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It wasn't the lack of seeing animals - but having a 7month pregnant wife and 6month pregnant sister in law in the car.
On a bridge at the best leopard sighting ever, more than 50 cars all around you and they have to go to the loo NOW!! There might be a possibility that I am on the wall of shame

I'd bet alot of worst experiences are self-inflicted.

My worst experience was having my car alarm go off in the early morning in Satara, and not having a clue how to turn it off.

On the Tropic of Capricorn loop this March with what seemed like dozens of large male ellies around every corner!!
I love them, but at a sensible distance!

That would be a whole other thread!

Must say about all of my bad experiences involves ellephants
Just one that stands out from the rest: tooth ache, tummy bug & break down......

Think my worst time must be when Jock & I both reacted negatively to the malaria medication we were taking! not nice,
after a week I had lost over 5 kilos, can think of better ways to diet.

My worst? When my friend contracted septacaemia and it was touch and go back to Jo'burg .
The Skukuza Doctor was great though

Oh yes been there done that with the malaria meds.

Worst one. Unpacking in Skukuza for the final two nights of our stay, knowing that we should have been unpacking in Biyamiti. We couldn't get there because all the gravel roads had been closed due to the rain. I've never felt so gutted.

Getting caught in a traffic jam on one of the narrow dirt roads near Shingwedzi with a very irritated large bull ellie in musth coming towards the line of cars.
We were first in the queue and the vehicles behind would not move so couldn't reverse.
We managed a 25 point turn (Land Rover, not known for their tight turning circles) all the while watching the brute baring down on us.
We just made it and had a dent in the right rear panel where he klapped us with his trunk.
We sped back along the route getting all the cars to start reversing in a hurry.
Needless to say SO melted, my knees were knocking, so it was a jerky ride for a few k's

I have two

Was in Shimuweni Camp hide when a black mamba dropped from the roof, came straight towards me... So I climbed on top of the viewing deck Luckily he didnt attack, left in a hurry!

Second was when I was new to driving. Near Skukuza somewhere I drove into the middle of an ellie herd. Everything was cool until a baby sprinted past the car, screaming his little lungs out. When the biggies noticed and followed in a hurry I panicked and reversed into a bush

Tony, I would definitely put that down as the MOST scariest experience in Kruger!
We had something similar happen a year ago altho the Ellie wasn't really aggressive thank goodness.

Elsa & twigga, thinking back on it, the big boy was actually minding his own business feeding on the side of the road, we stopped quite a way back and kept a close eye on him especially when we noticed his signs of being in musth.
In fact we were so intent on him that we didn't notice the cars piling up behind us.
I think the traffic jam got on his nerves and he started marching toward us.
I guess it really was our fault for allowing ourselves to get boxed in.
Please don't be scared of ellies, they really normally are gentle giants, but do give them the respect they deserve.

This is the pic where we were boxed in, taken by my daughter who was in one of the cars a few back, despite having our reverse lights on for some time, no one was interested in backing up so we had no choice but to sit it out and
We are the front car in the queue.

Large

but thankfully the Ellie was quite peaceful, came up next to us, gave us a cursory glance and headed off into the bush as he was not keen to walk past all the cars behind.

But I agree Tony, as long as one can show them respect and give them their space they are usually fine.

Mellory, same story with a little bit extra thrown in for spice!!
All watching hyenas out the left hand side when the whole car lurched to the left!
My dad had his arm on the driver's window sill and another hyena came up and licked his elbow!!!
My dad nearly overturned the car in his state of shock!!!

Thank goodness he decided to do a taste test first, otherwise....!!!

Once near Skukuza there were hippos out of water moving from one water source to another. We judged incoreectly where the hippos would cross the road. Then the one hippo charges at us

Do not know exactly why. But it was extremely scary. Worse than an ellie charge which is usually a mock charge. This guy looked like he wanted to kill us and he chased us at about 35-40km/hour for a short while!