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Ok, on to "Part 2"...

(I think this may be under "Silly things..." too!?)

We arrived back at camp in that "bulletproof" state one can only achieve in the bush after a brilliant and well-lubricated day.

We were staying in an empty trailer-home near the public campsite, and as darkness finally settled and the fruit juices continued to flow, we tended to forget that we were near the other tourists, as we were screened from the tents by some bushes.

It started becoming raucous, but very witty.
Suddenly, I was shocked by some loud "mooing" sounds coming from around the corner of the trailer-home, accompanied by a strange "clumping" on the ground.

(At this point, I must introduce "Buffel", a member of our party whose real first name has long been forgotten...)

Buffel had innocently discovered an old buffalo skull, and two tin dustbin lids, and obviously considered them a gift from above to enable him to live up to his nickname...

The apparition appeared around the corner wearing the skull on his head, and the two lids on his feet, and frightened the hell out of everyone!

At this point, I got up and noticed about twenty camping-tourists (including children) who had approached us and were watching from the darkness!

Now I was the level-headed "organiser" of the expedition, and received a great shock, with visions of "eviction" entering my thoughts...

Quickly I silenced my idiot friends, and approached the campers, each of whom looked larger than the other, prepared to face the music and praying that I would survive with relatively minor injuries.

To my surprise they backed off, and the one "Oom" whispered: "Nee, moenie stop nie, ons kan nie glo wat ons hoor en sien nie!"

(No, don't stop, we can't believe what we're seeing and hearing...)

He wasn't being sarcastic, and we had a nice conversation with them, the gist of it being they enjoyed seeing the "young people" having fun, and it wasn't too late in the evening, etc...

"Buffel" was taken on a tour of the tents with his "costume", and everyone including him enjoyed it immensely...

Perhaps there is some sort of lesson to be learned from this experience!?

Had a few funny experiences during this last trip.

1. I was walking inside Tamboti just before gate closing time and neared the open gate talking to the goose on the phone. In comes a bloke stops, tells me something about a kill with great excitement. I asked the goose to hang on a bit to hear his story and he tells me with even bigger excitement that there was a kill at the gate a month ago and then drive off again.



2. My uncle's cellphone went off in a jam packed Lake Panic bird hide. I did not even know that one could get cellphone signal there. Nicholas Louw singing away... He nearly ripped his shorts off to get to his phone out of his pocket and then sommer left the hide as well.

My dad was lying on the bench trying to smother his laughter.

3. My dad and uncle chatted to another senior citizen at Nwanetsi picnic spot. Suddenly my dad tells my uncle to go carve his name out onto a fever tree across the river. My uncle looks at him and asks him if is all there.

The other guy just looks at the two of them with a shock expression on his face. My dad turns to him and says: "It is my son's birthday today. He has never seen a lion kill before, so I am just trying to make it happen for him."

Hi
I go through all the trouble of picking an alias I like; finding a cool avatar; sweating and swearing to get it both small and visible enough for the forum; and finally registering on the forum itself. And then, on my very first posting I go and make my name ‘mud’
At least no-one said anything...
I was checking out the highlights of the day on the Satara webcam today, when all the images disappeared. A quick look at the tinypic website revealed that I couldn’t get to it, so I assumed that the site must have died.



I only realized that it might not be the case when we lost connection with the entire internet. Apparently the information for our DNS server in our local settings disappeared (still have to figure out exactly how that happened). So it was only me who had problems with the images. Sorry tinypic!
…
And I dare to call myself an IT developer

Hay!!
I have a funny tail to tell you.
When I went to Kruger on the 17th September 2008 one day we decided we would go out of the park out the Phabeni gate, and go to Hazyview to an Elephant sanctuary.
I've seen elephant in the wild - but only at a distance. They seem gigantic and yet so gentle..... I'd like to know more about these fascinating animals."
We went for the

The Trunk-in-Hand program
An experienced guide will introduce you to the elephants and you will learn about their backgrounds, behaviours, characters and more, while being able to touch, feel, feed, interact and walk trunk-in-hand with the elephants.

Well the day starts WELL!!!! We managed to lock the car keys in the car as you do???? Do you this has never happened to me before, I must tell you it was not me who locked them in the car this time.

Could the day get any better, now we are waiting for the Elephants to appear as they come down the hill we can see them, we are now getting very nervous about having to meet them as one of them is very very big

the guide starts to tell us about the animals, now we have to go up to them we have to go to each one in turn so we get to look and touch the big one and the smaller one, now it happens as one of our party is with the big Elephant some thing worries it a fly we think, to get rid of it the Elephant shakes it head, as it dose this Nigel gets hit by the Elephant and goes flying though the air like an arrow and land in a tree on his bum,
It was very funny to see, he did not seam to have been in any way heart.
The next day he had a whopper of a burse

Here are some photos of the day ( not got any of the incident )




we even get a Kiss kiss from the Elephant







we had a fab day there if you Love Elephants it is worth a visit


Shangri-La

Very nice, Shangri-la!

This next story will only be appreciated by Afrikaans-speaking viewers, I think?!

I heard this last weekend, from one of the teachers in Skukuza.

Normally around this time of year, it gets pretty hectic at schools, with Prizegiving night being at the top of the agenda.

As normally happens, the community hall is decorated with plants for the big evening.
Obviously the beautiful and bountiful nursery at Skukuza supplies the greenery for their ceremony!

One year, though, their was a mishap, as the nursery lady instructed the tractor driver as follows: "Vat asseblief hierdie plante af saal toe".

The driver was somehow reluctant, and the request had to be repeated...

Nevertheless, nothing more was heard, until consecutive calls came in that evening, one from the teachers wondering where there plants were, and one from Afsaal picnic spot, asking why a trailer-load of saplings had arrived there!
The driver had duly taken his open tractor and trailer to AFSAAL!

Don’t you just hate it when words fail you; or more precisely your ability to translate exactly what you want to say

A couple of years ago (on the s130 if I remember correctly) we came across a band of Dwarf Mongooses (Off topic … what is the plural of mongoose? Mongeese). These little creatures are always a treat to watch, so we switched off the car and tried to get some photos. As fate will have it, another vehicle came along and when they didn’t see what we were looking at immediately asked us the most widely used question in the park.

My father (who is also a forumite, though I won’t give up names … yet *sorry dad*) couldn’t recall their English names immediately, and after a quick thought to himself came up with this pearl of wisdom that he still has to wear around his neck.

“We are looking at a … ah … miniature skunk?” (Dwarf Mongoose in Afrikaans is Dwerg ( Dwarf / Small / etc.) Muishond (Mongoose / Skunk / Mousedog )

I don’t think the other car quite understand to this day what we were looking at all those years ago
Needless to say, we still enjoy the sight of those little Miniature Skunks

Speaking of language difficulties whilst driving in KP recently we were excitedly waved down by a stationary car The driver said "I so sorree I tort it was a rheeeno tis only a bufflo".
We were pleased to see the buffs but for ever afterward the rhino is a rheeeno

Regarding language problems, and the question of friendly greetings raised up on the KNP thread:

We were on a late afternoon drive heading up the gravel road east of Nsemani Dam around 1998...

Two young foreigners flagged us down, very excited!
The driver sounded Eastern European, and had obviously had a great day - also with bit of the local brew, it seemed! (Same as us..)

He explained that there were lions up ahead.

When we asked how far, he replied: "About 10 baksies"...

Now how does one reply to that!?

Grinning foolishly we thanked the fellow, and went off to look for the lion.

Needless to say we found no sign of them, but since then my friends and I have always referred to something unreachable in the Park as being "many baksies away"!

These funny expressions can of course also be an indication of your generation. A good friend of ours, from a previous generation, and a true Scot retired in South Africa, once asked me about the birds he see in his SA garden. Especially one small yellow bird that attacks his palm tree in true WW II style. "It comes in like a Spitfire and then takes off like a Lancaster."
No doubt to this bird's identity, or "Oom" George's age, is there?!

Thanks for all these funny stories.

Please keep them comming

One trip many moons ago, I had stopped to look at the busy goings-on of three termite mounds that had just started up on the Confluence loop near Shingwedzi, neatly positioned on the shoulder of that road. Already the tunnel had been excavated, and the conical walls were being formed in a spiral fashion.

A vehicle filled with rambunctious teenagers screamed up and began to look in all directions to see what amazing animal I was viewing. They laughed and giggled, uttering German expletives, until, quite flabbergasted, they frowned questioningly at me. I pointed to the infant termite mounds, but they seemed not to see their significance. They couldn't understand any English either.

They continued to look around the veld, up in the trees, and even under my car! After about a minute, the driver whipped out his instamatic camera and, pointing it at a dark green bush next to my car, set off his flash in broad daylight, frowned again at me, and drove off in a cloud of dust.

I giggled to think how he would explain the significance of his green bush - without any flowers, birds or animals to enhance it - to his family and friends back home!

Good one, onewithnature!

Regarding insults levelled at Castle Lite Beer on another thread...

This is a common problem with the uninitiated:

Was at Shingwedzi a few years ago, and watched the others preparing the cooler for an evening drive to Kanniedood.

I warned them, (Including another forumite) that they were "understocking", and they would not get any of my beer should they run short.

I was met with gross insults and invitations to combine sex with travel, as Rayb would say!

Lo and behold, the inevitable happened, as the moment was just too good while relaxing under the trees on one of the loops - their beer ran out.

The irony is, as they consumed my beer, they STILL insulted it and thereby me!

(I was outnumbered... )

In 2008 we stayed in the safaritents at Lower Sabie. On arriving home there was quite a rumpass going on in the tent next to ours So we settled down on our Patio and watched. The gent had decided to take a shower and wondered why the shower head kept moving until he realised it was a snake also taking his shower. So He rushed out the tent and the necessary rangers etc etc were called but if only I had a movie camera as all the rangers were terrified of the snake and no one wanted to actually catch it. After about three quartes of an hour the snake had disappeared in to the roof and they gave up.. the gent was moved to another tent BUT the next day new people took up residence in the tent But we did not say a word .
Elizabeth

As a youngster in the Lowveld, stayed for free at a spot JUST outside Kruger Gate for a weekend, zipping in and out every day...

Come packing-up time the Sunday morning, we discovered a huge Rump Steak that had somehow not made it to the 'fridge, but was left in the cupboard under the sink!

It had acquired a pleasant greenish tinge, and after long consultation, we decided as we had beer in green cans at that time (Amstel), it would complement the meat, and we should take the steak back to Nelspruit and braai it for a late lunch...

Best steak I ever had, with no ill-effects!

On my first trip into KP, many moons ago, I was with daughter and husband who were very keen birders. Consequently, I got used to the fact that if the vehicle stopped it was as likely to be for a bird as an animal. I should tell you that before the trip, I had been quite apprehensive about encountering elephants. The car stopped, I got the bins to the eyes and started peering closely into the bushes - then a voice from the front seat said "Can`t you see the b.... thing?" There was a huge elephant (my first) only a few feet from the side of the road!