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Our Worst - Being caught in the middle of a 40 strong heard of ellies, and just our luck we split the baby ellies from rest of the heard, my uncle realising what he had just done tried to reverse but we had got cornered by the rest of the heard,

All I remember after that was 3 cousins, 1 sister, 1 mom, 1 dad, 1 aunt and probably my uncle all hit the deck in the caravelle, i don't know how we got out of that situation.

After all the years that have passed, we still chuckle at that story around the braai!

Actually one of my better memories of Kruger ...

On an afternoon amble on Nyalaland wilderness trail in 1992 a matriarch elephant appeared from behind a clump of lebombo ironwood trees knocking one over with ease and charged without hesitation from perhaps 50 metres or further distant , the ranger fired a warning shot which stopped her - after he had told us to retreat - which we did - I had such an adrenalin boost my strides felt as if I was on springs - as if I was running on the moon .
After all had calmed down the ranger & the tracker were having a discussion , I noticed them freeing a jammed round in the rifle that the tracker would have used to shoot the elephant had it not stopped after the warning shot .
The walk was terminated and we went to the banks of the Levuhvu for some quiet introspection .



My 1st close up on foot encounter in 1987 on the Olifants trail - this one retreated after hand clapping and shouting and wood and stone was projected in its direction .



An exciting experience , no photo to show how close he was before turning , we were herded away behind vegetation at the time , I was probably more worried about the possibility of bloodshed than taking more photos .

I won't call it worst experience, but not so lekker experience, and elephants were also involved.
We were travelling from Skukuza to lower Sabie and stopped at one of the smaller roads close to the river to have some coffee.
While pouring the hot water from a flask into my cup, an elephant suddenly appeared from behind some bushes and approached us, making one helluva noise.
Now, my mug was clutched between my legs and when the ellie started to scream at us, the steaming hot water missed the mug and fell on a very sensitive place between my legs.
Ouch, eina.

OUCH Rooies.

I can just picture it: the elephant charging, steam rising from your lap, and you doing a contorted wiggle dance of pain while trying to shift into gear and drive away. All you would be missing is some Benny Hill music playing in the background.

Great experiences, ndloti. Plenty of "what ifs", but everything ended well both times for man and elephant.

Rooies can well believe that may go down as not such a nice experience!

Our worst experience was in 1983, we were on our way out from Satara to Numbi Gate when our car broke down with a faulty voltage regulator.
It was New Years day we were next to Mantimahle Dam, there were two Cheetah about 200 metres away from us, which we could not approach.
A passerby kindly went to the AA in Skukuza and the late Uncle Dick kindly came out to help us.

He put his car battery in our car and told us to follow him without stopping to Skukuza, where he repaired the alternator.

The sad part was that we had never seen Wild Dog before and had to drive past about 5 lying under a tree right next to the road just before the bridge on the H12 Mama Faru.

On honey moon in 2001 on a night drive in Shingwedzi between a mom ellie and her baby, she took grass with roots and all mixed with soil and threw us with it, when the driver realized that we are in some what of a bad spot and decided its time to go we where covered in dust and sand.
She charged us for about 50 m and went back to her calf.
It was very quiet after the incident and one of the American visitors calmly said " We must admit, that ellie have a good aim"

My worst experience was with my youngest son.
We had just been on the Buff pastry AGM with Theuns & family and Wacktazz at Doispan and that morning were making our way home via skuks to leave at croc bridge.
Unbeknown to me my then 3 year old son had been extremely hungry and helped himself large amounts of peanuts and cashew nuts.

Needless to say the next morning the abundance of these nuts had time to work the system and we just managed to get to Skukuza when an accident happened and he just was not quick enough to get to the bathroom.
Washed and changed, thought maybe should not go long route but head for Malelane.
Nearly made Afsaal but didn't.
Next change of clothes.
Tried to make Malelane and also came up short.
Another change of clothes.
Now it was really getting scary as we weren't sure how much was left, but there was still over 400km to go and running out of change of clothes.
Was the longest scariest drive home.
Needless to say, he hasn't touched any peanuts since.

Scary stuff Robert!

Well here is my moment:

It was noon, very hot and humid; I was sweating profusely waiting for Elzet in the Skukuza’s parking area. It was her time to do the shopping and I have placed my order of six regular cold ones. The next moment she appeared from the shop and my suffering seemed to disappear in the hot and humid conditions. When I opened the bag I discovered that she had bought me six Lite ones…that was terrible and maybe my worst experience in Kruger!

These latest stories of tough men almost reduced to tears reminded me of the time my dad & I arrived in LS from CB and he asked 'where is the breakfast'. I said 'I thought you packed it in". Oh dear.

We had to order from the cafeteria, but all was not lost. When the coffee arrived, the old b*gg*r put his hand into his jacket pocket and pulled out the hipflask with the Amarula, so it was not a complete disaster, he had got the priorities right.

I don't know if anybody is going to beat this one, just filled my tank at lower sabie and was heading for Skukuza, decided to do the N'watimhiri causeway and after about 2km on the dirt road,the kombi lost engine power, I thought that maybe I had put in the wrong fuel, tried a few times but in vain, it was dead quiet.
Suddenly a huge herd of elephants emerged from the riverbed, oh my, the kids starting going frantic after previous incidents with elephants, I tried to keep them calm, when suddenly a car came from the front.
I stopped the driver and ask him to please send some help from l/Sabie,
In the meantime I did notice a huge bull elephant just behind one of the trees about 50m away from us but kept quiet about it.
The driver when a little forward, saw the elephant and reversed back,to inform us that we should be very silent as there is a huge bull elephant very close by and drove off.
All broke loose in the kombi, kids crying frantically.
Luckily a few minutes later a d/cab bakkie arrived and I requested the caring person to please bundle us in the back of his bakkie and drive us to l/Sabie, he obliged without hesitation.
It took us a further 4 hours for help to come from Skukuza and we were towed back to Skukuza, passing a leopard sighting which we could not stop for, for obvious reasons,
the problem was so simple, the fuel relay pipe was not making contact and it took the mech. a mere 5 minutes to sort out.
An episode that will remain with us forever.

Last October 2010 we were in Satara and because of lightning there was a lot of fire.
Especially at night we could see a totally red horizon.
But also at night, the wind started to blow.
And everyone knows what fire does when there will be more oxygen added to it... Indeed, more fire.



We went to the gate and asked about our safety and to cancel our morning drive the morning after.
They told us that they didn't expect that the wind would blow that fast and if it did would turn a bit further in other direction if it does,
Satara Rest Camp would be on the way of the fire.
They told us that the fire was out of control.
We packed our suitcases and placed them in the car and went to bed.
My parents could not get to sleep, because they were afraid to be burned alive as we could be rat trapped if the fire came towards the camp.
I told them that in a case of emergency, I would drive through the fence with our rental Hilux 4x4.
Luckily the wind kept blowing into the right direction, but the fire came very close to the camp.
In the morning after, we drove south and all the way to Skukuza, everything was fire fire fire.
There were also firemen putting the bush on fire (later we were told that they do that because there are too much animals in too small an area and there has to be good grounds to have enough food).






But that was our worst KNP experience.

What an entertaining thread. Some funny some scary and some sad.

I am really trying to think of my worst experience.
As Stark commented, some are self inflicted, some are inflicted by others and many are linked to the calls of nature.

I think my worst experience happened on a walk.
I had a severe bout of bronchitis and would sometimes have uncontrollable coughing fits.
We had stumbled on a group of Rhino grazing peacefully.
The ranger allowed us to move fairly close, but warned us to be dead quiet.

That is when it happened .. I felt the awful sensation of a coughing fit coming up.
It is the one time when I realised that mind over matter is possible.
By the time I had stifled the cough, (quite a number of minutes) I was covered in perspiration and feeling quite faint.

Anyone who has had a severe bronchitis will tell you that when you got to cough, you got to cough".

MM,

I thought you might just relate the story of the tent without tentpoles.....