Robert's Travels

The fifth day of the tour started with another early morning. We woke up shortly before 5:00 and were showered, packed, and ready to go at 6:00. We didn’t eat breakfast before leaving the hotel - instead we picked up a boxed breakfast we could eat on the bus. We boarded the bus and were leaving the hotel shortly after 6:00. Why were we up so early? We were going on a game drive through a game park and the earlier you start the greater the chances of seeing animals! The bus arrived at the Hwang-Imfulu private game park around 6:45, the site of our game drive. The tour group was broken up into 4 groups for the drive - there ended up being 2 groups of 10 people, and 2 groups of 9 (the tour had 38 people). The groups split apart, met the ranger who would be guiding them on the drive, and then got into their assigned jeep. The jeeps pulled out of the parking lot and into the park just after 7:00. The jeeps were designed for game drives - they were open on all 4 sides and had 3 rows of seating installed on top of the back of the vehicle, giving everyone an elevated and mostly unobstructed view of the park.

We had just gotten onto the first road in the park when the jeep in front of us pulled to the side. They had spotted several monkeys playing in the trees ahead. We were able to see the monkeys from a distance, and got a few photos, however shortly after the monkeys were spotted a pair of elephants were noticed a short ways up the road in the direction opposite of where we were planned to go. Our ranger took a bit of a detour and we were able to see the elephants using binoculars, unfortunately they were not close enough to photograph. After a few minutes watching the elephants the jeep started up and we started along the originally planned route. We were hoping to get a glimpse of each of the so-called “Big 5” - animals that were originally identified as being the most ferocious and difficult to kill. The “Big 5” are the elephant, the rhinoceros, the cape buffalo, the lion, and the leopard.

The early drive through the park, as the sun was rising, was picturesque. We had started out on the game drive just as the dawn was breaking, but the sun had not yet risen above the horizon. During the first part of the game drive the sun broke the dawn and it started to warm up. It was partially cloudy so the sun wasn’t very strong, but we still felt the warmth of the sun when the clouds lined up properly. We drove for about 15 minutes before we encountered our first major animal up close - a giraffe. The ranger turned off the engine, and we were able to coast towards the giraffe without spooking it. We took some great photos when the animal was right beside the road, however after a few moments the giraffe wandered away and we continued on.

It was not long before we came across another giraffe, this time with a baby. We only spotted the baby for a brief moment before it wandered off behind a ridge, however the mother decided to walk towards us and even crossed in front of the jeep. We were very close to it before it wandered past us and continued walking. We drove on shortly thereafter. We drove on, through some bushes, and thanks to the keen eye of one of the people in the vehicle we saw a nyala in the bushes. We watched it come out and cross the road, then continued on.

At this point we’d been on the tour for about half an hour. We drove on, however things were sparse for probably another thirty minutes before we came across our next animal sighting. This was a pair of rhinos in the mud not far from the road - they appeared to have been sleeping or resting. The day was still a bit cool - the ranger explained that they liked to be idle when it is cool out. We got some photos and drove on. It didn’t take long before we ran across another pair of rhinos, this time walking in the middle of the road. This was a great surprise, and the ranger quickly cut the engine so as to not spook them. He took down the windscreen so we were able to see the rhinos clearly through the front of the vehicle. The ranger then took off the parking brake and we slowly rolled down the hill we were on, getting us closer to the rhinos and giving us an even better view of the animals. We were able to spend several moments taking photos before the rhinos got bored and moved off the road, and the drive continued.

We turned off the paved road and began driving on a dirt road shortly after 8:00. We drove along, and a short while later came across an elephant eating leaves off a tree right beside the road. It was a fantastic feeling to be so close to this majestic creature - watching it slowly eat the trees was a mesmerizing sight. We had to move on, however, so after a few moments we did. The next moment we saw several cape buffalo near a puddle on the other side of the road. We were able to get several photos of the cape buffalo before they moved on. The ranger had barely started the engine before we saw several more elephants - back on the left side of the vehicle. We took a few moments to enjoy the view and then continued on. Shortly after 9:00 the jeep pulled into a parking lot in the middle of the game park. We got out, stretched our legs, and ate a hot breakfast that had been prepared for us. There were picnic benches set up just beside the parking lot, and we had eggs, bacon, yogurt, cheese, bread, and juice in this small seating area. We finished breakfast and continued the game drive at about 9:45.

We had seen three of the big five before our breakfast stop, and we were hoping to see a lion on the second half of the drive. As we continued on towards the edge of park - about fifteen minutes before we finished the drive - the ranger spotted an impala standing on a plain near the road. This piqued his curiosity - the impala was staring intently into the distance and that wasn’t normal behaviour for them. The ranger picked up his binoculars and quickly identified why - there was a lion up on a rock high above the plain. The impala clearly knew this as well, and was trying to decide what to do about it. We drove a couple minutes forward along the road to get closer to the rock, then stopped and began using the binoculars to see the lion. The lion was clearly visible in the binoculars, lazing on the rock outcropping, unfortunately it was too far away to capture on photo. The lion was a female; it had no mane. Seeing the lion, even from a distance, was a great experience. Everyone in the vehicle got a chance to use the binoculars, and once we all had seen the lion we continued on. We finished the drive by seeing some more birds, and arrived at the bus shortly after 10:45.

Once the game drive was over, we got into the bus and left Hwang-Imfulu behind. The next stop on the trip was the Golela border crossing between South Africa and Eswatini. Eswatini is a land-locked country that is surrounded by South Africa and Mozambique. It’s name means “Home of the Swazi”, and was formerly known as Swaziland. The country is ruled by a monarchy, and the king had recently renamed the country. This was ostensibly done to prevent people from confusing Swaziland and Switzerland; the change had been made very recently so many people we met in South Africa still referred to the country as Swaziland. I fell asleep during the drive, and woke up shortly before we got to the border. We arrived shortly after noon, and cleared the South African and Eswatini borders without issue. Interestingly, the stamp we got when crossing the border still identified the country as Swaziland! We drove on for several more hours, and I continued reading “Death’s End”. Several hours after crossing the border we arrived at a stop where we got out and stretched our legs. This stop was the site of a candle factory, as well as a number of small local souvenir vendors. Some of the people on the tour purchased small souvenirs - Todd and I just walked around and experienced things however. We got into the bus after an hour and continued driving to the capital of Eswatini, a city named Mbabnae. It took a couple of hours of driving from the stop to reach the capital - I kept reading while Todd took a nap. Our hotel was named the Mountain Inn and it was on the outskirts of the city. We arrived at the hotel shortly after 17:00, checked in, then relaxed for a bit in our hotel room before dinner.

The two of us had a quiet dinner in the hotel restaurant at 19:00. I had a local chicken curry while Todd had a chicken cordon bleu dish. Both meals were quite tasty, and we enjoyed the ambience of the restaurant. We returned to the room around 20:00 and then played a couple rounds of cribbage. We each won a round, however neither of us had the energy for a tie-breaking round. We went to bed just after 21:00.