http://www.travelblog.org/Africa/Swaziland/Mlilwane-Wildlife-Sanctuary/ Travel adventures in journals and photos from Africa , Swaziland , Mlilwane Wildlife Sanctuary en-us Tue, 21 May 2013 21:29:49 +0000 Tue, 21 May 2013 21:29:49 +0000 I got very lucky on the day I was leaving Sodwana Bay and South Africa. Curtis from USA who was also staying at Natural Moments was leaving the same day I was for Johannesburg in his rented car. He kindly agreed to drop me close to the Swazi border but in the end brought me all the way to the Onverwacht border post with Swaziland. At first this didnt look like it would be the best border t http://www.travelblog.org/Africa/Swaziland/Mlilwane-Wildlife-Sanctuary/blog-755601.html We spent lunch and the afternoon and early evening at Mlilwane Wildlife Sanctuary. A few of us took an open air LandRover tour of the park to see ample zebra impala antelope wildebeast monkeys and a hippo. Amazing vistas of the hills and valleys here in Swaziland strikingly beautiful. The weather was very pleasant so the animals were out in force and it was comfortable for us. Mostly picture http://www.travelblog.org/Africa/Swaziland/Mlilwane-Wildlife-Sanctuary/blog-697975.html After leaving Kruger Park driving south we entered yet another African country Swaziland. First on the agenda was to clean the camper. The dirt roads in Kruger made a red dusty mess of both the inside and the outside of the camper. Frequently on the roadside you see CAR WASH at some very unlikely spot. The first one we saw we pulled in. There was a tap for water with a hose some buckets http://www.travelblog.org/Africa/Swaziland/Mlilwane-Wildlife-Sanctuary/blog-691956.html M Take a look at this series of photos and find out. This little scene came as a little light relief after this Rhinos mates had finally finished starring me down see previous blog and decided to move on into the bush or sat back down in the mud. http://www.travelblog.org/Africa/Swaziland/Mlilwane-Wildlife-Sanctuary/blog-662790.html M Swaziland is one of those exotic place names I can remember from my childhood. Perhaps I heard it on the news or maybe I saw it on a map but I suspect it is more likely that I saw it on a stamp yes I did collect stamps as a kid We needed to get to Durban from the Kruger to visit the Indian Consul and cutting through Swaziland is the quickest route. Swaziland is an odd place. Both it an http://www.travelblog.org/Africa/Swaziland/Mlilwane-Wildlife-Sanctuary/blog-662773.html Our destination in Swaziland was the Mlilwane Wildlife Sanctuary a beautiful retreat up in a valley in the mountains where you can sleep in traditional bee hive huts. We really had no idea what to expect in Swaziland as there was no real website for Mlilwane and it was not on trip advisor. So for me I was a bit nervous as I like to know what I am getting into ahead of time. Once again though http://www.travelblog.org/Africa/Swaziland/Mlilwane-Wildlife-Sanctuary/blog-653506.html Around 7am the next morning I was picked up out the front of the Durban Hostel by a couple in a van who delivered me to the backpacker centre in St Lucia the trip was quite pleasant and St Lucia appeared to be a nice little holiday town with a fast food restaurant just down the street. I left my bag in the hostel and went and got some lunch before returning to use the internet while I waited for http://www.travelblog.org/Africa/Swaziland/Mlilwane-Wildlife-Sanctuary/blog-507257.html I awoke this morning to the woven arch of my ceiling and the early morning light filtering through the crack under the door. I squatted by the front door grasped the antelope horn and slid the door sideways. The cool morning air hit me and I looked at the circle of beehive huts that are to be my home village for the next couple of days. I soon retreated into the warmth of my hut and wondered whet http://www.travelblog.org/Africa/Swaziland/Mlilwane-Wildlife-Sanctuary/blog-453604.html The appeal of a hostel inside a game reserve is too much to resist so I make my way to Sondzela Backpackers inside Mlilwane National Park. Though the sign saying For international guests only smacks of an apartheid that seems wholly unnecessary I see several warthog and an antelope on my short walk from the park gate to the accommodation which proves to be only a taster for what's to come. T http://www.travelblog.org/Africa/Swaziland/Mlilwane-Wildlife-Sanctuary/blog-437901.html Stayed on the sanctuary and spent the days hiking and horseback riding. http://www.travelblog.org/Africa/Swaziland/Mlilwane-Wildlife-Sanctuary/blog-399772.html Nach der Safari ging es sofort weiter nach Swaziland.Dort wohnten wir mitten im Nationalpark. An unserem ersten Tag haben wir eine 4 stuendige Trekkingsafari unternommen. Puuhhh Dafuer haben wir ein riesiges Krokodil gesehen und ein paar Aeffchen und Zebras und und und...Obwohl gar keine Sonne da war und wir uns meistens durch den dichten Dschungel schlagen mussten haben wir beide etwas Sonnen http://www.travelblog.org/Africa/Swaziland/Mlilwane-Wildlife-Sanctuary/blog-377328.html Swaziland is a beautiful country and one of the few remaining true Kingdoms in the World. We had a relaxing 2 nights at Mlilwane Wildlife Sanctuary. It's very different scenery than what we've been through recently and in many ways it reminded us a little of home with the mountains and all. Since there are no predators in the park we were allowed to roam freely and enjoy the wildlife on foot. http://www.travelblog.org/Africa/Swaziland/Mlilwane-Wildlife-Sanctuary/blog-280986.html We'd left the hostel at Hluhluwe early in the afternoon crossed the boarded into Swaziland and by nightfall arrived at the hostel a few km off the 'main' road down a bumpy unsealed track and seemingly in the middle of nowhere. The hostel I stayed at Sondzela Backpackers is within the Mlilwane wildlife reserve itself and turned out to be one of my favourites located in a beautiful tranquil http://www.travelblog.org/Africa/Swaziland/Mlilwane-Wildlife-Sanctuary/blog-247261.html Out of the 47 countries in the world which I have visited the tiny Kingdom of Swaziland has to rate in my top 5. It is a fascinating mix of relatively wealthy whites and a few middle class blacks and many fairly poor blacks and feels very friendly and relaxed. It is green and very beautiful and has influences from South Africa in its lifestyle and supermarket culture. It feels quite wealthy aft http://www.travelblog.org/Africa/Swaziland/Mlilwane-Wildlife-Sanctuary/blog-224834.html Blog UpdateYou may have been wondering why we haven't published any blogs for the last couple of weeks. Unfortunately the Travel Blog website crashed and resulted in the loss of thousands of people's entries including ours. We are trying to retrieve our old entries without a huge amount of success but in the meantime our priority is to get the new entries published so you can see what we've http://www.travelblog.org/Africa/Swaziland/Mlilwane-Wildlife-Sanctuary/blog-190323.html The kingdom of Swaziland is a little jewel in the crown of southern Africa. This small country has a long tradition of kings ruling the country from the Ezulwini valley and gained independence from Britain in 1968. The original constitution was largely modeled on the English system however it has subsequently been abolished and the king now rules Swaziland as an absolute monarch. The famous ree http://www.travelblog.org/Africa/Swaziland/Mlilwane-Wildlife-Sanctuary/blog-161720.html Greetings So i've got alot to get through in this entry It'll have to be brief. We've now finished the project phase but since my last entry we've been working on two different game reserves Mbuluzi and Hlane. We were first at Mbuluzi doing a game ranger course for which I have a rather snazzy certificate. Then we were at Hlane which is the royal national park. Here we were trail blazing http://www.travelblog.org/Africa/Swaziland/Mlilwane-Wildlife-Sanctuary/blog-141464.html Yebo Greetings from Swaziland.We have now headed south down the coast into the Kingdom of Swaziland. The first thing that struck me was the number of cattle here it literally did almost strike me as our mini bus dodged a kamikaze bovine as it stepped out in front of us on the highway.Some interesting facts about Swaziland It is a Kingdom and hence ruled by a King. They call this absolute powe http://www.travelblog.org/Africa/Swaziland/Mlilwane-Wildlife-Sanctuary/blog-108810.html From Swazi BP it was a short mini bus trip to the Matsapha market turn off followed by a 1 or 2 km walk to the House on Fire tourist centre where we scored a lift in the back of a pick up with an expat who was going where we were going Sondzela BP. It was almost too easy. Set within the grounds of the Mlilwane Wildlife Sanctuary Sondzela was spectacular and beautiful. There were no staff around http://www.travelblog.org/Africa/Swaziland/Mlilwane-Wildlife-Sanctuary/blog-73124.html St Lucia was difficult to leave behind but we had a cross border mission to accomplish for Fedders in Swaziland. The border was a bit more active than our last excursion into Lesotho but just to confirm that everything has it's price in Africa one guy managed to gain entry with an out of date passportWe opted to stay away from the bright lights of Manzini or Mbabne in a backpackers within Milwa http://www.travelblog.org/Africa/Swaziland/Mlilwane-Wildlife-Sanctuary/blog-71723.html