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What are you the most afraid off or what gave you the biggest scare ? For example seeing a hyena in a camp at night or going around a corner and the next moment a huge elephant is in the road or walking to the toilet alone at 4 am ? (This part is in the topic animal sounds at night)

The most scariest moment for me was when sleeping outside my tent one night in Lower Sabie the same night a lioness was prowling around in the camping area.

The day I stood at the wash basins in the Ladies at Thokwane touching up my lip gloss and got the feeling I was being "watched". When I looked towards the entrance there was a hyena standing like in 2m away from me.
Yah........... that was the moment!

For me it has to be when I was still relatively new to driving and as we were coming around the corner towards the gardenia hide there was a massive elephant standing in the road ,
I don't know if it seemed so huge just because I was scared but either way my foot was not exactly steady on the accelerator.
I could drive perfectly well but make me reverse back down the road and around corners, well I was not so sure if I could do that if the elephant decided to charge,
And to top it off the bull was in musth , that's when I started to that it would just calmly walk off the road and let me pass. well it did just that.
I love elephants, I have more pics of elephant than anything else but that occasion I didn't seem to think that a pic was necessary

And this from the person that always moans to my dad about why he would not go closer to it, not every elephant is out to get you

Another time when I was scared was when I was about 8 I think and my family, just the four of us went on a night drive in one of those small 4x4 game drive vehicles from Orpen.
The two guides that took us were brilliant except they were not familiar with the area as they were from another camp. While we were out we got a puncture and there was no spare tyre.
After we got the puncture we were charged by a bull elephant and a few of his askaris, I remember hiding under those blankets that they give you on the night drives and then the guides got lost (they took us on the no entry roads,
I still remember it perfectly) with a flat tyre and we only got back to Orpen at about half past twelve that night!! it was scary but still has to be one of my most memorable Kruger experiences

Mine was many years ago, when I was about 15 years old we stayed in Berg-en-Dal.

My parents have never been early risers, so most early mornings were spent birding in camp. This particular morning, it was just getting light when I walked on the path next to the dam. In those days there were no electric fences and it was only that 2m drop from the path down to the veld in front of the dam. I noticed this wiggly little thing a couple of meters in and the next moment I was staring into these huge yellow eyes and snarling mouth of a leopard with nothing but a 2m jump between us.

I wish I could say that a bailed right there, but those eyes hypnotises you! I finally ran away. May parents and others in the camp would not believe my story until someone found the carcass of an impala right below where I was standing!

Picture this...
Enjoying the last night in Kruger, on the sofa on the porch of bungalow nr. 18, only the lowveld and the river in front of you with the southern cross above. The hippos grunting below you and the resident bat taking another swooping dive above you in search for insects attracted by the light.

SO and son went to bed so it was only me in the silent night going to say my goodbyes. As i grew very fond of Klipdrift and coke it was time to for my last triple. Opened the fridge and got a big scare. No more coke No problem, as a real musketeer i can take care of a pure Klipdrift.

Went over to the kitchen, eyed the few drops. Should be one nice stiff drink. Reached out for the bottle and got the fright of my life (I thought) A gecko sprinted from behind the bottle accross the wall. Nearly dropped the goodies, daft animal

Again reached out for the last golden drops, getting very desperate and then got the biggest fright ever in Kruger, eyeing my worst enemy. A SPIDER, at least 5cm, with dark long legs raced across the kitchen area, coming to a halt next to the fridge.

I have been passing elephants with 3 meters, had white rhino and buffalo within touching distances but this was my worst nightmare. The only safe place left for me was the dining table. With lighting speed I took up my position on the table, my feet safely from the ground, parked firmly on a chair, well away from the floor. We were
eyeing each other. Boy its was dark and huge. I had two problems….

No drink (still in the bottle out of my reach) and only socks on me feet. These monsters can bite through socks or do a jump straight for my throught, having me crawling on the ground and before I could call for help being paralyzed and never see the sun coming up again. What to do. Overcome my fear, go for the precious golden drops or try to tip-toe across the verandah, close every door and latch and go to bed.

I choose for the latter and it took me at least a hour to find the piece of mind to sink into a bliss full sleep.

The next morning SO woke me: Bert, there is a huge spider in the verandah!
Boy, I was very happy when I left bungalow no. 18

During Oct 2005 hubbie and I, with my folks, planned a huge trip to the Kgalagadi.
We started out at Mabuesehube.
The day we arrived was really quite and I sat by the fire saying that I did not think there were any lions in the area or for that matter any other "large" animal.
The next day I walked a few metres from the tent and saw the largest paw marks ever!
This changed my mind about the animals but I was not too worried.
That night, after being in bed for about a half hour, we heard a jackal crying as if in pain.
Shortly after that the lions arrived outside our tent and made a huge racket the entire night.
For those of you who don't know, there are no fences at Mabuesehube so when I say they were outside our tents, they were!
The racket stopped in the early hours of the morning.
My dad got up around 05:00 and decided to take a shower in the open showers a few metres from the tent.
He was looking on the ground at paw prints and walked straight into a lioness who was about 2m from him.
All hell broke loose with my mom screaming for my SO to drive the landy a few metres to pick up my dad.
The lioness walked off after that.
Thereafter we were very careful at night.
The next night I heard a leopard outside the tent.
Unfortunately our canvas tent has thick windows which you can only open outside so we could not lift a window to see the goings on each night but I was glad they could not see me!

One my scariest moments were way back in Std. 6 we were camping with the school in Skukuza close to the train restaurant.
The one side of the front gate broke the afternoon and there was bunch of hyaena's strolling around the fence as always.
So being young and restless we took our flash lights and started walking along the fence.
We heard something walking besides us and got a slight fright to see a hyaena following us, the next minute something made a growling noise behind us that even the hyaena stopped and looked.
When we turned around there was a Civet standing there inside the camp.
We didn't bother waiting to see why mister was there we just ran!

Mods If this post is unsuitable please remove it as this incident happend across the crocodile river from KNP but actually in the park
At about 9pm one evening I remembered I'd left my cell phone in the car and went out the front door to collect it.
I noticed the bush at the top of the stairs seemed a little bigger than I remembered, but realising I'd had a few glasses of wine I thought it was my imagination and started to go up the stairs.
I was about half way up when the "bush" moved and a huge pair of tusks appeared.
Harry the elephant had crossed the river from KNP and got into the resort.
I rushed back into the house and closed the door.
My SO then opened the kitchen blind to check where he was.
He had come down the bank to the cottage and was leaning against the wall right at the window.
All we could see was this huge eye with eyelashes that any girl would have been proud of
Harry, we were told by the resort management the next day had learnt to raid the resort dustbins.
There we were with just a glass window between us and a huge ellie.
That must be one of my scariest moments
BTW the resort now has an electric fence to keep Harry the ellie and Tinker-bell the hippo out!

This year in the KTP we had a great cabin at Kieliekrankie.
We unloaded the car and back and forth to the cabin.
On my last leg i from the cabin walked past a little "garden" next to the walking path.
I was very surprised to find a yellow snake next to the path. Must not get any dafter i thought. A plastic snake for the tourists
But then it moved
A cape cobra.
But as it was more afraid of me it moved away.
And i rushed back to get my camera
Will write about it in my very overdue trip report
With pictures

After reading threads on safe to alight spots, animals found at picnic spots in KNP etc, it got me wondering.....

Taking into account that all wild life should be respected and is potentially dangerous, what animal/s would you least like to encounter while out of your vehicle??

Im sure there have been some hair raising encounters.

Snakes... Definitely!

As for Wallet's there are snakes in that there long grass and Noel talking about Satara... That brought back memories. Wallet, bad news, they are not only out there in the long grass...

One night in Satara, ± 5 years back, between the stoep and the fire, hubby and I saw two snakes. The 'black one' was hunting down the 'brownish one'. (Apologies, until today we are not clear about the species these two snakes represented)... Slithering, wettish looking (the brown one), shining (the black one in particular) in the moonlight and fire glow... Yackity-yak! Creepy!

That Satara night
It was a memorable, yet not pretty sight!
And it gave me a huge fright!

Needless to say, I refused to leave the stoep after that and as per Noel - dinner was not quite so pleasant - I also wonder why... In fact, I think I volunteered to eat in the chalet.

On another occasion, upon our return to camp in Skukuza/Lower Sabie (apologies, not quite sure which one now), we were warned by our neighbour that a cobra literally took the plunge - and ended up in their bathroom - which had to be removed by rangers from the Park. Trust me, from then onwards, my visits to the bathroom in that particular chalet were shortened to what was absolutely necessary...

Yip, I have great respect for Mother Nature indeed.

I fear all dangerous and the not so dangerous wild animals.
My worst encounter was with a baboon.
Many years ago, on the Sabie river bridge between Lower-Sabie and Skukuza, a troop leader ended up IN our car with me and my wife OUTSIDE the car, with another family in their vehicle just in front of our sedan, recording all on video.
It could have been nasty, but it ended very fortunately, he got our fruit rolls, a white bread hot from the oven in Skukuza shop etc, but we got occupancy of our car back just before the rest of the troop arrived.
We also managed to repossess our newspaper which he took when he left against his will.
And I am supposed to be very cautious.

I've had 2 close encounters with elephant...

The first one was about 5yrs ago.
We had seen a bull ambling along about 50m in on the right.
Not taking too much note as elephant sightings that trip had been as common as impala we carried on for a few 100m more to find a small pride of lion seeking shelter under a bush also about 50m in.
The vehicle was turned off, beers opened and we settled in to watch the lion, totally forgetting about the elephant.
Before we knew it, he had made his way to us and decided to inspect the contents of the landy by looking down in the top, side window of the landy.
All I remember (while sitting white knuckled at the wheel with a hand on the key ready to make my escape) was with this huge grey mass inches from my window and his tail swishing behind the landy...
Needless to say another vehicle had witnessed the whole event and had a good chuckle at our expense as we sheepishly drove past to go empty the contents of our well, hmm - need I say more...

The second encounter was 3yrs ago and was far scarier though.
I had 3 friends from the states, all youngish ladies and they had really wanted to go on a morning walk at Shingwedzi.
After 2 hours of seeing absolutely nothing but learning lots, the guide decided to take us through a dry river bed to see some hippo in Kanniedood Dam.
Unfortunately the clay in this river bed was not 100% dry and the going was a little slow when a big bull decided to play with us and came running at us with no warning.
All I can remember was the guide shouting "RUN" and then "FASTER" as we tried to get up the side bank.
Once the group had got past the guides they got him to back off by shouting and clapping their hands...
Unfortunately our exit route was limited as there was then a breeding herd not far off to our back left.. backwards and back right was was blocked by the dam, the ellie was in front of us so our only exit was diagonally left back across the river bed... to make matters worse the bloody beast decided to stay with us (about 150m back) while we made our way back to the vehicle.
Why we actually went down that river bed to start with I really don't know... Only on reflection later on did I realise what a stupid decision that was...

I think 1998 was a time when the concept of allowing visitors to get out on some bridges was tested.
At the time this applied to the Sabie and Olifants bridges.
We stopped in the middle of the bridge, well within the two white lines/marker boards drawn/set up for this purpose.
We got out, nervously when the second car a venture stopped and the occupants followed suit.
As birders, we were scanning for fin foots in the river, and leopards in the trees in between checking the bridge on both sides every 2? seconds or so.
I guess the 2 s became 5 or 10s, because the next moment, one of us noticed the baboon running along the side of the bridge from the southern side towards the car.
We instinctively kept the car between us and him, moving to the driver's door, and was about to get in, when he entered first, through the passenger window that was left open a few centimetres.
For me, this was the most incredulous of all, how the baboon fitted his head never mind his whole body through the available opening.
So, yes, we were outside on the bridge but had all intent to beat him to the prize but failed.
No Olympic gold medals for us.
Thinking back, I guess we also froze for the first few seconds, as if you cannot believe it.
Not entering the car first could have been a good thing though, imagine if he had decided to join anyway with us inside.
We would never have been able to clean the car after that.
Soon after, I looked up to the second car and saw all the occupants in their vehicle, the man in the back, video camera pointing towards us......