When I went to Kruger National park in South Africa we camped in coffin sized tents. You know the ones, they have enough room for an average sized person to fit with the top of the tent a couple of inches from your nose. They are not comfortable, for me they were claustrophobic, and definitely gave not even the slimmest comfort of safety.
Volunteering At a Wildlife Sanctuary
I was at the sanctuary for five weeks total, and part of the stay (an extra cost) included a three stay at Kruger National park. We were self drive and it was a gorgeous drive to the park wit lots of stops on the way to take pics. There was five of us long with a guide, and one of the owners of the sanctuary where we were staying.
It was a few hours drive, we left early in the morning so still had some time to get to a walled camp site before the 6pm curfew. Everyone had to be inside the campsites by then (before dark) otherwise you were stuck outside for the night.
Stay In Your Vehicle
Don’t, just don’t get out of your vehicle except at the designated refreshment or camping sites. No exceptions. Our guide told us a story to ensure we listened, that we took him seriously.
The girlfriend of one of the park guards loved to run, in the park and he indulged her. He would follow closely behind in a vehicle, he figured he was close enough to intervene if anything went wrong.
One morning she was jogging, him faithfully behind. In a moment a Leopard leaped from the side of the road, in one movement he took her to the side of the road, landed then dragged her away before the boyfriend could do a thing. She was gone and there wasn’t a thing he could do about it.
Scared me, though we weren’t supposed to hang any body part outside of the windows (we were in a one ton van) and I was guilty of this a few times to get the best shot, very carefully and quickly.
Setting Up Our Coffin Sized Tents At Camp
By the time we arrived at the campsite it was raining and getting dark. One of the things you may not know about me is that I am not a camper, not willingly, so this was never going to be my favourite part of the day. Combined with the size of the tents and torrential rain, I was seriously questioning my life choices, all of them, at the time.
With help I got the tent organised, it was so small that saying I erected it was a wild overstatement. Once the tents were done, we headed inside to get some food and it wasn’t until a few hours later that we returned to our campsite.
I struggled to figure out this tent and how at almost 6ft was I going to fit. I am also not the most coordinated person you will meet and the ground was soaked so removing my shoes without my feet getting wet was a whole performance.
I made it, not sure how, but I was ensconced inside, snugly, when I heard a noise. Cannot describe it. Did I mention how close we had camped to the retaining wall, I could almost reach out and touch it.
Then the noise came again, nothing familiar but bloody terrifying. I heard one of the others squeak, “what was that?” She felt my terror. “Just a Lion outside the wall”, was our guides reply.
“It can’t jump that wall?” someone else ventured. He didn’t answer but I can still hear his giggle until now.
If you are born with these “murder kitties” around you all the time , I imagine you are somewhat desensitised. But when the biggest animal you have at home is a Kangaroo, Lions are seriously terrifying.
AND it sounded like it was just outside the tent.
That Lion serenade went on for hours that night and did not sound like any soundbite I had ever heard. It was deep, guttural, loud and so close. I eventually drifted off to the “murder kitty” serenade but I have never forgotten the terror of that night from one cheeky Lion who probably hung out there every night to terrorise the tourists.
Peace Out