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Best ever was African Wild Cat and Bush Babies in Orpen

In Pretoriuskop we saw tame Impala and many vervets, which irritated me more than anything else.

Seen Hyena, Elephant and Rhino right up against fence in several camps.

Got the fright of my life when a bloody, dumb sunofa(&(*&%$$ rabbit decided to jump up right in front of me in the middle of the night while I was walking back to the caravan......

We had a similar experience with a Honey Badger at Talamati a few years ago. We were braaing and heard a rustling in the grass a few feet away. Switched on the torch to see a big male right at our feet! He looked up showing his teeth and I was gone in a flash....

Later we heard the crashing of our bin. I went out with a torch in hand to investigate and there he was again, he backed out of the bin and left. The joke was that he ate the one and only item in the bin, a single used tea bag!

We have seen Hyaena (or is it Hyena???) along the fence at Satara and Tamboti (cant think if there have been others). Have seen Klipspringer at the fence right in front of No 9 at Olifants. Baboons and Vervets in all camps. Scrub Hare at Mopani, Buffalo close to fence at Sirheni, as well as Impala. Impala in Pretoriuskop (they seem to live there). Warthog in Skukuza, Small Spotted Genet at Talamati (in good morning light) and Civet at Talamati (seems like Talamati has lots of residents, probably because the natural bush has been retained in camp) and of course the famous bushbuck at Letaba.

Late one afternoon some years back, Whilst staying at Pretoriuskop. We were out on an afternoon drive on the S8 loop, near the Manungu hill and spotted Wild Dog... It was getting late so we had to get back to camp. The WD seemed to be going in the direction of the camp. So we headed back to the camp thinking we may find them again. When we arrived at the camp we took a walk to the fence next to the camping area and lo and behold who should we see the wild dogs with a kill...... an impala, a pretty amazing sighting (although not for the feint hearted).

In 1990 while staying at Boulders we woke up to find ouselves surounded by a huge herd of buffalo. We were stranded in the camp for about an hour as they took thier time grasing and moving along. For those who do not know Boulders, it is a private camp(12 people) and the beauty of it is that the camp has no fence. It is raised on stilts with catwalks linking the buildings. Now imagine the sight of a herd of buffalo around you and under you for an hour or so. Amazing sounds and smells!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Seen a hippo munching right at the fence at LS
A Hyena in the camp there too....... same night.

Genet at both Croc Bridge and B&D inside the fence.

Rhino right at the fence at B&D

The famous/infamous tamboti badger .
We know him as timmy , please address him as so , or face the consequences .

Genet inside Mbiyamiti .

Apart from the above snaps , I have seen many animals inside or alongside the fence .
We always enjoy a stroll along the fence in the evening to try pick something up .
Also we always try get a caravan spot that is right up next to the fence , so as to extend the days viewing for as long as possible , and if you sit out quietly late in the evening with the lights down low you will be amazed at what you see .

However our most amazing sighting is told in this story .

We had set up camp in the far corner of the croc bridge camp sites , with fence in front of us , and on the right .
My SO and I where awoken at about 1 am 1 night with odd noises and growls coming from outside .
I carefully opened up the door of the caravan , to make sure there wasnt something under our awning , but noticed the commotion was coming from just outside the fence .
We got the big torch spot light out , and lo and behold there was a leopard with an impala kill .
The noise however was because the leopard was battling for the impala with about 6 hyenas .
The leopard ran off shortly after we started watching this , and the hyenas made short work of the impala carcass .
They carried any bigger bits into the veld , and there was nothing much more than a few bone fragments and footprints to be seen the next morning .
If we had not woken up , we would have never realised what had happened , and missed this exciting spectacle.
I presume the leopard or hyenas for that matter ,had chased the impala , and the impala may have run into the fence , or simply had nowhere else to run ,becoming an easy catch.

I doubt we will ever have this sort of luck again .

ok... so i have seen quite a few animals in and around different camps... lion, hyena, elephant, puff adder, spitting cobra, monitors..u know the usual...lol... but i have to say the funniest experience has to be the smallest of the lot...

ok..so it was the first time i had taken my SO to the kruger...being the evil cruel woman i am...i had by then scared the bejesus outta him every opportunity i could... ...however by the time we arrived at shingwedzi he thought he had seen it all... the first night we came across one of those mutants from a nuclear testing station...the cross between a spider, scorpion and parktown prawn...i know somebody gave me the name of it..but it slipped my mind (go figure!! who wants to remember that thing!)...anyhoo...him being a hater of all things creepy and crawly took that quite while... the next day after a long afternoon of spotting and arriving back at camp..my SO .. who had far too much beer that had paid rent and now wanted to move on... went rushing into the hut and straight for the loo... not a few seconds later..he came out rushing even faster however this time with his shorts around his ankles... saying something on the lines of...something in the dustbin... well..after getting off the floor and dusting myself off...i (the hero of the day) went into the loo to see what all the fuss was about..thinking it was probably a spider or god forbid one of the mutants.... ... but an angel has to do what an angel has to do... as i walk in i see the dustbin almost moving from the activity inside....i now think...to hell with this!! .. i run backwards straight into the SO who by now was standing just inside the loo door...and i rush right past him...sizing up the screen door and seeing how best to Chuck Norris high kick it out the way... we both stumble right to the centre...yes the centre of the circle of huts and wonder what the hell to do now... i then see one of the staff nearby and demand he remove the 6 metre long rock python from inside our loo dustbin.... the worker comes out with the closed dustbin and with all the banging going on side i thought perhaps it was a mini me drummer that stole away so he didnt have to announce dinner that night...... by now we have a large audience..all wondering what it could be that had made my so and i so nervous... with all the aplomb one can only get with a large audience..the staff dude opens the dustbin......only to find...thee smallest bat you have ever laid your eyes on.... to say that the hole i dug myself when nobody was looking so i could hide in was not big enough is enough said....

Really funny story Laine,
but I must say under the circumstances ones imagination does tend to kick into overdrive, (escuse the pun) and I always say rather safe than sorry.

Saw a big Civet in the headlights of our bushdrive vehicle when returning in Berg en Dal
Was great.

Driving back from the Selati Restuarant to our bungalow in Skukuza in February, we came across a little Steenbokkie, standing dead still, mesmerized by our headlights.

- Tree rats living in a big acacia in the Mata-mata campsite
- Cape foxes at Twee Rivieren - have seen them many times
- Jackal at Nossob
- Mongeese and ground squirrels in all KTP camps
- The Augrabies camp is unfenced, so I guess it doesn't count, but I've seen dassies, vervet monkeys, mongeese, caracal and genet there

The most exciting sighting just outside a camp was at Berg-en-dal. We went for a walk along the fence at night, right to the corner of the camp, where there were trees growing at the base of high bank.

I had a tiny little penlight torch, which I was shining in all the trees, looking for bushbabies. I hadn't seen a bushbaby for years, and my dad, who was on the trip, said that I'd know when I found one because they had huge and brilliant eyes.

Sure enough, I shone my torch into a tall tree just outside the camp fence, and a pair of big bright eyes stared back. I was delighted! Then reality set in - surely busbabies were much smaller than what I had found? I called my dad over (of course he had the big torch) and we realised that in fact the eyes weren't in the tree, but rather on the bank behind the tree. And they didn't belong to a sweet little bushbaby, but to a large lioness!

We beat a strategic retreat.

Leopard 2x in Berg en Dal
Nossob Camp often in the 1980's
Punda Maria Camp
Lion Skukuza Staff Village on the school field and all the kids were sent home!!
Jackal Nossob
Mamba Shingwedzi
Lower Sabie
Hyena Satara
Maroela
Sirheni

Hi all. only been to KNP once since 8 yrs old. went exactly 1 year ago,really miss it,but going late Feb 2007 camping! 1st time. saw impalas, vervet & baboon in Pkop, tree squirrel in Orpen, troop of baboon outside fence in dry river bed at Tambotie, spent the night in large tree across the river bed. Really noisy. was great!