"Hyena," my brother-in-law whispered, shining a torch into the bushes. But nobody heard him. "Hyena," he repeated, this time a little louder.
Again, not everyone heard him. They were enjoying great conversation - and G&Ts and wine - on the deck of my safari tent in Hluhluwe/iMfolozi Park in northern KwaZulu-Natal.
"HYENA!" This time he was loud enough to be heard over the racket of 13 conversing people. Everyone paid attention.
There, in the foliage alongside the deck and not more than 10m from where a Belgian, a Brit and I were standing, meat in hand, at a braai, was a spotted hyena. The animal looked back at us, but only fleetingly. Perhaps it realised that this many people weren't worth the effort, and it turned and hurried off into the bushes. After all, there were other braais nearby.
But it was enough to get the heart rates up, particularly for the overseas guests with us, experiencing the reality of a South African safari for the first time. It also shook my mom a bit, and she wanted to be driven from our tent to hers before the generators were switched off and Mpila Camp was plunged into darkness.
As it would turn out, she made the right call. As I drove up to her walkway, the headlights of "The Elephant" - the nickname given to my borrowed BMW X4 - caught the eyes of the same hyena. It was sitting just a few metres from where she would have had to walk to get to her home for the night.
STARTED WELL
This is the reality of Hluhluwe/iMfolozi, where the wildlife is wild and every experience totally immersive.
We were in the reserve just days after my sister's wedding. Thirteen of us bundled into four vehicles - our food and supplies crammed onto the back seats of The Elephant - and made our way to the reserve from Durban with the mission of seeing all of the Big Five, even though we were only there for two nights. We knew we were asking a lot. Still, hopes were high.
Ezemvelo KZN Wildlife spokesman Musa Mntambo wouldn't give approximate numbers of various species in the park for fear of poaching, which totally makes sense. But based on personal experience - including once seeing all of the Big Five in a single afternoon - we were feeling lucky.
And it started well enough. On the drive between the main gate and Mpila we saw elephants and rhinos - and in one case, an adult and baby seemed to do a little dance in the middle of the road as they prevented us driving past. A typical South African roadblock, I guess.
BUSH PIGS AND WARTHOGS
Add the hyena, a bush pig, a family of warthogs playing beneath one of the tents, and wildebeest and buck messing about on the roads and on the camp pathways, and it was a great first day.
Throw in the night-time sounds of, firstly, some creature lapping up the water from my pre-bed shower and then an unidentified beast crunching on something near my mom's tent, and it was a perfect night.
The next morning, however, the fickleness of the wilderness became clear. Several hours of self-driving around the southern iMfolozi section yielded very little. A handful of rhinos, a lone elephant, and few of the usually abundant buck and wildebeest.
The bush was lush - amazing considering the brutal drought - but it did make game viewing really, really difficult. Come winter, with the water still in the rivers and the bush slightly thinned, it will be spectacular. But on this weekend, it meant we couldn't see as much as we'd hoped. The bush giveth, and the bush taketh away. Or something like that.
NOT DISNEYLAND
Later that afternoon, my wife, Megan, and I took a short drive to the bridge over the Black Imfolozi River. With the sun starting to set, The Elephant got to see several dozen of the animals it was named for, playing and drinking and splashing about. The herd spent ages on the water's edge before crossing over. And just like that they moved into the bush and disappeared.
The rest of the group went out on a night drive, but didn't see much - no hyenas and no cats. That night we again gathered around the braai. This time, there were no hyenas, no bush pigs and no warthogs.
There were a few impalas, but that's the end of it. The night, too, was much quieter. As Megan and I made our way home early the next morning, we lamented seeing less than we're used to.
"It's not Disneyland, where you can buy a ticket and see and do everything you want to," she said. She's right. And that's part of the bush's charm.
PLAN YOUR TRIP
THE ROUTE
Hluhluwe/iMfolozi Park is about 550km from Johannesburg. You can use either the N3 and cut in towards Ulundi on the R34, or the N2 all the way into Zululand. From Durban, take the N2 and head north. The park is about 240km away.
THE COST
Rates are R1,000 for a two-bed safari tent during the off-season, and R1,400 during peak season at Mpila Camp. All accommodation is self-catering. An additional conservation levy of R105 per person per night is also payable...