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Well it wasn´t really a nice experience, but it was a great revenge by nature. We were at Letaba and have done a nightdrive. Before the Nightdrive starts, my FAmily and I realise that some Americans were busy discussing with the Ranger first of all we have no clue why. During the Nightdrive we faound out what the discussion was all about, they want to visit a Buffulao kill at night. Big Problem a Ranger in Kruger is not allowed, to drive more then 20 Km. the kill was in a distance within 30 km. that means even with Tolerance the Ranger wasn´t allowed to drive there. These Tourists really didn´t understand the rule the Ranger said clearly NO. These Tourists were very loud as a Result we saw nothing special. Indeed we saw nothing at all. Then one of the US Tourist asked to see the Loo. So we drove back to the camp. These Tourists started a heavy disscussion again, the Ranger again said, no we do not go there its by LAW forbidden. After that these US guys went zo the huts an was never seen again. The Ranger asked us to carry on and we said yes. We went just out of the Camp then we saw a Leopard. I never saw A leopard that close. 10 minutes later we saw the next Leopard and then we saw rewally intresting Game, because it was quiete now!!!! For me it was one of the best drives I ever had. But I really had a great anger to these Tourists, because the Spoilt the day of the Ranger and the others of the car.Only one man who was involved in the noisy Group remain and even he said that this behavior was really horrible. Anyway stupid people are everywhere.

Many years ago, in the days before digital cameras, we went into KNP on a day visit. At the end of a perfect day on our way to Phalaborwa gate, we came accross a little VW Golf with five young people in it who were clearly under the influence. Approx 15 km from the gate, we found a pride of lions with two males on the right hand side of the road. Two of the occupants of the Golf got out of the Golf via the left rear door and started shouting at the lions 'Kom Leeutjie, leeutjie".

The next moment the bushes behind them on the left hand side of the road burst open and there was this angry trumpeting of an elephant giving charge to lionesses lying in the grass no more than 20 m from the side of the road. The one person got back into the Golf and slammed the door close, leaving the other outside. He jumped over the roof of the vehicle, right in front of the two males who now got up. The person tried to get into the vehicle via the window, but the vehicle was already moving, leaving him with his legs dangling outside the window!!

Even after all these years, the story still brings smiles and laughter, but it could so easily have ended in a tragedy ...

Don't think they will try that one again soon.

Yesterday in the park I had a good one, well I thought it was good and so did the accupants of the third car, they were close enough to hear what was being said.

I was parked against the side of the road at the Masorini water hole, photographing Klipsringers. I was alone for about ten minutes then cars arrived and stopped. One car stopped next to me and the driver opened his tinted window, damn I could feel the cold air rushing out of it. This is how the conversation went...

Driver: Eish, what can you see?

Me: Three Klipspringers and on the other side of the road is a Monitor Lizard on an ant hill and a bit deeper in a Dwarf Mongoose also on an ant hill.

Driver: How, is that all?

Me: No wait, there is more, if you continue along this road for a few Km's you will see the gate.

Needless to say, laughter broke out from the third car and the driver of the mobile fridge closed his tinted window and departed in the direction of the gate.

On my last trip to Kruger - overall, my worst ever - I was heading slowly down the H7 in order to exit the Orpen Gate at gate close. Very close to the intersection with the S36-S39 crossroads, I saw three cars stopped in higgledy-piggledy fashion on the left-hand side. Sensing a top sighting, I drove abreast of the last car and, edging forward, sought to scan the high grasslands.

After three or four minutes of careful peering through my binoculars, I could not find anything. I did see a darkish shape about a 100m in that could possibly be a head, but I soon dismissed it as the "upright head" did not move a nanometre in all that time.

I sidled alongside the 4x4 I had stopped near to and, gesticulating to the lady driver to open her window, I asked her politely what they were looking at. Her answer was, "I don't know. We're also trying to figure that out!" I looked again with my binocs, but still nothing.

I then reversed to the middle car and asked its couple what everyone was staring at. "I think there is a cheetah in the grass over there," said the gentleman driver. "Oh, where?" was the standard reply. "Well, I'm not sure - those two over there (he pointed at the first car) say there's a cheetah here, but we can't see it."

The obvious thing was to thank him and reverse in line with the first car. A broad English accent greeted me and, after the cursory hellos, I asked the question again for the third time: "What are you looking at?" Excitedly they pointed in the direction of the dark head-like shape I had identified earlier. I did not attempt to be arrogant, but assumed that I was maybe looking in the wrong direction. After some repeated clock-like directions - accompanied by the often used slight colour-difference in greens, as well as a small bush versus a medium sized bush versus a tree - I indeed confirmed with them that the dark shape was the cheetah.

Rekindling some hope and excitement at this "positive" ID, I waited around and focussed those binocs exactly where the head was and waited, breathing gently and deliberately to keep my arm muscles well-oxygenated for the wait ahead. However, no matter how much I stared, I could not see any movement of the animal - not a flick of the ear, not a slight turn of the head, not a change of position: zippo, zero, zut! However, I suddenly realised that, using Einstein's Law of Relativity, the waving yellow grass seemed to make the dark shape move! Soooo, it was the waving grass that was fooling these visitors!

Armed with this knowledge, I moved back to the front vehicle again, who seemed to confirm my suspicions that there was no animal to be seen. Disappointed, they drove off.

Now there were two vehicles: I sat and waited a little longer - just in case. Then, along came a private small-seater safari vehicle (not from SANParks); the guide was particularly interested in my assertion that "there may be a cheetah there, but I've yet to see it!" I explained as best as I could where to look, and the whole vehicle rocked with the oscillating passengers straining their heads to see the "cheetah". After a couple of minutes of this - which resulted in increasing despair painted on their faces - the guide did something I will not easily forget: he pointed in a brand new direction and confidently noted that there was a leopard in the tall grass! He ignored my bewildered frown as the noise level of the tourists raised to fever pitch. I stared at this new "sighting", but soon was convinced there was definitely nothing there. "Are you sure?" I asked the guide; "I can't see a thing!" "Yes," he said, "I saw it move!"

I was convinced that Einstein was up to his relative tricks again, but, before I could say another word, the guide - now sporting some consternation at the guests' insistences that he show them where this leopard was - suddenly put down his binocs and gunned the vehicle's engine. As the tourist protests rose to an extra-high C-sharp, three of them chided him together, wondering why they couldn't stay longer to see it. His embarrassed reply was that they didn't have much time to get to the gate (although it was almost two hours to go, and the distance to the gate was only 33km)! Whereupon, with a smile and a short phrase telling me to enjoy the leopard, the private safari vehicle roared off.

I was nonplussed at his insistence that he had seen something that nobody else had. I was bewildered that my eyesight had deteriorated to a point that I couldn't find a leopard and a cheetah lying stockstill in the grass, not 50m from each other! I stayed another 15 minutes, again just in case, but I was 99% convinced that nothing of a feline nature was about to leap out of the grass at this point. I drove back to the first couple to ask them if they had seen the "cheetah" move, and they told me that it had indeed swivelled its head a full 180 degrees. I whipped up my binocs and stared at the dark shape, but the yellow grass smiled broadly and waved goodbye as I drove off. The English couple said they would wait for the cheetah to get up and walk, having been there already over three hours.

To this day, I cannot be a thousand-percent sure that there wasn't a cheetah or a leopard in that central grassland, but at the same time, I didn't lose any sleep over the "missed" sighting. I am still convinced that we had all been entertained by the beautiful grass of Kruger. Then again ...

I once drove past a foam nest frogs nest in a beechwood overhaning water, as is normal, and my guest adked me wheather that is an ostrich's nest!

Also got told by very convincing SA guests that when they visited the reserve 2 years ago, they saw a Rhino under a specific tree, so where is it now??!!

The worst I saw, was a guide and his guests wathching some ellies, when the bull approached their vehicle, he realized it would not start, and instead of being reassuring to his guest, he jumped out and ran for is, followed by 10 very scared guests!!!!!!!

Picture the scene.

Tshkowane at breakfast time.

We arrive with guests from UK, who were not used to "the bush" .

I am of course a seasoned visitor to the park!!!! and as my SO brings us all a toastie and cuppa, I say to our friends.............
"Now watch out because these monkeys have been known to steal.......... before I'd finished speaking, a little devil had stolen my chicken mayo sani, leaving me very
Just like when you tell someone to "Mind the step" and then trip up it yourself!!

Sorry for this one, maybe it's even a forumite!

GB and I were at Jones' Dam after lunch, and not far behind this what seemed like a "father and son" effort at staying awake...




An afternoon nap is a MUST in Kruger!

Well done!

This story an interesting take on how some people can act, and one I still cannot get my mind around:
Several years ago, I had stopped to observe three termite mounds that had started up overnight on a dirt road (Confluence Loop) near Shingwedzi. The developing mounds were neatly positioned near the edge of the road, and I could therefore park adjacent to them and lean over to see the fascinating way the construction was taking place. A tunnel had already been excavated, and the cone-shaped walls were forming in a spiralling fashion.

As I marvelled and gasped at this little seen phenomenon (for me, at any rate), a vehicle filled with noisy, probably German, teenagers arrived in a cloud of dust and, wondering what on earth I was staring at so intently, began to look around in all directions. I was about to tell them, but they neither heard me or took the time to ask me (I later realised their English was probably almost non-existent), and so ignored my attempts at enlightening them. (Today I wonder how I would explain a newly-forming termite hill in German when the only expressions I know in that language are "Guten Morgen" and "Achtung"!)

These raucous boys were both giggling and frowning (I'm not sure how the two are congruent!), until, unable to see anything there, they gawked questioningly at me. I saw my chance to convert them to connoisseurs of the small and fascinating, so, I pointed to the baby termite mounds with a smile. However, their absent expressions told me they didn't have a clue what I was conveying to them.

Then these teenagers did the strangest thing: after looking around the bush, up in the trees, and even under my car, for maybe a minute, the driver pulled out an instamatic camera (remember those?) and aimed it at a dark green bush in the veld near my car. A flash went off as the bush became the subject of his photograph! Then he frowned at me and spun the wheels as they drove off in a cloud of dust!

I giggled myself when I wondered how they would explain the significance of that unadorned green bush to family and friends back home! Big 5 of the Kruger green bushes, maybe?

I have a story thats more embarrassing then anything else!

In June last year when we were travelling from Tshokwane, i had this sudden, desperate urge to go the little boys room! It was seriously touch and go!

So the only other place nearest to Tshokwane, at that dreadful moment, was to go at Orpen Dam! Luckily i was the one driving so i kinda had to speed it up a bit! Desperate times calls for desperate measures! I eventually got there and luckily for me there were no cars parked off at the Dam!

I stopped the car, with a cloud of dust and dashed off like a fleeting Impala! ........But

The Mens toilet was locked!!!

So then i had to run to the Ladies! Luckily for me it was opened! I did what i had to do and felt like a newborn man! But just then, another car pulled up! Two ladies were walking towards the toilet! (the toilets are made of wood, so you can see through the gaps).

They knocked on the door, and i yelled out in a female voice saying..."sorry im busy" So they said their "oh sorries" and just waited outside the toilet, for what felt like ages! I decided, screw this, im going out!

When i came out that toilet, both those ladies had a shock of their lives! They thought a little girl was inside!

A man's gotta do what a man's gotta do..

There is a similar thread, but I cannot find it. My funny experience or rather embarrassing experience was when I tied my tent to my vehicle during a heavy thunderstorm one night at BergenDal, to prevent it from being blown away. The next morning I completely forgot to untie the rope and duly proceeded to the gate with my tent in tow. Camping chairs and sleeping gear was flying through the air.

Hello everyone. My experience happened many years ago when I was about 8-10yrs.old. We always camped in KNP. The night in question was at Skukuza. My parents ,aunt and uncle were sleeping in the tent. My brother was lying on the front seat of the car and I was sleeping on the back seat. There were no bucket seats in those big cars at the time. My brother and I locked the doors and went to sleep, not realising that the car keys were in the car! Later that night I was woken up by my parents, who were desparately trying to wake my brother. The problem was that he had turned over during the night and his knee was resting on the hooter! All the people in the camping area were awake and the gate guard had come running to see what was wrong! My brother felt very foolish the next day and from then on I slept on the front seat of the car!!!

When I was little my family and I (fam of 4) used to go to KNP with my aunt and her family (fam of 4), we were therefore a total of 4 children, all very close in age - great for us kids!! Anyway, we were staying in Lower Sabie and it was a very hot october day so we were back in camp between 12:00 and 15:00 for some lunch and an afternoon nap. The two younger siblings (I think they were about 4 or 5 years old) decided to take their bino's and walk along the fence in the shade of the trees and investigate any potential animal activity (we used to have prize money for sightings so it was highly competitive and high stakes, especially at the age of 4...). After walking around for about half an hour they eventually decided that the few rands for potential sighting were definately not worth the intense heat (if I remember correctly it was 46 degrees). At that stage there was no pool at LS so they went back to the chalet, and in their swimming gear, had a cold shower and then ran around the room under the fan and aircon to cool off! They then found some treats next to the bed (jellytots, chocolate and jellybabies) which they assumed their loving moms had left for them! Having burnt off some of their energy they figured it was about time for a recharge, so they scoffed down all the sweets and then dashed outside to see if anything had changed along the Sabie River. Whilst walking along they noticed the rest of us emerging from our chalets for the afternoon drive, highly confused they came to us and asked who we were visiting in these chalets. Having no idea what on earth they were talking about, we eventually convinced them that these were in fact our chalets.... And so emerged two very guilty looking expressions... Turns out that the two of them had pranced into the wrong chalet, messed water everywhere, eaten all the treats and left the beds messed up from running around under the fan. It turns out that it was the chalet of an elderly couple who were very understanding when the two kids arrived with a big apology and a new stock of treats (which they had to buy with their sightings prize money, much to their disgust!)

In the middle of the night at Satara one decade a while back, I went outside with a torch, having heard something strange. We were on the perimeter huts - which meant it should have been easy to retrace steps to as the fence runs nearby. However, I took a fair walk through several of the bungalow rings, until I convinced myself that there was nothing exciting to be seen.

Then it was time to go back to the bungalow, but the neuron that stored the number of the bungalow must have committed suicide on my walk, for suddenly I couldn't remember which bungalow I was in! "No problem," I thought; "follow the fence."

So I followed the fence, but couldn't recognise any landmark. Eventually, after 15 minutes of wandering around - enjoying the beautiful night sounds, I might add - I taut I taw a puddy tat! My young sister had had a fluffy toy in the shape of some hybrid feline from who-knows-where, and there it was, on the verandah! Without hesitation, I opened the front door and marched in, heading straight for my bed.

Then I was jolted by the realisation that, just like Goldilocks, someone had invaded my sleeping place! Immediately I stopped dead as my eyes dark-adjusted and I saw bodies strewn across the floor as well. Suddenly it smacked me on the forehead: I had entered the wrong bungalow! There were seven people in there (four on the floor) and, as I heard one stirring and stretching, I immediately sought to make haste before they realised I was in there.

I turned hurriedly, but unfortunately also clumsily, and struck one of the sleeping adults full in the head with my trailing foot! He mumbled an expletive that did nothing to encourage me to stay and meet any of them and, with heart racing, I ran out of that bungalow, catching my right baby-toe on the door frame in the process. If anyone has ever mutilated their baby toe on something unyielding, they will know that, initially, there is only numbness for about five seconds, and then tremendous pain sets in. As a result, as I cleared their verandah, I groaned as softly as I could (which was a skill of sound suppression I am yet to emulate) and limped like a three-legged dog as fast as I could.

Then I saw our car parked there and realised that I had entered the neighbours' bungalow. I slept restlessly and, the next morning, greeted those same neighbours as we were both heading out for a morning drive. I never had the guts to tell them it was me that entered their bungalow that night and unfortunately introduced my foot to one of their heads.

As it later turned out, some animal had moved my sister's fluffy feline to the neighbouring verandah during the night, which set up the confusion that had me ducking and diving for survival.

Tom, Unfortunately, I was intent on getting my body out of there before it became a carcass! Great idea, though: you seem to have been one of those naughty kids in school who always found ways around everything??

VGS, they all looked like legal people (whatever that means ). I think the most likely explanation is that one part of the family booked the bungalow, while the others booked camping; but then the camping people camped out in the bungalow instead!