Late Night Bathroom Run

Originally distributed January 2009

The first night at the campground I had quite a scare. After going to bed I had to get up and go to the bathroom, and of course the toilets were way across the campground. We were the only group there and people don’t use the park very much. I had my headlamp with me but the moon was pretty bright so I didn’t use it the whole time walking back and forth.

When I came out of the bathroom I heard a huffing/grunting sound right near the bathroom door maybe 15-20yds away. I turned on my headlamp and couldn’t see anything but I could tell it was something large that I didn’t want to be near. So I ran across the grounds toward our tents where there’s a large gazebo, which also served as our kitchen. At the gazebo I heard a plastic water jug fall over. The wind was blowing lightly so it could’ve simply been the wind but I couldn’t tell and didn’t want to take any chances. So I ran over to the tents and walked along the line of tents toward my own. The whole time I heard the grunting sound and it sounded like it was across from me. So either one animal was moving and following me, or there were many of them…whatever “they” were.

To top things off, Simone and I were stuck with a crappy old tent that had temperamental zippers. So when I finally got to the tent I had to fight the zipper to get it open. The whole time I’m hearing this grunting sound behind me and I can’t see what it is, or where it is! Finally I got the zipper open enough to get in and I just jumped in. Simone woke up to my headlamp shining in her face and colorful language. Luckily the mystery animal was still grunting so she heard it and knew I wasn’t crazy. It/they continued grunting for a minute or 2 before settling down. My heart stopped racing as well and I went back to sleep.

 

The next morning I asked around and other people had heard it too. The local research director whom I work with, Ara, said they were probably wildebeests. I had heard wildebeests grunting at us in Hlane during our game drive, so I wondered if they were the ones scaring my pants off. But even if it was “only” wildebeests, they have sharp horns and if they thought I was a threat to them, how did I know whether or not they were going to try to do me in? So it was scary.