When visiting a foreign country, it’s wise to take some extra precautions to make sure you stay safe in unfamiliar surroundings. Keeping your wallet in your front pocket, knowing which neighborhoods to avoid, etc. During the first several days we spent traversing South Africa, including a couple days in Cape Town, we had no issues. It wasn’t until we arrived in greater Kruger National Park that we became the victims of robbery.
While sleeping in our hut in Umlani Bushcamp, we awoke to footsteps just outside our door. Since the camp was unfenced, we weren’t surprised to hear animals outside during the night, and as long as we didn’t go outside to investigate, it was perfectly safe. Early the next morning, we were woken up by our guide letting us know it was time to get ready for the morning game drive. We told him that we had heard animals walking near our hut during the night and asked him what he thought the mystery creatures were. He said that nyala frequented the camp in the evenings, but then he noticed that something was missing from in front of our hut. “Did you have two chairs in front of your hut when you arrived?” We did in fact have two wooden chairs with cloth seats in front of our hut the night before. “Well, they’re gone now…the hyenas stole them.” Naturally this came as a surprise. For one, it was crazy to think that hyenas were snooping around our hut while we were sleeping, but it was also kind of bizarre that they would steal chairs of all things. Apparently they drag them away and eat the cloth. Thats just life as a scavenger, I guess. As far as getting “robbed” goes, this was certainly memorable…not to mention the chairs didn’t actually belong to us, but that’s neither here nor there.
What fiesty creatures, good thing they didn’t take your beautiful wife!
They’re lucky she didn’t take a baby hyena home with her.