Sondzela

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From St Lucia we took the Baz bus in preference to changing bus 5 times on the way to Sondzela backpackers in Mliwane Game Park, Swaziland. This was an amazing place to stay - right in the Park with a pool and lovely facilities. On the first day there we took a walk around the park and saw many Wart Hogs, Wildebeest, and bucks. We kept our eye out for Hippos once we got to the lake since we hadn't really seen any close up in St Lucia to our disappointment. We did see a group of 9 or 10 in the lake here, and sat about 15m from where they were in the water for an hour or two. It was great to see them so close and the anticipation of waiting to see if they will open the mouth to yawn or something else as exciting (actually they didn't do anything else that exciting). We met some great people at this lodge around the campfire in the evenings and spent time with them in the park and by the pool. The main lodge sometimes lured the hippos out of the water during the day - at 3pm, but both days we were there so far they hadn't been in the pool near the lodge - so no show. The second full day we were there we walked back to the place we had seem the hippos, and sure enough they were there again. We sat and watched them for a while and got chatting to one of the wardens, who drove us to a natural hot spring in the park and told us about the animals. We got back to the hippos for dusk, hoping to see them come out of the water, but they stayed in the water until it was too dark for us to see much. The warden then gave us a ride back to the lodge taking some shortcuts through the long grass - which was cool.
We took a day trip to Manzini - the largest city in Swaziland (not very large) and looked around the shops and markets. Kristen picked up some great suede knee high safari boots that she is very proud for 7USD. It was hard to leave Sondzela, but we decided to keep moving and head to Mbabane - the capital. We said goodbye to the friendly singing staff and hitched/caught a few combis to Mbabane.

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