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This happened a few years ago one evening at Balule.
I sat in front of my two man tent on a fold up chair, feet up against the fence.
Having seen lion tracks on the way to camp that afternoon, I was hoping that they would pay the fence a visit that evening. I scanned the bush every now and again with my torch. Nothing…… The bush was very quiet, not a movement. After about an hour, now very relaxed, the next thing I saw whilst scanning the bush from left to right - was this huge hyena head between my two feet on the other side of the fence. He was so close he could literally have licked my toes if he wanted to (I think he didn’t want to). Instinct kicked in and I kicked against the fence and landed on my back in a cloud of dust (still in my chair) I almost brought the tent down with me.
I think that hyena must still be giggling. He even brought his mates back at about 2 that morning whooping and laughing in front of my tent - obviously hoping for another show.

Cool thread,

I have seen:

hyena, bushbabies, civet, genet, buffalo, elephant, honey badger, rhino, zebra, impala, AWC, hippo, leopard, scrub hare, baboons, owls, bats, rats.

That's all I can think of now

I only do the fence thing once in a while as I travel to Kruger alone most of the times. I am apparently quite nasty when I am there as I want to be in the bush the whole day and travel companions need lunch breaks, Humanity breaks etc. (It frustrates me endlessly).

As I have an enormous almost unhealthy respect for leopards and Elephants I am always rather weary as to what will happen if you meet them at a fence, some fences just don't look as if they can keep the aforementioned out.

I did however see the civets, ellies and buffaloes and I am very sure that it was an African Wild Cat in and around Punda one night, after having had my fill of Marula juice in the nearby village. I am not sure if it is something in the Marulas, but I was exceptionally brave that night.

Balule seems to be rather notorious for exceptional night fence tours. As I prepared to go to bed one night I thought the hyena patrol managed to break the fence next to my tent, jumping out in my bright pink pj's I met with an Ellie mom and her calve barely 2 metres away from me. After hastily covering my brightness with something darker (I know she knew I was there) I watched her as she taught her youngster the finer points on how to demolish a tree.

Part 1; Welcome to the hard core club Brenda:thumbs_up:
Part 2; You ever been to Nossob, have dyed platinum blonde hair?

@TreeQueen, thanks for spoiling my day with the cuddling HB pic

Dear Bush Baptist

[quote="Bush Baptist"]Part 1; Welcome to the hard core club Brenda:thumbs_up:
Part 2; You ever been to Nossob, have dyed platinum blonde hair?

Part 1: I am so relieved to know that I am not the only one, I am going to print this out and show it to my critics
Part 2: Unfortunately I have not been to Nossob yet, when time and money co-inside I rush to KNP, but plan to go there (It is on my bucket list). I am somewhat darker in the hair department (I know blondes have more fun though) but it just wont work with my colouring. I am not really the bright pink type, it is just that it was still verrrrry cold at night and those were the warmest ones I had.

Brenda, there are quite a lot of us. I feel like I have failed if I am not the first out of the gate and get back with more than 2 minutes to spare.....

In Nossob, the Fraulein appeared in shocking pink from the tent and I am sure KG could almost have seen her from Twee Rivieren!

They had a stretch Landy! 3 doors on each side......

Bush Baptist I feel so good, I am not a freak!!!! It is good to know others also pray a little to make the gate in time. Is your name in any of the books at the gate? Some gate keepers understand others don't.

It seems that pink may be the new khaki then?

I however would not recommend it for night fence tours (NFT's)

I only dream of Landy's and 4X4's, however one day I will have my very own.

I have only been late once Brenda. A herd of buffs agitated by lions blocked the road and I rang the camp. Next thing the road on the far side is teeming with cars
I got away with it.

I never bother with khaki, it looks too touristy, and even less for pink. No comment there!

Hi, BB,
Don't you know real men wear pink!

Haven't done much walking around the camps at night but will have to start on my next trip which is in about a month
Bringing a black light that i use at home to scope out where my cat pissed on the carpet to see if i can scope out any interesting insects

We camped at pretoriuskop once right on the fence... Late afteroon right before sun set a pack of wilddogs chased a bush buck right past our fence... Followed by a lone hyena. The chase went on for a while and right in front of the fence. The last call was when the bush buck started jumping into the fence and thats when the heyna stood waiting for him. He caught the bush buck a meter away from our tents you could here the bone crushing, the wilddogs had to go find another meal its was a first for me in the Kruger(first kill and first time seeing wildogs)



Wonderfull memory

Wow Leo21, that must have been incredible.

We haven't done much walking about as I am usually crawling into bed really early - takes me ages to adjust to new time zone - wake up at 3am every day
Shall definitely get out with the torch this August on our next trip.

Leo21. I'm always on the look for animals at night.

leo21, wow,what a sighting!!!! I don't know how I would have reacted to such a sighting, I probably would have cried and been happy at the same time

At Lower Sabie, we enjoy watching the bats feeding en masse on the insects that are out in large numbers in the early evening. We have also seen bushbaby, vervet and baboon huddled in the trees. At Satara we saw the Scops Owl very well camoflaged against a tree trunk, and watched honey badgers play a game of garbage bin tag, knocking over every bin in our circle in about 15 minutes.