When retired English couple Ralph and Angela Spilsbury checked into their Lower Sabie Rest Camp bungalow in the Kruger National Park (KNP), it was not the scenic beauty or tranquillity of their surroundings that overwhelmed them.
Instead it was the overpowering stench of bat droppings and urine.
In the stifling March heat, piles of guano (bat droppings) lay along the edge of the thatch overhang.
In the outdoor lapa, it littered the kitchen sink and draining board. Bat urine stained the walls, the table and chairs were covered in guano and urine, and the floor was a slip hazard.
“Inside was marginally better though the caustic and acrid smell of bats pervaded everything. We removed bat guano from the bed linen, particularly the pillows, the bathroom sink and the shower tray,” Ralph Spilsbury told The Sunday Times this week.
The couple from Bournemouth have been regular visitors to the Kruger for 25 years, and came back in 2024 for the first time since Covid-19 to spend two months in the park.
They own a Land Rover Discovery with a rooftop tent, and so usually spend their time camping.
“But this March was so hot, and when the temperatures were hovering in the low forties, we decided to book a bungalow, but ended up regretting it.”
Exhausted after a long day of travelling, they went to a restaurant for supper before heading to bungalow 89 to sleep.
“We both sleep on our backs and tend to snore, so to avoid swallowing any guano we pulled the beds away from the wall to the middle of the room and covered ourselves with the linen sheets. We tried to make the best of a bad situation, but we still had a restless night with the noise of the bats coming and going in the thatch above,” Spilsbury said.
When they complained the next morning, they were told the manager was not on duty. However, they were able to cancel their booking for a second night and instead took up the tented camp alternative offered to them.
Spilsbury said he tried numerous ways to get a refund for the R2,089.05 the night had cost them, and an acknowledgment of the bat problem from SANParks management without success.
“It is clear from social media that you have a major bat infestation problem with the riverside bungalows at Lower Sabie, but you still appear to be booking people into this accommodation. We look forward to your comments and a refund,” the Spilsburys wrote in their formal complaint to the Lower Sabie Rest Camp hospitality services manager.
After receiving no response, they tried various other email avenues without luck.
KNP spokesperson Ike Phaahla said that there had been a miscommunication and staffing issue which resulted in the refund matter going unresolved.
“We would like to extend our sincerest and unreserved apology to the couple for the inconvenience they suffered... KNP has resolved that the couple be refunded 100% of their accommodation for day one and 70% for the stay in the tent and hope they will be agreeable to the offer,” he said.
But the Spilburys are not alone in their experience. Numerous online platforms are littered with similar complaints.
“Immediately upon entering our allocated chalet, we were almost floored by the smell of bat droppings — of which there was significant evidence covering the entire veranda. We tried to move, but other suitable accommodation was not available,” wrote Jeremy W on Tripadvisor in a post titled “Going bat sh*t crazy at Lower Sabie camp”.
In another March review on the same platform, HappieChappie wrote: “We booked bungalow 86 — which we named the Bat Cave after a horrible experience. The stench of not one or two, but hundreds of bats. They erupted at sunset. Health hazard. Guano on all surfaces. SANParks?”
Phaahla admitted SANParks was experiencing challenges with bats, and that various efforts to exclude or expel bats from accommodation units in the KNP have been unsuccessful. The most successful method was proving to be the continuous bat-proofing of units using mesh, expander foam, or cement plugs where bats crawl in under corrugated iron and thatch roofs.
Phaahla said a trial effort to build bat houses in tourist camps had only served to worsen “the problem of the mammals roosting in tourist facilities”.
“The bat houses created an artificial high density of freetail bats in certain tourist camps with the result that some of our most infested tourist units are in camps with the highest densities of bat houses. When the bat houses are full, you end up with more bats needing roosts and entering buildings at ever-increasing numbers. Lower Sabie tourist camp has the largest number of bat houses, and the biggest bat problem despite all the exclusion measures.”
They were now working to translocate the bat houses to other areas far away from accommodation sites but close to water sources where they can continue to be part of the ecosystem.
“It is going to be a lengthy process but SANParks hopes it will alleviate the problem once completed,” Phaahle said.
Phaahla said SANParks was in discussions with internal bat specialists and consulting with external specialists at universities and was now trying to translocate the bats away from tourist accommodation — even though it is still breeding season.
Jane Burd of the National Bat Rescue Group and founding director of ReWild NPC, a bat rehabilitation and conservation organisation, is familiar with the bat situation at the Kruger. She believes it is crucial that it be handled in a way that works for guests, does not harm the bats and is deeply opposed to the translocation plan going ahead immediately.
“The freetailed bats are still breeding at this time of year, and removing the bat houses while the bats are still breeding is inhumane. We have called on senior employees of the Kruger National Park to halt the removal of bat houses until after the breeding season so as not to endanger baby bat pups that are too young to fly,” she said.
Speaking on the health risks, she said freetailed bats do not carry any type of rabies viruses.
“As far as bat guano in the bed and on kitchen counter tops is concerned, it is probably no worse than having dog or cat poop all over the place but is less sticky and easier to clean up. It’s certainly not hygienic and not what anyone wants, but it’s no worse than other faeces. People have been visiting Kruger with the bat guano in the accommodation for a very long time and not suffered any adverse health effects,” Burd said.
Kate Richardson of the SA Bat Assessment Association said: “Bats and humans should not be in the same living space. The only way to prevent bats from living in the chalets is to do a proper exclusion and bat proof the roofs. Killing bats in the vicinity will not prevent this.”
