GLARE of a Kalahari Lion - Brrrrrrrrrr!

If anyone has a photographic record of the event it would be appreciated!

I see in the latest issue of Weg/Drive Out magazine someone has actually made a mesh cover to protect his tyres.

I wonder if I put in an insurance claim whether my insurance company will believe me.

It makes it a bit of an expensive trip if we are mauled each time.

60 second trip report --- Stop-go's - game

Avoid the R27 - I counted more than eight stop-go's. We were lucky coming back traffic was extremely light and I don't think we lost more than 30 mins. There were also two 20 min sections on the Nieuwoudtville road but we were not delayed for more than a few minutes.

Going up we drove the N7 route - just two very quick Stop go's but the construction work at Kakamas/Keimoes bridges is ongoing with single lane traffic which is a potential delay hazard.

In Kgalagadi we found far more game down south I think due to the availability of water - it was very dry in the north. Nossob hide water hole was empty when we arrived due to water problems - the camp required the water. It was filled the following day.

Some Eland are still there - have not migrated back to Botswana as yet. Smallish herds of up to 10. Overall game viewing was excellent - we saw Leopard, lion and cheetah and just about everything else bar the caracal.

Avoid the dune road from Urikaruus to Dikbaardskolk. We found the corrugations extremely bad (even in 4x4 with OME suspension) with some potholes. Driving south again we wisely chose the main Nossob - 2R road.

Nossob camping area was extremely busy as was 2R. Lots of people using the camping option. Nossob ablutions were well maintained.

Only disappointment was that we could not do the 3 hour morning walk from Nossob as the guide was away.
We were really looking forward to this being avid hikers. While one understands staff take ill/leave etc but there does not seem to be a back-up plan.

SANparks staff were extremely helpful overall - particularly Jacques and Willem at the Bush camps and we can't wait to go back!

For sure Mistral! Especially the tyres!!

This could turn into a real expensive trip with all the chomping!

We spray Footsack on our cars bumpers and mudflaps because our boerboel decided that these were much better teething rings.
So far so good, no bitten car plastic since we started using it.
I wonder if this will work on Kgalagadi lions and hyaenas.