Our First African Safari

It was approaching that time again... that time when our 30 days would expire and we'd have to get out of Mozambique just to turn around and come back. While Cape Town was amazing last month, we decided to do something a little closer to home and a bit easier on the pocketbook. In doing some research, I came upon a day trip to Hlane Royal National Park in Swaziland. The trip included pick up and drop off to our hotel, game park fees, a bush walk, a game drive, as well as lunch and bottled water throughout the day. Sold! Sign us up!

Worst part of the day was probably when the alarm went off at 5am on a Saturday and we both groaned. Dan pulled the sheets up over his head, but alas, we were functional enough to get some breakfast and meet our driver at 6am downstairs at the hotel. It was a 1 hour trip to the border, where we had to get out, present our passports and get stamped for exiting Mozambique. We then drove maybe 100 yards, got out again, presented our passports... again, and got stamped to enter Swaziland. Once clearing Immigration, it was maybe an hour to the park (not including multiple stops by corrupt policemen trying to get money from our driver... good to know it's not just us! haha!)

We arrived and went on a 2 hour bush walk... which turned into more like 3 hours. But it was neat to walk through the park and learn about some of the things the animals do and the various purposes of different trees and insects within this ecosystem. We started out on the track that the cars drive on and we were thinking "oh, this is fine". We ended up literally trekking through the "bush" through high grass and trees. While walking through we saw lots of impala (aka antelopes) as well as some in inyala, another type of antelope native to southern Africa.

 Impala (left: female, right: male)

 Female Inyalas (Males are more black/grey)

After our bush walk, we returned to the camp and had some lunch. There was an oddly long break at this point but we were never provided with the day's schedule so I suppose we didn't know what we were in for, anyway. After eating, we sat on some benches along a fenced in watering hole and watched the hippos do pretty much nothing. Eventually, a family of elephants came over to get some water so that was pretty cool. Dan's quite sure that he woo'ed them by pulling out some cashews. I'm not sure whether the circus-planted idea that elephants like nuts is accurate but it was, at the very least, a coincidence.

 Lazy Hippo

Elephant family at the watering hole

Around 2pm, we got to go on our first game drive. We piled into an open air, covered jeep-like thing that had three rows of stadium seating in the back. There were 8 of us and 9 seats, so naturally Dan and I took up the entire top row. (Side note for anyone considering a safari: this was the wrong seat choice. You absolutely should sit in the front row behind the driver. Not because the pictures are better, that really makes no difference. But if the driver sees something in the bushes, he stops the vehicle so that people can look. Problem is that the driver stopped the car where he could see it. We're probably 6-8 feet behind him blocked by trees.)

We drove through the park for about 2.5 hours. We saw several elephants, some turtles, monitor lizards (which are HUGE lizards), a lioness, warthogs, and two giraffes from a distance. We were unsuccessful on the rhino and the male lion. Game drives are understandably unpredictable. The roads are where they are and you are not always lucky with every animal.

The lion was by far the hardest to find. We drove and drove in their section of the park (they are separated from the rhinos because awhile back the park lost 90% of the their rhino population to poachers so they are trying to keep them safe from predators both internal and external to the park). They tend to sit in the tall grass, making them difficult to find. We did eventually find a lioness. She came out and was maybe 6 feet from the car. She was equal parts beautiful and powerful and much larger than we expected... and only slightly terrifying :)

 Lioness and a few elephants on the road

 We also found Pumbaa from The Lion King (warthog), and giraffes

At one point, we were stuck behind an elephant. He was in the road and did not seem to care that we were patiently waiting for him to move. He eventually stopped, stood in the road and decided to have some grass. He could definitely see our vehicle but just didn't have any interest in moving. It was actually funny to see him just go about his ways with little regard for the car.

After the game drive, we were driven back to the hotel where we promptly showered, watched a movie and crashed.

(Photos courtesy of super awesome camera that my Aunt Kristi sent me a couple years ago. Thanks, Zalich Family!)