Its a WILD life....

[Amoli]

Shame, poor little guy.


(laughing softly... )

[Flutterby]

When my brother was younger he would suffer from nose-bleeds quite often, especially if it was very hot, and these weren't just normal nose-bleeds...you would think he was bleeding to death. One very hot day in Kruger his nose started bleeding while we were on a drive. He used up all the tissues we had in the car, and my dad didn't want blood all over the upholstery so told my brother to put his head out the window, while we carried on with our drive! -O Eventually the bleeding stopped but there was now blood all down the one side of the car!! You can imagine the stares we got, and everytime we stopped we had to tell the story again and show them my brother's bloody face as proof that we hadn't killed an animal!!

[BunnyHugger]

In 2003 we did a tour of the North of Kruger.

It was Liewe Exie (version 2), her son (Bones), some friends of mine, Tim, his SO and Kids Wayne and Tammy, my son the warthog tamer, and myself.

After a long drive up to Punda Maria, we found the camp to be rather empty and quiet which was great. We had the pick of spots and I stopped close to the fence and got out of the car to look into the bush to see if I could find anything to make this the "best spot". Nothing doing. It was close enough to the ablutions for the rest of the gang and far enough away for me, which made it great.

While looking into the bush, I heard the grass close to my feet moving, looked down and saw a rather large puffy about 8 inches or so from my foot. (fortunately just the tail part with the head already some 18 inches further away and moving along). Being with my friends and family, there was no way I could react the way I normally would so calmly said "hey look at this puff adder" (By now everyone was out of the cars) Wayne heard the mention of snake and the next I heard the car door slam closed and by the time I looked around, He was already on the other side of the car. -O

A few hours later Wayne says "Dad, did you see that snake?"
Dad says "I sure did, but you would have needed binoculars to have seen it!".

[BunnyHugger]

The rule for this thread is that the story may be scary but it must be kinda funny.

I've had a few of these moments.

In June 2012, Hunny and I did a short trip to KNP We spent one night at Skuks and three nights at Croc Bridge.

So one day we were out having a game drive up around Nthandanyati Hide. There was a turnoff to a dam and we decided to take it and have a looksee. It had been drizzling lightly so the only set of tracks on the road were those of a large lone ele. A hundred or so meters down the road, we saw him ambling along the left side of the road and having a red car, we decided to give him plenty space and hung back so as not to get into his space.

At some stage, the road does a slight bend to the right and elllie went on strainght into the bush. I figured this would be a good time to get passed. We got to the dam (which was empty) and all we could see was one lone impala. After about 10 minutes or so, we thought it might be good to move on. as we were looking around, who should we see coming down the only road in or out, but Mr. Ellie. (And he was a big fella and all man. No word of lie.

Right, so we are now watching him, and he is giving us the hairy eyeball. One of those withering looks as if to ask "WTF are you doing on my turf?" So its one hand on the handbrake, one on the ignition key, right foot on the gas and left on the clutch and we are watching Ellie intently. He's watching us, ears up, not flapping, the whole body motionless except for the trunk which is up and he is smelling the air. Next thing, he stamps his foot, drops his trunk and huffs, very loudly in the silence and this raises a fair bit of dust.

Well, instinct took over, I turned the key and as the engine took, I got the revs up and got the hammer down right. A bit much of power and all because the car momentarily stayed still. The wheels were spinning. I think Ellie got the bigger fright then. He dropped his trunk and ears and ran off into the bush while the car was by now gaining some traction and getting going.

About 50 meters away and gaining speed, Hunny and I burst out laughing. (I'm not a fundi on Ellie behavior but lets just say, I wasn't going to hang about to find out he wasn't going to charge. Mock or otherwise. )

[Flutterby]

We've been in that position a few times before! Your heart is pounding but you are laughing hysterically!!

[iNdlovu]

under the circumstances with nowhere to go BH, not a bad move...you caught him by surprise and not the other way round...always a winner.

[Bushcraft]

Drive in KNP with my Cow and spot an ellie on the move you won't know who's trumpeting the loudest

[Flutterby]

I would have joined him in the car!!

[Mel]

Entertaining stories so far! -O -O -O

Thanks for the thread, BH. And your respective anecdotes, Flutts and BH.

[BunnyHugger]

Drive in KNP with my Cow and spot an ellie on the move you won't know who's trumpeting the loudest

So tell you what BC, let's meet in KNP sometime soon. You and I can take a nice quiet drive somewhere, and the two angels can take a drive somewhere else (luckily there are no malls or shoe shops in KNP).

If the angels come across any ellies, they will both scream so much the car will become a convertible.

I always wanted to drive around KNP in a roofless car.