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Published: June 13th 2022
Before sunrise, we mounted the open vehicles that took us to nearby Hluhluwe-Imfolozi Park for our first game drive of the trip.
It was surprisingly cold, but that feeling of discomfort was overturned by the view of my first sunrise out in the bush in Africa. Spectacular! Also spectacular was the topography of the park, the trails surrounded by hills and deep valleys.
The Hluhluwe-Imfolozi Park, although small, is the oldest nature reserve in Africa. The park is the only state-run park in KwaZulu-Natal where each of the big five game animals can be found. The area was originally a royal hunting ground for the Zulu kingdom, but was established as a park in 1895.
Here, as in other parks in South Africa, rhinoceros remain an endangered species because of poaching. The price of the horn is so high, that it's worth it for poachers to risk the jail time if caught. It's so bad, that the South African government has started cutting away the horns to remove the incentive for killing them.
Alas, although we did see some rhinos, they were mostly camouflaged by the high grass and only the hump was clearly visible.
We
did encounter, amongst other things, a couple of herds of elephants both in the bush and crossing the road, and experienced first hand a warning from one of the mothers who stared us down, trumpeted, made a fake charge, and then flared her ears to signal that she wanted us to back off and make more space for the babies. Of course, we backed off.
Only the morning was spent on game drives, as we still had a long drive to the border of Eswatini. We divided the morning in two drives, with a break for breakfast at a camp which, much to my surprise, was a very comfortable picnic area with tables and bathrooms available, not an improvised tent or such in the middle of nowhere. We had been warned that some animals sometimes stroll into the camp, but we were not so lucky,
It was over too soon.
As I watched the landscape passing by, I found myself getting annoyed. I kept wondering how South Africa had looked when it was as mother nature intended, before man came in and arbitrarily changed the landscape for expediency and convenience. Everywhere we encountered foreign imported flora. There
Hluhluwe
Our carriage for the day. were Eucalyptus trees from Australia, and newly planted patches of forests of imported trees that were planted because they are faster growing than the indigenous variety. Even, and I don't know when and if we'll ever learn, an invasive species that is slowly taking over large areas.
Globalization sucks.
Finally we arrived at the border of Eswatini, officially the Kingdom of Eswatini and formerly named Swaziland
. At no more than 120 miles north to south and 81 miles east to west, Eswatini is one of the smallest countries in Africa. The government is an absolute monarchy, the last of its kind in Africa, and has been ruled by King Mswati III since 1986.
Land borders seem to differentiate little from country to country. You arrive at an nondescript building where you wait in line to get your passport stamped, and present your visa or obtain one if required, then drive through the gate/barrier and proceed an undetermined amount of yards until you arrive at an equally nondescript building counterpart and go through the same process. This time there was the addition of an additional person who checked Covid 19 vaccination first, and a door apparatus that might
work or not to gauge your temperature.
But, I have to admit, the passport takers smiled and asked how I was, which was a departure from the sullen and bored officials I had encountered before.
One of the few purchases I made on this trip I bought at the next convenience stop, which was after crossing the border into Eswatini, at an arts and crafts compound established by a Swedish resident of Eswatini to showcase the local artisans. The compound had a wonderful candle shop, and I fell in love with a candle holder that was African, but not. That is, it's obviously an African tribesman in traditional attire and with traditional designs of animals, but it's also a modern interpretation, and it caught my attention as soon as I saw it.
We continued our journey through Eswatini until we arrived to the city of Mbabane and our charming and rustic hotel built on the side of a mountain, and aptly called Mountain Inn. Although our room was an slight trek to get to and from, with several flights of steps and steep walkways made even more difficult by the high altitude, the views from the room
Hluhluwe
Warthogs were definitely worth the effort.
The hotel also featured a very nice restaurant, also overlooking the fantastic view. We had to settle for the inside dining room, as the temperature was too cold to take advantage of the outdoor terrace.
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