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Part 4 - Swaziland
After Plains Camp, we crossed the Southern section of the Krueger
National Park, with some game viewing, and left via Malelane Gate. We
drove on to Swaziland where we spent one night in Mlilwane Rock
Lodge and one night in Mkaya Stone Camp.
Krueger to Swaziland - Mlilwane Reilly's Rock Lodge
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After
departing from Plains Camp and Rhino Post Lodge, we passed Skukuza, and
drove southwards to Malelane Gate. The last stretch of Krueger NP was
quite eventless - not many animals, not many cars. Only while waiting
at the gate, I tried to photograph the vervet monkeys - and didn't
catch them in the hugging position, but just on the go.
Entering Swaziland was no problem, and soon our car climbed rolling
hills dotted with small houses. This is where Swaziland and Switzerland
are most similar - differences were bigger when comparing the chalet style
and cattle...
We spent our first night in Reilly's Rock Lodge in Mlilwane Game Park.
Rock Lodge is an old building in the middle of the Swazi king's
beautiful botanical garden, which is again inside a game park. We
didn't go for a real game drive (you can also have a game ride
there...) - we actually thought it would have been a good idea to once
stay in Mbabane or Manzini, just to get a change to all those lodges in
the middle of nowhere. On second thought, also the capital is not
really big.
Rock Lodge is lovely, especially the breakfast in the garden, with a little grey duiker nibbling his breakfast around you. |
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Our room at Reilly's Rock Lodge in
Mlilwane |
... and then our room in Mkhaya, Stone Camp |
Mkhaya Game Park
Mkhaya Game Park
is really small, but then also Swaziland is small. The safari vehicle rarely
bumps on for long before meeting the next fence in Mkhaya. But this
also means that the game is really abundant - we saw eland, roan,
sable, tsessebe, giraffe families, elephants from close by... But
firstly, its one of the few places where you can see both black and
white rhino. We stayed in the Stone Camp
for one night - really a good idea because the evening was much more
peaceful than lunch with two package tours. The encounter with the
black rhinos - a cow and her calf - was on foot, after another ranger
had radioed about their location. It was stunning, nevertheless, to see
the two of them browsing and snorting and chewing. The white rhinos looked almost tame, afterwards...
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Black Rhino calf and his mother at Mkhaya
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JJ, White Rhino and his mother at Mkhaya |
Go to Part 5 (Rocktail Bay)
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Travel
