The tiny kingdom of Swaziland is one of
those places we try to visit whenever we're in the area. It
has so much to offer, including beautiful mountain scenary, nature
reserves, glass-blowing and batik craft centres and even a valley of
upmarket conference and casino hotels. The people are very
friendly and gentle and they go out of their way to make visitors
feel welcome.
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We spent three nights at
the The Royal Hlane National Park. This tiny park is working
hard to return wildlife to the area; lions, cheetah, elephant and
rhino have already been brought in; a fact borne out by large signs
on the main road that always make us chuckle.. There
are also numbers of antelope and a large variety of birds.
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There is no electricity at Hlane so the millions of stars in the
night sky seem so bright and so near. We spotted so many
satellites passing overhead that we had sore necks in the morning!
The ablutions are
spotlessly clean with bright shiny polished floors. Paraffin
lamps hang from the roof trusses for light at night casting a
magical glow.
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Every
morning Alan would stoke the donkey so that we could have wonderful
hot showers. (On a point of clarity, to "stoke the
donkey" does not mean to prod a furry grey beast of
burden! The "donkey" is a large water container
under which a fire is built to heat the water.)
The
ladies who clean the chalets wash and iron the sheets without the
benefit of any modern appliances. They fill "irons"
with hot coals from a fire to iron the sheets after they have been
handwashed and dried in the breeze.
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On our last afternoon
there we found fourteen white rhino milling around the waterhole at
the campsite! This, combined with the redbilled woodhoopoes
and woodpeckers flying between the trees where we sat, made it very
hard for us to leave the next morning!
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The original plan was to
drive into Mozambique from Swaziland, but it hasn't taken Alan too
long to realise that he needs an underwater camera! So, taking
import duties and international courier charges in mind, we drive up
to Komatipoort - a town just inside the South African border from
Mozambique. Alan arranged for a camera to be posted to us in
Komatipoort and we decided to visit the Kruger National Park while
waiting on our package.
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We met another couple visiting the park, John and Marion, and, due
to the limited space in the Park, they joined us at our
campsite. We enjoyed their company and found we had so much in
common... such as Rotary and birding. While on a morning game
drive with John and Marion (seen above) we found four owls! It
was the first sighting of a Barred Owl for any of us - and then we
went and found another two before seeing a Pearl Spotted Owl!
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Our package has now
arrived and after "playing" with our new toy, it is time
to pack up camp and move onto Mozambique!
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Lilac-breasted Roller
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Water Monitor Lizard
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Highlights:
Best meal: Cheese, tomato and onion sandwiches cooked over
an open fire for lunch.
Best moment: It had to be seeing four Owls on one game
drive!
Worst moment: When we found that our parcel had not left
Jo'burg on schedule and we had to wait another 24 hours before
getting our new camera and underwater housing. Interesting people
we've met:
- Kim and her merry band of German visitors who we met at Hlane.
- Alf - a fellow bush enthusiast who would love to do Cape to Cairo!
- Piet & Theoda - they have already conquered much of the route
we plan to do
- John & Marion - fellow bush and bird lovers!
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