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You are here: Home / Destinations / Africa / When Animals Attack…

When Animals Attack…

January 20, 2010 By Jillian

After our elephant experience in Kruger safety around animals has been on my mind, so when I saw an article in a nature magazine entitled “animal safety” I flipped to the article. The advice was basically this: hippo, rhino, elephant, lion- stay away and if you can’t stay away get away quickly and quietly before it notices you. Well that’s helpful. With no specific advice to follow, I crawled in our tent each night planning what I would do if say a hippo disturbed us in the night. Hippos it seems kill the most number of people every year in Africa, so when I heard the hippos calling to each other at night in Mlilwane Nature Reserve in Swaziland I was a little anxious. The campground was surrounded by a fence, but when your mind wanders, well it can really get going and the first night I dreampt we were trampled by hippos in the night. Awaking in a cold sweat I was thankful to see only monkeys in the morning light. Until my thoughts turned to other recent warnings about monkeys taking off with stuff… like our sandals which lay not more than 6 inches from me outside the tent. Quietly I pulled them into the tent and fell asleep.

Five days hiking in Malolotja Nature Reserve, climbing execution rock in Mlilwane, and surviving four nights camping in the Swazi bush without an animal attack, that’s our time in Swaziland in a nutshell. Packing up our car at dusk I rummaged through the trunk looking for passports when I heard a rustling noise beside me. Searching quickly for the source, I was confronted by a male ostrich not more than 10 feet away. Having seen him by the swimming pool earlier that day, I figured I could shoo him away without a problem. Waving my arms and screaming shoo shoo, I looked like a lunatic, and the ostrich treated me as one. Looking at me with his head cocked to the side, the ostrich wasn’t even bashful about stepping closer. With visions of being cut open head to toe by an ostrich nail (have you seen the size of their feet) and warnings of their nasty temperament ringing in my head, I dropped everything and ran into the car, locking the doors. With the hatchback still open I continued my shooing from inside the car, a bit braver this time. Without so much as a glance in my direction, the ostrich began pecking at things I had left scattered on the ground. Unable to see him, only hearing him peck at our wordly possessions in the back, I resolved to get him away before he destroyed something. Truly, my thoughts ran to the clif bars, which I knew were left on the ground. Not knowing what else to do I honked the horn, which made absolutely no positive impact on the ostrich. Instead he began to rustle things in the back. So I turned on the vehicle and reved the engine. Again, he poked his head from the trunk and looked at me, practically daring me to continue my nonsensical actions. Finally I leaned out of the passengers seat of the car, waved my hands and screamed as loud as I could at the monsterous beast. From the lodge area a game warden, finally noticing my situation came running waving his arms and shooing the ostrich out the fence. Safe at last I climbed out of the car, thanked the warden profusely who was laughing with (or more likely at) me and headed back into the lodge.

Barely looking up from his book Danny asked me where I had been… needless to say that night as I crawled into the tent I wasn’t so worried about the hippo attack… I was dreaming of the ostrich sausage we grilled in Kruger…hmmm….karmic payback.

Filed Under: Africa, Headline, Swaziland Tagged With: animals, fear, kruger, swaziland, transportation

About Jillian

I'm an adventurer and a fun loving spirit. I'll do almost anything once for the experience, well within reason. I love mountain biking, hiking and swimming. I compete in adventure races, but I'm also a complete nerd and love to read. I try to live my life without regrets, in the words of Ferris Bueller, "Life moves pretty fast. If you don't stop and look around once in a while, you could miss it. "

Comments

  1. Dad McKnight says

    January 20, 2010 at 9:53 am

    I am still “Laughing Out Loud” about the little run in you had with the two-toed, long neck, small headed bird that cannot fly. It appears that you were really trying to exhaust all methods available to you to try to get him to leave your stuff alone. Since being the largest bird on the planet, I guess he thought he had the upper hand! I wonder what Doctor Dolittle would have done?
    Take Care!

    • Jillian says

      February 6, 2010 at 2:12 am

      @Dad- Dr. Dolittle would have just politely asked him to leave. Lol. Unfortunately I don’t have that ability!

  2. Kelly says

    January 20, 2010 at 12:45 pm

    Definitely my favorite post so far, very funny! Glad you survived.

    • Jillian says

      February 6, 2010 at 2:12 am

      @Kelly- Clearly it was touch and go there for a while, but eventually I triumphed 🙂

  3. Nikki and Aunt Laurie says

    January 20, 2010 at 8:58 pm

    haha your best story yet!!!!

    • Jillian says

      February 6, 2010 at 2:11 am

      @Nikki & Aunt Laurie- Can’t wait to hear about Nikki’s Ethiopian animal adventures!

  4. Mom Tobias says

    January 20, 2010 at 9:19 pm

    Hey Jill, looks like you are not getting much sympathy. However, I sympathize, as I remember vividly our raccoon adventure right here in the wilds of Cooper City. Maybe you just need different sandals-all the animals seem to want yours! 🙂

    • Jillian says

      February 6, 2010 at 2:11 am

      @Barbara- So funny story actually. Two nights ago we were camping in a national park in namibia. Sitting by the campfire we spotted a large dog-like animal circling our camp. Grabbing a coal from the fire with the bbq tongs, your son runs into the bush looking for it. Needless to say his behavior was so similar to Ben’s that it made me laugh out loud and re-tell the raccoon adventure story. 🙂 Hopefully we won’t run into any more strange animals in the night!

  5. Jess says

    January 21, 2010 at 11:33 am

    I love that you were most concerned about the food. I approve:)

    • Jillian says

      February 6, 2010 at 2:08 am

      @Jess- clearly I was concerned about the clif bars! glad you approve!

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