Wow! Moments in Kruger

All of us who have visited Kruger, whether once, twice, or ultimate times, experienced those moments where the only thing you could say was just Wow! I'm including some of our own Wow-moments and hope to encourage our readers to share their Wow! Moments as well. If there are enough and they are really Wow!, we can consider doing a nice booklet titled: Enjoy Kruger: Reliving those Wow! Moments. In the meantime, you can send your Wow! Moments to me at [email protected] to have them featured here on the Enjoy Kruger blog.

Wow! Moment - what a relief!!!

It was August 2015 and we stayed at Satara Restcamp. It was our last night and because we did not experience the usual extraordinary sightings (I mean lions, lots of lions) associated with this time of the year at this specific camp, we decided to end our stay there with a Night Drive. The Night Drive started at about 19h30 so we fitted in a scrumptious braai before the scheduled departure time.

I celebrated the occasion with a few beers - in Kruger you celebrate all events and occasions just because it's special and precious to be there. And so it was with a joyful mood and filled with lots of adrenaline and anticipation that we mounted that sightseeing truck on that particular night. It turned out to be quite an eventful evening.

The Night Drive first took off on the tarred road in a northerly direction towards Olifants Camp. In less than twenty minutes we saw our first lions crossing the road, but unfortunately taking off into the dark bushes. After about ten minutes of looking and searching, the truck turned around, made its way past Satara's entrance which was to the right, and carried on in the direction of Tshokwane staying on the tarred road. After about seven kilometers, say another twenty minutes later, we struck lions again, this time on the road. This was a splendid sighting as the lions were relaxed and stayed around for longer than thirty minutes. This is where the Wow! Moment started. Those few beers too many started to apply pressure on my bladder, not just faintly, very suddenly and viciously.

Still, those lions were so interesting that I could manage the moment - for now. I calculated that we were one hour and ten minutes into our drive and convinced myself that I could hold in for another fifty minutes. The night drives usually lasts only two hours. The truck remained stationary for another fifteen minutes allowing for some excellent photos and then turned around making its way back to camp. By now I crossed my legs every three minutes, hoping it would mitigate the pressure on my bladder, which was growing constantly. Again I calculated and concluded it would take just another thirty-five minutes to reach camp, even less if the driver maintained a speed of forty kilometers per hour to cover the seven to eight kilometers back to camp. So I started to relax slightly. The driver travelled a bit slower than forty kilometers per hour as Satara was quite close and he seemingly wanted to manage the drive to not be less than two hours, although everyone on board already would have felt that they got value for their money.

The bladder-pressure continued to build and I was now starting to share my crisis with my wife. Planning in advance, I told her that when we reached the parking bay at Satara I would rush ahead before them to relieve myself at the ablution block close to the Satara reception office. It was agreed that I did not need be courteous and wait for her and my children to disembark before me. I could just go ahead and shove and push my way out of my crisis situation.

The drive continued towards Satara Camp and we reached the junction with the S100 road to the right with five minutes to go and Satara Camp just two kilometers away. I can of course, and I believe many others also, vouch for the psychological explanation that when you get closer to actually doing it - the relief thing, the pressure actually builds up and it gets worse. So at this junction my eyes were closed, imagining that smelly urine basin while relieving myself. The lions we experienced up to now didn't even cross my mind. I thought of one thing only and still I crossed my legs again and again.

And then….the driver, having noticed something to his right, seemingly on the famous S100 road, unexpectedly and unceremoniously swung the truck into the S100 and rapidly sped on the gravel road for about 200 meters or so. And then everybody saw what caused the diversion. About five lions were on a zebra, about sixty meters into the bush to the right of the truck. Our experienced driver, while at the junction, probably noted a lion chasing the zebra across the road and decided to explore the development, being rewarded with a kill in the making. You could just imagine the joy of the spectators. Lions for a third time on the same Night Drive, and this time while making a killing.

From all the sudden action and excitement, my attention was briefly diverted from the dam wall inside me, that is, until the driver swung into the bushes making his way across a number of mounds and dips towards the kill and positioning the truck not five meters from the mauling lions and struggling zebra. This is where the dam wall wanted to break - driving on that rough terrain it almost felt as if a few drops trickled out. I'm almost sure about that... but fortunately the truck came to a halt. By this time the Night Drive went over the scheduled two hours by about five minutes and for once I hoped that we would not spend too much time with the lions. However, these Night Drives are not officially bound by a time-limit of two hours. The driver could use his discretion, which he did: who would not treat his guests as long as possible with such an extraordinary sighting. And there we sat, and I managed to enjoy the lion-kill for a good fifteen minutes but then could only focus on my inner-dam. It was so pressing I could think of nothing else. I reached the point where I was ready to approach the driver and explain my predicament, irrespective of the embarrassment and responses from the others on the truck, which I presumed would be most critical. This is when the miracle occurred. One of the ladies approached the driver and apologized for ruining the moment “BUT MY TWELVE YEAR OLD DAUGHTER NEEDS TO GET TO A TOILET AND QUICKLY.” Oh wow, that sounded so great. Well, we did spend about 30 minutes at the sighting so the driver agreed, allowed a few more minutes for photographing, and then made his way back over the rough field to the gravel road. Again a few leaks from the dam - I'm sure.

The driver made haste to cover the last two kilometers to camp while my predicament grew with every second. Finally we were in the camp and at the parking bay. By now it was almost 22h30. The passengers on the truck made way for the lady and her daughter to exit first but tried as I wanted, I just could not manage to closely follow behind her. But I did exit before my wife and children and am sure the other visitors summed me up as a very rude person. Doesn't matter, when I hit the ground I ran to the men's toilets at the restaurant area, not far from the parking area. Closed! The toilets for whatever reason were closed!! It's not supposed to be closed#*@#!! I shouted to my family that the toilets were locked and that I would continue running towards our bungalow - it was in C-ring, number 55 or 56. This is fairly close to the restaurant area but for me it felt like miles and at this stage I felt as if I really just wanted to let loose and wet my pants. But I held out and reached the bungalow, my family trailing behind me some fifty meters.

Locked!!! The door of the bungalow was locked, and my wife had the keys. “It's locked, you have the keys! Come on, move it!” It felt as if they took another hour before reaching the bungalow and opening it. And then finally, the moment: me and that wonderful white trophy, all alone, having a nice time together, sharing the sound of a never-ceasing waterfall. Oh wow! what an amazing relief. Let me say it again: Oh Wow! What an amazing, amazing relief! After this Night Drive experience I punished myself by not drinking beer for one whole day. Afterwards I saw the amazing pictures of the lions which we all saw but which I couldn't remember seeing.

Of course some valuable lessons were learnt which I gladly share:

• Don't drink too many beers before going on a night drive, or any drive for that matter. In fact don't drink anything from at least an hour before going on a night drive, period.

• If you have a weak bladder and develop an urge to wee because of any excitement, and if you are men, just take an empty can along with you. With the excitement of seeing lions, no-one will notice when you take your quiet leak somewhere at the back of the truck.

• Assume responsibility for the key of your bungalow from the outset, just in case you need to hurry there on your return from the drive.

Lion greetings - Gv

Wow! Moment - Lion Kill; the Wow that could have turned out nasty!

This Wow-moment happened a few years ago - it is one of the experiences that stuck with us and which often are reflected upon by our family, all of whom experienced it. At the time I was employed abroad and we as a family were returning to South Africa for a vacation break in Kruger, booked long in advance. An important dimension to this wow-story is that we borrowed the brand new huge double cab bakkie (that's what we call a SUV in South Africa) from my brother-in-law. This was an awesome gesture from him as renting a vehicle would be quite expensive and also involve a lot of paper-work.

It was in August and we were staying at Letaba Camp. One morning we decided to do a very short drive, shortly after the camp gates opened. The route we decided on was a 33-kilometres loop, which we calculated to last about an hour, maybe an hour and a half at the most. We would depart Letaba on the H9 tarred road in the direction of Phalaborwa Gate, exit the H9 after about seventeen kilometres into the S96-gravel road on the right and then turn right onto the S131 gravel road which would take us back to Letaba.

We departed from the camp just after the gates opened at 06h00 am. Now I can't remember what we experienced on the tarred road between Letaba Camp and the right turn onto the S96-gravel road. That just flew out of our minds after our wow-moment experience. I do remember that when we took the right turn, all other vehicles continued their journey in the direction of Phalaborwa. I guess few visitors actually decide to take short drives of an hour or just a bit more, when doing an early morning drive. So we were the only ones turning into the S96. It was about twenty minutes to 07h00 and about a kilometre down the S96-road, maybe a bit less, when we struck this once in a lifetime sighting. Three male lions were busy digging into a large buffalo lying more or less in the middle of the road. It lay such that it would block all oncoming traffic from the opposite left side. It was obviously a fresh kill as the buffalo was still intact and the blood oozing from a few areas where he was bitten was not yet dry or clotted. It's the kind of sighting anyone would wish for-especially with no other vehicles in sight.

This was a truly wow-moment, but the wow-moment was just about to be escalated to another level.

Being the only vehicle, we were of course over exited and I was anxious to very quickly manoeuvre the large bakkie into a position with a prime view on the sighting. Somehow I managed to get the vehicle in a position where it stood across the road, nose halfway into the road and pointing in the direction of the buffalo and lions. I actually wanted to turn around, having decided we would not complete the loop and just return back to camp along the way we came

• why continue with the loop when one could spend much longer with the lions and do the quicker, shorter seventeen kilometre route back to camp. While still manoeuvring and reversing the bakkie so as to make a u-turn, the bakkie with a loud thud, suddenly came to a halt and remained stationary. Tried as I wanted too, I could just not get it to move forward. So that's the position we got stuck in: the bakkie standing across the road, its nose pointing towards the buffalo and feasting lions, and blocking all potential traffic that would come from the right hand side. In the meantime, the lion-buffalo party in front of us, that was so close to the vehicle, we could not see it over the nose of the vehicle, blocked all potential traffic coming from the left. We and the lions and buffalo neatly barricaded the road so that no traffic could pass us unless risking driving through the bushveld.

Well, this is where I started to panic. Not only was this an embarrassing situation, it was also very stressful and my only worry was: what damage did I cause to this new vehicle borrowed from my brother-in-law. My stress was very contagious and realising our predicament, now the whole family was stressing. I can't remember if we took any photos or video clips of this peculiar sighting, because the fact was we did not really focus and register what was happening in our surroundings. Meanwhile those lions were just happily frolicking around with the buffalo, paws and mouths red from the fresh blood. After about half an hour later, with still no oncoming traffic from either side, the three lions suddenly started to pull the buffalo carcass out of the road and into the bushes on the left-hand side of the gravel road, completely off the road. It was if they thought we competed with them for that particular space in the road and suddenly decided to submit to the huge silent machine facing them. Or maybe they were sensing our stress levels and thought to do us a favour. Well this did turn out in our favour and slightly eased tensions, as oncoming traffic would now be able to pass by and continue with their journey.

After a while, maybe another twenty minutes, with still no other visitors in sight, the lions wandered off leaving the buffalo carcass on its own. We lost sight of them and I thought this was our opportunity to try and improve our situation. I jumped out of the vehicle on my side and ran to the back of the vehicle to investigate the situation. It turned out that when I reversed into the bush, the back wheels of the vehicle went over a sort of high hill, landed in a ditch and got stuck. Because of the dense bush, I could not really determine the extent of damage to the vehicle. I jumped back into the bakkie to give my report and we concluded that we should find large stones to put under the back wheels. I jumped out again and did a frantic search along the road and in the bushes finding nothing that would assist in resolving our situation. I got back in and my wife jumped out on her side and also did a search for large stones. Still nothing. I vaguely remember that one of the children also at one point jumped out for the same purpose.

Finally, we decided to rest our case and just prayed that someone would come along this particular road soon. After two hours, round about 09h00, there was still no visitor in sight. Now we started to get restless but consoled ourselves reminding that it was still early in the day and sometime, somehow, we would get out of this. We got thirsty and hungry because we left camp early without eating or drinking anything. This being, supposedly a short loop of one and a half hours, we did not as usual, make provision for snacks or drinks in the vehicle. So we had to also overcome this challenge. Our situation wasn't nice, in fact it deteriorated. Reflecting on this wow-moment, this little piece of information actually made it more memorable.

In the meantime the lions returned, chowed a bit on the buffalo, and left and returned again. It took another half hour or so when a vehicle finally approached, very hesitantly, from our left hand side. The lions were at the time busy with the buffalo and the oncoming vehicle slowed down and stopped to watch them, as they were quite close to the road. The driver did glance at us, obviously pondering about the way we were parked. So very embarrassed, I shouted, because he was a fair distance from us, that we were stuck. Sometimes when you are in predicaments like these, oncoming visitors won't necessarily believe you. They would think you are just trying to camouflage your selfishness. Fortunately, this driver took us serious. At the time cellular phones were not in circulation yet, so the friendly driver undertook to go to Letaba and report our situation. We were very relieved but this driver, understandably, spent another twenty minutes at the lions. When he left, it was almost another hour before a huge truck with a pulley arrived, chased the lions from the carcass and within less than five minutes pulled us out of the ditch. What a relief!!!

In total we were stuck at the wonderful sighting for almost four hours of which two and a half were spent with no other visitors in sight. In the fifteen years since we have never again experienced a sighting like this, so close to a fresh kill with no other visitors. Yet we have not benefited to the extent that we should have. Back at the camp we inspected the bakkie from all angles and fortunately did not find any damage, not even a scratch - another huge relief!!!

We were so happy; we decided to participate in that evenings night drive. By that time the camp rangers and guides were all aware of the mornings killing and of course the night drive headed directly to that spot. This is where we experienced the biggest wow-moment. There were more than ten lions at the carcass and the three males we saw earlier in the morning were not even among them. This is where it struck us that our wow-moment could have turned out very nasty with us having hopped in and out of the vehicle a few times while stationary. We counted our blessings and concluded that an angel blinded those lions' eyes or shut their mouths as was the case as stated in the Bible when Daniel had a close encounter for hours on end with their ancestors.

We learnt a few very important lessons from our experience which I gladly share:

· Never borrow a vehicle from family, especially when it is brand new, even if it is offered to you. That stress took away from what could have been a much more relaxing experience, knowing that rental companies would cover damages. Kruger is a place where you should never have stressful experiences.

· Never drive/reverse in the bush if you cannot see the ground-surface. That was a huge mistake on my side.

· Always take enough water and snacks when going on a game-drive, even if just for an hour.

· There were no cellular phones at the time of our wow-experience, but always jot down the emergency and/or reservation numbers from the camp you are staying at.

· Never get out of your vehicle under any circumstances, especially when at a kill or where there are big cats present.

· Finally, always carry huge stones in your vehicle, just in case you want to scare a lion away.

Lion greetings Gv

Wow! Moment - what a sad experience!

We, the family were on an early morning drive between Lower Sabie and Crocodile Bridge. It was daybreak and visibility was not that good yet. What we saw from a distance of about fifty meters, right in the middle of the lane we were traveling in, looked like fat greyish projectiles shooting into the air for a height of about one meter before plonking down, and then the motion repeated itself. As we moved closer, very slowly, the projectiles with greater speed popped up and plonked down. We were about ten meters from the projectiles when we also heard these high anxiety noises sounding like “come-back, come-back,” and then we recognized it as the sounds of guinea fowl. Three of them jumped up and down while making those unique two syllable calls that female guinea fowl make, which some describe as sounding like "buck-wheat buck-wheat," but to us it sounded like “come-back come-back.” The three were not fully grown yet and not as tall and plump as the grown-up ones, but most definitely they were acting very brave in trying to stop us. We were almost on top of them and still they did not move out of our way. To the contrary, it seemed as if they were prepared to jump onto the bonnet of our vehicle to prevent us from travelling further. We decided to do the correct thing - that is to allow freedom of way to the creatures of Kruger. Therefore, I reversed for about thirty meters and decided to move into the opposite lane to pass the anxious screeching lot. It was when we were next to them, while passing, that we noticed a fourth guinea fowl lying in the road over which we would have driven had we continued. It was motionless and quite dead with a small stream of blood flowing from the beak. We believe it was hit by a speeding vehicle and died instantly as the body was intact, although the feathers ruffled and out of place.

Observing the strange behavior of the three live guinea fowl we assessed that the one lying dead in the middle of the road, had to be a brother or a sister. Now that the three live ones no longer had to try and stop us from driving over the dead one, they were performing what seemed to be a resurrection shuffle or ritual. Wow!, was this strange. In a single file, they would walk or rather hop around the dead one in a three-quarter circle, turn around and do it again. Then one would step out of line, approach the dead one, lightly peck its body a few times, push here and there, try to lift up the dead one's head with its beak, hold it in the air for a few seconds and then drop the dead head again. All the time the other two would carry on shouting “come-back come-back” as if encouraging the strange resurrection effort. The three even took turns trying to pick up the dead one's head. It was quite fascinating, almost like a lion-kill and we sat there for some time watching the peculiar ritual. After about fifteen minutes a grown-up guinea fowl came charging out of the bush towards the resurrection scene. I'm certain I heard this one shriek “stop-it stop-it,” as if to say that it was enough. The bigger one chased the live ones away from the dead one and herded them to the side of the road. This must have been the mother as three younger ones immediately backed off from the brother-sister and responded to the efforts to herd them away. They disappeared and the dead one was left lying in the road.

This was a most peculiar and entertaining moment and at times even funny, something that we have never since experienced. But we agreed that actually this was a sad Wow! Moment and alas, sadly the dead one was not resurrected.

Drivers, take heed, maintain the speed limit and avoid hitting animals or birds

• it is clear that they, and even guinea fowl, also experience grief and hurt.

Lion greetings - Gv

Wow! Moment- that was kinda funny!

Coming from Malelane and travelling towards Skukuza on the H3 tarred road, we experienced quite a consternation and the typical type of traffic jam when big cats are seen, when approaching the bridge crossing the Mlambane River. I was driving and next to me sat my mother-in-law. We managed to squeeze into a small opening on the left-hand side of the road so that my mother-in-law had a fairly good view on the dry river. Based on the anxiety in some of the cars surrounding us, there had to be something special in the river. But searching everywhere with our binoculars we just could not identify anything peculiar. I did not have a good view with my mother-in-law sitting next to me so I relied on her observations - she did after all have the best view of all in the vehicle. After ten minutes we gave up after my mother-in-law stated that the only thing, she saw was a log. That settled it and we decided to move on - surely, we would spot lions close-up sometime during our visit. It was just when we decided to depart from the scene that the driver of a vehicle coming from the opposite side, waved at us to open a window and stopped right next to us. With the congestion of vehicles on the bridge, he, like we did, anticipated a special sighting. Very excitedly he asked us what we are seeing. The first thing that came to mind was what my mother-in-law stated just before we decided to leave the scene. Just a log, I said smilingly. Well he didn't think that was funny. To the contrary he probably thought I was sarcastic or just silly. He pulled a sour face and responded “Enjoy your log!” This was one of the funniest moments given the particular context. We could not help but burst out laughing. Since then, every time we cross the Mlambane river, we bring into memory the “enjoy your log”-event and every time would stop to see if the log was still there.

Lion greetings - Gv