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Katja - I think he was more annoyed with the rival hippo, but I don't suppose he was too pleased to see us either!!

Great thread VGS and a very scary sighting of the hippo!

Ours were taken years ago when Elzet's door was opened by a lioness just North of Satara:

Ready:


Steady:


Go!


Sorry about the quality, these are frames from a video.

Theuns - A bit close for comfort

Hi vgstephens,
That was quite an experience with the Hippo--as were the other tales.
Travelstory's was probably the most nerve-wracking as it was an unseen Leopard.
My story is more subdued.
We were on a night drive out of Satara in the larger of the two vehicles that SanParks uses (the Prings family was on the same outing).
We came across an Elephant quietly eating leaves from a tree about 20 meters off the road.
My daughter was sitting on the near side of the Elephant and I was on the other side of the aisle opposite her. Without any warning the Elephant charged the vehicle and headed straight at my daughter, gratefully stopping a few meters before the truck.
It happened so quickly.
Needless to say the driver didn't hang around for an encore.

Hi Elsa,
My story took place in 2009, November. I was petrified. I have been to Kruger so many more times than I can recall but I am sure that was 2009.

I'll tell another story here which is told in longer format in my blog which if you go to my site you will see a link to:

That same year I spent a great deal of time in Kruger all alone. I was in Lataba for several nights at one of the huts encircleing the main area of trees and field. One day, I was intent on heading to one of the riverside benches to read, carrying only a beer, a book and my camera when a vervet monkey fell to the ground from the tree of which he was playing on. I looked at him straight in the eye and smiled.... I soon learned two valuable lessons; never look at a monkey straight in the eye and never, never smile at one showing your teeth; both are a sign of agression.

When I did that this monkey made a horrible scream which called for the rest of his troop to help with his absolute terror of this lone female. He and his troop came after me in a very intentful mannor grabbing for my pant legs, mouth open attempting to bite. I screamed and ran towards a man that was sitting at the bench to my right along the river. Hearing my scream, he dropped his lunch and headed for me. I ran towards him as well. As I danced around him the vervet monkey was still trying to get me; to bite my leg when suddenly one of his troop made a sound that made him realize that my savior had dropped food and they all, thankfully, headed for the food; my attacker included.


I learned a lot of lessons that day; many I take with me on every trip to African now; the main one is to never smile a monkeys~!!!!!!

Another mite(New one) had a bit of nerves.

Yes, I am alive to tell the story.
On 28 May 2011 at about 11 am I was travelling on Sweni road towards Muzandzeni picnic spot at about 30 km/h with the windows of my Corolla wide open.
What I am going to tell you happened in a split of a second.
Sorry, no time for photos or videos.
At that moment it appeared like somebody threw a stick at me.
I made a reflex movement with my upper body to the left and that probably saved my life.
For a brief moment I looked death in the eyes.
A huge black mamba struck at me and missed me by cms.
When I came upright again I could see the mamba in the rear view mirror with it's head standing about 4 feet high above the road.
It was moving towards the opposite side of the road.
In my state of shock my brain told me that I have been bitten by the mamba; but on close inspection by my SO everything was OK.
The picnic was postponed to later that day.
For me it was a wonderful experience.
So my friends,when driving on those narrow bushy roads.....partly close them windows

In May 2009 while my SO rinsed the tea cups at Tshokwane, 4 wild dogs came within about 5 meters of her, turned around and ran off into the river bed. A rare scary treat for the one who washes the dishes.

Unquestionably the time we got caught up in the fracas when two elephants decided to settle their differences near Sirheni.... this was truly frightening, as we could hear the squealing and crashing noises in the dense mopani, followed by the ellies thundering across the road (one in reverse), The first time was about 50 meters ahead of us, so we stopped...then it happened again, quite literally 5 meters behind the car! We made the decision to turn back to camp...but it was at least 5 minutes before we were free of the "war zone"

We spent the rest of the day in camp, looking at the birdies....

I hope you don't mind me posting this video.
I just watched it through before posting it, and it still gives me the collywobbles!
I had reversed down a side road to get out of his way, but he was intent on asserting his authority.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0UkEMCGJqUk

During May this year we stayed in Satara in Rudy Frankel and we have just unpacked and settled on the front stoep, very relaxed, when we had a visitor.
A large Mozambican Spitting Cobra came around the corner from the house and created instant chaos.
I have never seen such Olympic standard breathtaking gymnastics being performed to move away from the creature. The Cobra got a very huge fright and disappeared into to the bushes towards the camping area very quickly.

Topgunhorse, That ellie was just looking for his buddies who left him behind.
You were very lucky to find some way off the road..

Having been a regular Kruger visitor since I was 2 months old, and with a dad who knows animals, I had my scary moments in the park where elephants charged only to stop close to the kombi.
Dad always knew when they would stop and when not.
Of-course everyone else in the kombi freaked out. But I have to say the scariest experience I had was in April 2012. Only me and my SO in my diesel bakkie.
We were at Thiyongonyeni watching a lion on a wildebeest kill with only 40mins before gate closing.
On our way back we saw a big ellie in the road walking away from us.
About 200m form him he turned around and charged.
So I reversed or tried to with the guy behind me wanting to see why I am reversing.
So I just missed him .
The ellie stopped and we kept our distance.
The next time he wanted to charge he turned too fast and fell in the road.
After he was embarrassed he started walking into the bush, when the Fortuner behind me decided he was making his move and sped past the ellie, leaving me and one other car with one very angry tantrum throwing ellie in the road at dusk.
After 2 more charges I switched on my very bright spotlights and he left the road breaking bushes.

We survived it but arrived 40mins late at the gate.
The guard at the gate said elephants go mad when they only eat Mopani leaves.

I'm always a bit on the edge for walks in the bush. When I was younger I went out on a walk with two guides and, perhaps, three or four other guests. Being young and foolish (a polite way of saying stupid ) I was eager to press on ahead of one of the guides, as I felt that the pace was a little slow.

"No!" he said to me several times. "Stay behind me".

Well, naturally, I rolled my eyes and obliged, not really knowing why I had to, but doing so because I didn't fancy arguing with someone who was heavily armed

Within a few metres of walking behind the two guides, I heard a twig snap under one of the guides' foot. Or so I thought.

The noise was actually a puff adder striking his boot in the long grass. The guide was fine as he had think boots that were almost knee height. But I was in flimsy trainers and shin-length shorts. If that guide hadn't slowed me down, I dread to think what would have happened

On one of my morning walks @ Skukuza the ranger told us that there was a rhino nearby because of fresh dung and footprints. By examining the dung he could tell that it was a black rhino because of the twigs in the dung. He also showed us a few places where twigs were bitten off at a 45 degree angle.

We walked for another 5 minutes when suddenly a black rhino bull was only a abouy 15 meters away from us. The ranger told us to stay quiet and not move unless he tells us to. His clear instructions was not to run away from the group at all.

The rhino listened and listened and when one tourist took a photo the sound of the camera triggered a charge. The rhino charged for about 2 meters towards the sound and the ranger clapped on the back of his gun and the rhino stopped.

He told us that the rhino was unsure of what we were and that the ''new'' strange sound made him stop. This happened for another 2 or three times. Strange enough the last charge was a more serious direct charge which made the group scatter. The scatter confused the rhino and made him stop once again.

Finally we slowly walked backwards still facing the rhino until we were far enough where it too turned around and slowly walked the opposite direction.

Although this was really scary it was an amazing experience and the expert advise of the rangers and the way they handled the situation was even more amazing

On another visit to the park we were driving on a dirt road seeing a massive buffalo herd.
We drove about 10 km per hour towards them as some of them were crossing the road.
Within a minute or two we were surrounded by huge buffaloes.
They were everywhere around us and it seems like we were stuck in the middle of them without anywhere to go.
Some of the big bulls became agitated with us even doing a small mock charge towards us.
We felt very small in the car and it was a very very scary experience.

Luckily for us a guy with a big SUV came from the back almost ''pushing'' them out of the way.
He opened a path between them where we gladly and quickly followed.
I was shaking when we were finally through.