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BTW, this didn't happen in Kruger. Was in Dec 2002 or perhaps Jan 03. Location: unfenced bushcamp; time: during dinner.
It had been a great game drive that evening so lots of tall stories and laughter (lots of booze too, I think : ). Plus in the background the usual RRRRRRRRRRRs of the resident ratel (honey badger).
At one point one of the young rangers who was keeping an eye on goings-on in and around the camp, came into to dining area and whispered something to the camp manager. (Later it turned out that he'd come to get him because he thought he'd seen a "lion's tail sticking out the door" of the loo closest to the boma). And he was right, it was a lion's tail. With the complementary lion attached. Lioness actually, a very old one and obviously not well. It became clear that she had been cornered into the loo by, get this, the honey badger!
The guests (including a spare drink) were escorted to their rooms but while the rangers were thinking about how to deal with the situation, the lioness took care of the problem herself by sneaking out. She was found dead at a nearby dam 2 days later.


The whole thing of course caused a lot of excitement and was a bit scary.
But not nearly as scary as sitting in a treehouse/hide and then finding out that you've been sharing the tree with a boomslang for lord knows how long!!

> What made your hair stand on end?

Being charged by an angry elephant in musth at night while sitting in an open Landrover that refused to start. This happened to me while doing the basic EcoTraining course in the Timbavati. The Landrover wouldn't start after we'd finished our sundowners and while we were fixing the landie the elephant showed up and started giving us a hard time. After trying different strategies (trying to shoo it away, sitting quit, ignoring it) we eventually got out of the car and push started it (while our instructor had a loaded rifle pointed at the poor elephant). I can tell you that pushing a 2.5 ton Landrover at night while an angry elephant is (mock?) charging to within 5 metres of you is not something I'd like to do again.

It was a very good learning experience though.

I think that I posted my 'hair-raising' stories elsewhere here quite some time ago - but here goes anyway... my first hair-raiser...

This was also not in Kruger, but was during my 2nd only trip to Aaaaafricaaaa.

I was on a 5 day 'Ranger Training Experience' at a very well known reserve (the RTE is no longer available there but was in a very basic, tented bushcamp which had bucket showers surrounded by only tree-trunks on 3 sides, a long-drop loo which looked out over a riverbed, donkey boiler to supply hot water, bush kitchen and a hut which contained our food, ammunition (for the ranger) and a bed (for the ranger), and no security (apart from our ranger) to stop the animals entering the camp - the local ellies liked to try to put their trunks over the walls of the showers while we were in there to get a 'free' drink.
The camp was quite large and was normally used to train Game Rangers for the reserve.

Anyway, I digress.....

I had little experience of lions at that time, having only seen one sick, emaciated male on my previous trip to Zim and it was the night that the idiotic, inexperienced, uneducated but fantastic group of gals, mostly from Texas and on their first ever trip to Aaaafricaaa, were to keep 'camp-watch' from 9pm - 3am in groups of 2, for 2 hour watches, our only amunition against the wildlife being the camp-fire, the spotlight and the ranger in his hut. Oh, and the bottle of amarula that I had bought in Joeys on the way!

I was preparing to take my watch at around 10.50pm when we heard the roar of a lion fairly close by.

As the minutes ticked by (we had to wait for the ranger, who was in his hut, to tell us to change watch) the lion got closer and louder.
By 11.00pm the lion was in the camp - and the ranger called out to us to stay where we were, not to leave our tents and, for the 2 already on guard, not to make a move. He came out with his loaded rifle at the ready....

A minute or so later, I heard a soft padding next to my tent (they were, fortunately, built on a platform with steps up) and then a roar which not only shook my tent but also shook my bowels!

Minutes (or was it seconds or hours?) later the ranger called out that it was safe to change watch - the lion had passed through the camp and was continuing his patrol of his territory.

I left my tent, shaking with terror, and as soon as I had descended the steps...... well, you can use your imagination as to what occurred! All I will say is that I poured a few buckets of water over the ground just behind the steps!

My watch then went smoothly until..... but that is another story!

I had several hair-raising stories to tell. All of them in Kruger and 1 in the Wilderness NP area.

2 lion prides having a go at each other roaring no more than 20 meters from us on the Sweni trail on both sides of the camp in the early hours of the morning. the stench of them was resident in my nostrils for a good 45min. The roaring was deafening, vibrating the bed in the a-frame hut as well as my chest.

The second was when we met up with a pride of 13 lion cubs 30 to 50m away from us on foot on a morning walk in the Satara area. Knowing that the adults could be very near. A lioness jumped up and ran and was followed by all the young ones.

Just after that a big male stood looking at us 60m off. He roared which made the ground shook. Nothing raises your hair like the roar of a lion.

On our recent walk on the boesman's we came face to face with a white rhino. We would have probably walked right into him where he was sleeping if it weren't for the red-billed oxpeckers that flew over us just in time.

Also on the same trail, getting extremely fresh daggaboy spoor and dung. This was a very close call! We also were face to face with 4 rhinos only 15m away.

Hearing hyaenas hunt and bringing down an impala in the dark a mere 20m away.

A lioness came into Lower Sabie 1 evening and caused havoc amongst the campers.

Charges by elephants.

Seeing the speed of a leopard to get to its prey.

Seeing a 2-3m long black mamba.

Seeing a traffic officer jumping out in front of you near Skukuza gate.

In Wilderness NP area. At the big tree past Karatara. When you walk finger alone in that forest looking for Narina Trogon and hear nothing, see nothing and concentrating like a F1 driver on a 1 stop strategy and then all of a sudden an assumed Tambourine Dove flies out low and fast. That makes your hair rise and your heart pump.

My hair raising experience was on the Mphongolo loop, north of Shingwedzi. We were driving sloly and approached a winding of the road when sudently came a big camper in full speet arround the corner in front of me. I turn my wheel to the wright, as we do in Europe, but than I realised that that was not wright but wrong and turned the wheel to the left [African style]. I was just in time when the camper with that idiot in was passing by with a distance of a few CM with full speet. The only thing I saw was that the idiot driver had a quarrel with his wife. It happend in a few seconds and I looked to my wife with all my hair raised up. Looks silly but it was scarry.

Sitting at Ngrivane reading a book, SO fast asleep in passanger seat snoring when I heard a noise and saw the most humongous Elephant standing a few feet away in front of the car Could not move because he was standing right in front and at the back of the car was a ditch
While SO was still snoring I sat it out and waited to see what the Ellie was up to. Thank goodness he just strolled off into the other direction to go and drink water.

The only two hair raising stories I have was when I walked the perimeter fence in Shingwedzi by the bungalows on the perimeter fence by the back gate was an ellie browsing. I only realised it when I was about 10 meters away. I think he was used to it case he was quite calm, I on the other hand am not so used to being so close to them unprotected and was rather nervous. Sat down in any case just to watch.

The other one I was about 10 or 11 visiting with my folks and I went to watch the movie in camp. It was all about Hyena's and Lions and their in fighting. I was walking back to our caravan across a dark and deserted patch (Probably day visitor area) when a hare jumped out right in front of me. I got such a fright that I started running so quickly that after 50 meters I only realised what I was running away from.

Oh and there was another one with people drinking too much and snoring at ten in the evening, exactly when I walk past their tent after showering and that snore then sounds like a Lion's roar.

@Tabs Aaafrikaa = Toto song? It's my best and I play it once everytime I enter the park.

This story is not from me, it's from my ex-wife.

At her first night in KNP we stood in a safari tent at letaba. At 9 pm we go to bed. I fell fast into sleep.But she couldn't sleep, because there were so many never before heard sounds. And than she feels at her leg something. It seems to be a snake. She was shocked, but before she starts to scream, she realized that it was no snake. It was her own hand.

Traffic officers always have a strange effect

My biggest fine was on my way to Kruger. Was stuck in a 2 hour traffic jam. (Dead still) A truck had "lost its load" on the N12.
Never noticed the 60km sign at the Belfast turn off when I was chasing time. Had to be in Skukuza by 2pm.
That was also a hair raising experience when I looked at the extent of the fine.

Mapungubwe. Tshugulu Lodge. You can walk around a koppie in front of the lodge. It's a dirt road, which passes a small man-made waterhole (not visible from the lodge).
I took the opportunity to stroll round this route alone with my camera on our first morning there. As I got to the point furthest away from the lodge, with a humungous great red rock between me and the building, I heard scuffling in the bush quite close to me. I stopped dead (and thought I soon would be!), and scanned the bush without seeing anything. Almost immediately I heard a loud, rasping, grunting noise REALLY close by (still couldn't see anything). It was all I could do not to turn tail and run, but I figured that would be insane as I was as far away as I could get (about 400m) and whatever was going to chase me if I ran was also going to catch me if I ran! So....I started walking veeeeery slowly back to the lodge facing the bush all the while, and once into the unfenced garden, sprinted to the "safety" of the outside kitchen.

I'd never visited SA during the rutting season before.....

I was driving down the Nwanetsi main road with mom and we came across a pride of lions, the male sitting up next to the road, so i slowly pulled up next to him and with the window half down just enough space for the camera, pushed the button and the flash went off. This lion did a mock charge with half a roar at the same time coming at me, that window was up so fast, and my leg could not stop shaking I got such a fright....

In Nov 2004, we were staying at Berg-en-dal and decided to go to Matjulu waterhole for sundowners. As we drove down the hill we spotted three rhino in the bush opposite so we went to the bottom, switched the engine off and watched the rhinos.
A perfect evening, we thought!
Then hubby looked in the rearview mirror to see a herd of ellies with small ones walking down the hill, we had no exit so decided to just sit quietly and hope they wouldn't notice us.
They stopped at the concrete dam and the bigger ones had a drink then the herd started to walk towards the waterhole checking us as they walked. Suddenly one of the mothers decided we shouldn't be there and charged, stopping about four meters from us, then she walked back to the rest of the herd. I just closed my eyes and waited.
Fortunately she must have thought we weren't a threat and they all had a drink and played a while and wandered of into the bush on the right.
When we finally had the courage to go back up the hill we found other cars parked at the top who thought that this had been great entertainment, I didn't agree with them.

Update on that one for those who do not read the frontpage of the site: KNP Unveils Plaque For Fallen Hero

A wonderful tribute indeed.

Courtesey Beeld.