World Cup - Hlane National Park

The next morning, we had the car delivered to us at the hostel at 8am by which time we were all packed up and ready to go. From our hostel which was located in the Ezulwini valley, we drove north east to enter the Hlane National Forest. From an acreage standpoint this park (300 sq km) was way smaller than the Kruger National Park (38,600 sq km) but I knew that this place would be off the beaten path and hence would not be crammed with the World Cup crowd.

Hlane also offered guided walking safari into their reserve and I was excited to do it on the foot rather than in a vehicle. It was also supposed to be the best place to watch White Rhino’s in the wild. So my big hope for the trip to Hlane was to see Rhino’s on foot.

We entered the park we made sure to get our accommodation in a hut for that night, the best part being that the hut was inside the park. There was also no electricity in the whole facility and we had to make do with lanterns once the sun set. The whole camp was also located overlooking a watering hole which was fantastic news since that would be the place to be when the animals come to drink water.
As soon as we checked in and stored our luggage, we got back in our small car and proceeded to the safari (I was going to do the walking safari the next morning). It was not long before we saw some adult and juvenile elephants crossing our path. There was one moment when one of the mother elephants turned around and gave a stare. I had kept my car engine on incase the elephant charges. Fortunately for us, it deemed us to be harmless after a while and simply walked away into the busy. If I thought that that was a close encounter then I was completely dumbfounded with what I was to see for the rest of the morning.

We drove around for another couple hours where we saw Impalas, Warthogs, and Nyalas. At that point we came across a car that was parked close to one of the internal fences of the park. Since the park was still a work in progress they had put up strategic fences to make sure to keep certain populations segregated. The driver in that car pointed at a distance and said that he saw a giraffe in that direction. He was with his wife and kids and said that he was not sure if he could go deeper into the bush with his sedan since the track was pretty rough. I had a look at the condition of the track and decided to go as far as our small car could go. I figured, even though the tracks were extremely bumpy, as long as I drove slowly and careful I would be ok.

As we went about 100 meters deeper into the bush, we caught sight of 2 Giraffes on either side of the fence. Initially everyone in the car thought that they were a male and a female doing the mating ritual as they had their necks tangled together and slinging then towards each other, but I knew that I had seen something like that on National Geographic where 2 male Giraffes actually bump each other with their necks in a fight for territory.


We parked the car some 70 yards and watched them go at it for more than 45mins. We made sure to give them some space so as not to spook them by driving and parking very close to them The giraffes however gave us a look when we parked the car as to say “What you doing here?” and continued their fight. They were so engrossed with themselves that they had advanced pretty close to our car and at one point they were as close as 5-10 yards at which time I seriously was wondering if my rental car insurance covered damages by wild animals. Fortunately they drifted further away and I was probably saved from a pickle.

The guys who had directed us towards the giraffes were still there at a distance so we decided to leave the spot and allow them to have a chance to experience that moment as close quarters as we had did. It was a pretty special experience of being so so close to two giraffes.

As we started heading back to the camp for lunch, we decided to take a different route back. The landscape was pretty dry and dusty with bare trees all around us and it just looked like a beautiful bight day on a arican safari when from the corner of the eye I caught something moving in the bush. I backed the car and waited for that creature emerge from the bush. That creature was a beautiful Rhino and a juvenile that she was nursing. As we waited for them to cross our path, we saw 3 more rhinos emerge from the bush and while we were busy snapping pictures, a HUGE male Rhino emerged from the same side not more than 5 yards from the car. It was so massive that I could literally feel the thud of its footsteps as it proudly walked passed our car. In about 10mins we saw 6 rhinos walk past us and sensing that they were heading to the waterhole we drove straight to the camp. Not surprisingly, the rhino’s showed up there.

We spent much of the afternoon after lunch on the bench opposite the waterhole. It was one of the most serene views I have ever had. While we were there for a couple hours we saw hippos in the water, rhino’s, elephants, impalas taking turns to quench their thirsts, warthogs feeding in the foreground, and a lonely crocodile sunbathing. I just cant imagine in words this wonderful sight!

I have a picture of the waterhole uploaded here but the animals appear small and it does not do any justice to the actual. After the animals left, we continued on our safari for the rest of the afternoon and evening trying to cover as much of the reserve as possible before sunset and seeing the usual suspects like warthogs, impalas, blue wildebeests and Nyalas in the thicker bushes of some of the interior parts of the park. I think I also was having a great time just driving through the bush in our small car on tracts made for 4X4.

In the evening-night we just sat back on the bench, had a lantern lit supper, sipped hot tea in the cool winter chill of southern Africa and listened to the warthogs bawling the night away.