We passed pineapple plantations on the way from Mlilwane to the main road across eSwatini. A brand new highway has been built to the King Mswati III International airport (1). We took the new road east before joining the old two-lane road through torrential rain to the gate of Hlane Royal National Park, stopping frequenlty as cows and goats wandered into the road (2). Mlilwane focuses mainly on antelope species, while Hlane has more of the big game typical of an African Safari, including lion and elephants (3).
On the lawn outside the rondavel lodging at Ndvolu camp, nyalas were keeping the grass clipped. These animals are sexually dimorphous, with the females and juveniles light brown, while the adult makes are grey with the fur ending at their knees, which gives them a skateboarder with baggy short look.
On the sunset game drive, we saw the first elephants of the trip, a tower of Zebras and some white rhinos, a speciality of the park (4). No luck seeing lions, who are kept in a separate part of the park, which is also stocked with a modest number of antelope species, providing prey for the lions to hunt
The rondavel lodging here lack electricity, but copious parrafin lanterns are provided. We had better luck with the lions the next morning, spotting two on the sunrise game drive. Three people from France joined us. They had shipped safari vehicles to Capetown in November and had been on the road since that time.
(1) A bit of a boondoggle, with no more arrivals or departures than the old airfield at Matsapha, which handled three or four regional jet flights per day from Johanesburg.
(2) Cows wandering into the road are also known as "Swazi stop lights."
(3) The Lion represents the king of eSwatini, while the elephant symbolizes the queen mother, the family matriarch.
(4) The rhinos here keep their horns. In some other parks, rhinos have their horns removed to make them less desirable to poachers.
Paraffin lamps were the only light at the rondavel
Leaving the camp
European Roller, soon to migrate back to Europe
First giraffes
White Rhino
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