A Big Attraction in a Little Country

---

The best things come in small packages

We arrived in Swaziland by bus, changing our minds en-route about where exactly we were going. Having been used to the HUGE distances between towns in Mozambique we hadn’t quite down-scaled our thinking properly when it came to tiny Swazi and the travelling time between towns.
So we ended up in Manzini, not actually the capital, but the busiest city in the country. Although it’s quite possible to spend a bit of time in Swaziland we really only had one reason for stopping on our way to South Africa - Rhinos. They had eluded us on all safaris so far and we were determined to spot at least one here. We were not disappointed.

King to the rescue

Between 1988 and 1991 eighty percent of all Swaziland’s rhinos were killed by poachers. After huge pressure from conservationists and the eventual intervention of the King himself, Swaziland now has some of the most strict anti poaching laws in the world and hasn’t lost an elephant or rhino since 1992. Rangers are permitted to shoot poachers to protect themselves and the minimum sentence if caught poaching is 5 years plus an extra 2 if you can’t afford to pay to replace the animal you have killed (Tens of thousands of dollars for a rhino or elephant). Because the courts were largely useless due to corruption, the law also now includes sentences for anyone caught helping poachers to escape punishment, even lawyers and judges. Because of this numbers are slowly increasing but no one will tell you how many rhinos there are now ‘for security reasons’ which is a bit frustrating if you want to know just how well they are doing, but understandable if it helps stop more being killed.

The Mkhaya Game Reserve is privately run and is home to many endangered species of African animals, particularly rhinos, so that is where we headed. It was surprisingly cheap for a whole day’s drive including lunch (US$60) and turned out to be amazing value.

Rhinos at last

No sooner had our guide finished telling us that the chances of seeing a white rhino were around 95 percent than we rounded a corner to come face to face with a group of 5 of them (cue squeals of excitement from Tracey and much photo clicking from Dave). Because the rhinos are used to the open 4x4s they were not scared of us and continued about their business as if we weren’t even there. It was amazing.

If you’ve got an itch…scratch it!

Around the next bend we found a family of elephants who put on a show for us, splashing mud from a water hole all over themselves and generally having a great time. We almost had a fit when the largest of the group came straight towards our open vehicle at quite a pace and didn’t look like she was going to stop. Luckily she had just decided that the corner of the back seat was a rather nice spot to itch her mud-encrusted eye and proceeded to rub it up and down for a few minutes, shaking the entire car in the process!

The lovely think about Mkhaya is it is quite small so it is easy to cover a lot of ground. While we were there we also saw a lot of buffalo and giraffe, including several babies. You can see from the photos just how close we got to everything and what wonderful behaviour we saw.

Back at our hotel (which by the way had a ‘special” room rate for a maximum 2 hour stay - lovely!) we packed again ready to move off the next day.

Making a point

The crazy bus terminal was very near our hotel and one rather blunt billboard caught our eye as we got back from Mkhaya. (see picture) It is sad the government has to be so to-the-point about things, but good to see they are trying to combat it.

So another country under our belts, albeit very briefly, and now it’s time to head to South Africa. Dave is practising his ‘polite smile face’ for all the Rugby World Cup digs he is bound to get and Tracey is looking forward to hitting some western style shops!

---

Photos

Sickening evidence of poaching
These are just a handful of the rhinos that were killed during a three year poaching spree in Swaziland

Up close and personal
This was our first glimpse of a white rhino in the wild. It was just 5m away

A monstrous itch
Our whole car shook as she scratched her eye.

Shock tactics
This caught our eye at the central bus station

Open top safari vehicles are great!
Tracey comes nose to trunk with a very large female

It's a hard life
It's hard work keeping cool when you weigh over a tonne

Two heads are better than one
Mum and baby elephant play by a water hole

Bath time
Someone needs a wash!

Family time
The whole family struggle to their feet after a lovely roll in the mud

Walkies
We set off on foot after a mother rhino with her baby

Amazing yet scary
David gets within 30m of the new Mum