I was the only one among the four of us who wanted to do the walking safari while the others either wanted to sleep in or just chill by the waterhole in the morning. The night before I had made sure to get myself a guide so we could leave at the onset of dawn.
We walked by the waterhole near the camp and saw the hippos in the water. Upon walking a few kilometers further into the busy we encountered hippo tracks which indicated that that night they had gotten out of the water for grazing.
I have to say it’s a completely different perspective to walk on the same territory as wild animals without the safety of the car; track animal based on their footprint and the freshness of the track; walk through the dung deposits of rhinos, elephants and impalas, etc. There are a lot of advantages of touring in a vehicle, most important of which is that fact that we can cover large tracts of land and more important to some, safety. However, I feel walking has better benefits like access to bush where vehicles cannot go, seeing animals very close and the most important for me is the thrill factor. There is nothing that compares to that experience and since I have now done both I definitely prefer walking over the car but that’s just me :)
It was about 9am and the most that we had seen till then was Impalas, Blue Wildebeests, Warthogs and a few birds. However, we had seen a lot of elephant and rhino racks and dung deposits so I was really hoping to see atleast one of them to conclude my safari. Then suddenly the guide pointed in the bush to show a pack of rhinos grazing. He just asked us to stop where we were and watch. Surprisingly enough the rhinos were walking straight towards us. At one point there were 9 rhinos…yes 9 of them, all adult and all walking barely 5-10 yards from us. If I was foolish enough it would have been very easy to touch one of them. I am here to tell the story so you know that I did not do that :)
That was an unbelievable moment and one of those that I will fondly remember for a long time. If there was one way I wanted to end my safari then that was the way. I don’t know how long we stayed there before the guide asked us to leave them alone and head back to the camp.
I got back to the camp around 10am and it was time to leave. Michal & Michael wanted to stay back for a few more days (they still had more than 2 months to wander around in southern Africa) so myself and Eujeen decided to drive to a mountain village called Shewula.
Shewula is a village on the plateau of the Lebombo Mountains that border Swaziland and Mozambique to the east. Up there was a community owned and operated camp where (i.e. all profits are shared by the community in an effort to continually develop and improve this traditionally impoverished area). The camp straddles the Lebombo Mountains with a 100 km panoramic view of Swaziland and Mozambique. The camp is also just 20 minutes away from the border with Mozambique.
To get there we had to first drive through the Hlane National Park and then through the sugar cane growing region of Swaziland. Once we passed this region, we had to take a turn to climb the Lebombo Mountains and pass a few villages and there at the deep end of the plateau in the mountainous region was a small village and on its edge is where the camp was located. The whole drive through the mountains was extremely dusty where the red clay based land was parched with hardly any traffic other than the occasional minibus trafficking people in and out of the area and few kids wandering around. The scene was of a quintessential rural area that seemed to exist in early 20th century rather than the 21st.
Once at the camp I got myself a local guide and walked around the community seeing their agricultural fields, rural schools, and their holy grounds where the village chiefs are buried, and their homestead. At the homestead I entered a small hut where a lady was sitting in front of a barrel and a few tumblers. Upon asking what that was, the guide told me it was their local beer and asked me to try some. I would not really call the place a brewery and a hygienic place for brewing since the beer was mixed and brewed in a plastic barrel and the glass jars that they were served in were lightly rinsed in a little water before the next person was served but then…it’s a lifetime experience so I was not going to back down plus I had just two more days before my vacation ended so if there was a time I could try it, it had to be then.
The beer was decent but had a mild fermented smell to it. The best part thought was just interacting with the locals over a drink. All of them were speaking in their local dialect (SiSwati) so all our conversations were interpreted through the guide.
Getting back from the village, we had a sumptuous Swazi meal after which I spent about an hour gazing from the plateau top knowing my time in Swaziland was coming to an end as I had to head back to South Africa the next day to catch one last game. I passed a longing glance at Mozambique which was so close yet so far and made a wish to visit it someday. It was about 4pm and we decided to head back to our hostel (yep, the same one with the armed robbery a few days ago) in Ezulwini valley.
That day was the 26th and the first knockout games were to be played that evening so I was planning on watching the games at the hostel. Before the game started I got to chat with a Serbian Journalist who was writing stories on Africa as well as a couple of interior decorators from South Africa who seemed interesting chaps
They said they were working on designing the interiors of the King’s villas. I wondered if that was really the case otherwise why would they be staying here at a cheap hostel. One of them suggested that I take a look at their work on the villas and I was like...sure…yeah...what more, but I had to refuel the car before I dropped it off that night so I agreed. I have to say that I was pleasantly surprised when I go to see the royal villas and they were infact who they said they were. Evidently the King was hosting a delegation of African leader in the royal villas in August so a company in South Africa was given the contract of renovating all the villas and these guys were on assignment for that work.
I have to say that the place was pretty posh and I would never have gotten in there without their permission. You are just not sure who you might meet at a hostel and that’s one of the reasons why I love staying at hostels.
We caught part of the USA vs. Ghana game at a bar at the royal villas and the later half at the hostel. That night some Aussies had checked in at the hostel and they were gleefully cheering the Ghanaians on to victory. Too bad for the American team, but I never felt that the team was going to win it all. I would have been pleasantly surprised if they would have made it past the quarters. Based on what I have seen, it might still take a few World Cup more for the American team to be competing to actually win the cup.
We walked by the waterhole near the camp and saw the hippos in the water. Upon walking a few kilometers further into the busy we encountered hippo tracks which indicated that that night they had gotten out of the water for grazing. |
| Picture taken very close to the rhino with just a 3x zoom camera |
I have to say it’s a completely different perspective to walk on the same territory as wild animals without the safety of the car; track animal based on their footprint and the freshness of the track; walk through the dung deposits of rhinos, elephants and impalas, etc. There are a lot of advantages of touring in a vehicle, most important of which is that fact that we can cover large tracts of land and more important to some, safety. However, I feel walking has better benefits like access to bush where vehicles cannot go, seeing animals very close and the most important for me is the thrill factor. There is nothing that compares to that experience and since I have now done both I definitely prefer walking over the car but that’s just me :)
 |
| Walking safari in Hlane National Park |
It was about 9am and the most that we had seen till then was Impalas, Blue Wildebeests, Warthogs and a few birds. However, we had seen a lot of elephant and rhino racks and dung deposits so I was really hoping to see atleast one of them to conclude my safari. Then suddenly the guide pointed in the bush to show a pack of rhinos grazing. He just asked us to stop where we were and watch. Surprisingly enough the rhinos were walking straight towards us. At one point there were 9 rhinos…yes 9 of them, all adult and all walking barely 5-10 yards from us. If I was foolish enough it would have been very easy to touch one of them. I am here to tell the story so you know that I did not do that :)
That was an unbelievable moment and one of those that I will fondly remember for a long time. If there was one way I wanted to end my safari then that was the way. I don’t know how long we stayed there before the guide asked us to leave them alone and head back to the camp.
I got back to the camp around 10am and it was time to leave. Michal & Michael wanted to stay back for a few more days (they still had more than 2 months to wander around in southern Africa) so myself and Eujeen decided to drive to a mountain village called Shewula.
Shewula is a village on the plateau of the Lebombo Mountains that border Swaziland and Mozambique to the east. Up there was a community owned and operated camp where (i.e. all profits are shared by the community in an effort to continually develop and improve this traditionally impoverished area). The camp straddles the Lebombo Mountains with a 100 km panoramic view of Swaziland and Mozambique. The camp is also just 20 minutes away from the border with Mozambique.
To get there we had to first drive through the Hlane National Park and then through the sugar cane growing region of Swaziland. Once we passed this region, we had to take a turn to climb the Lebombo Mountains and pass a few villages and there at the deep end of the plateau in the mountainous region was a small village and on its edge is where the camp was located. The whole drive through the mountains was extremely dusty where the red clay based land was parched with hardly any traffic other than the occasional minibus trafficking people in and out of the area and few kids wandering around. The scene was of a quintessential rural area that seemed to exist in early 20th century rather than the 21st.
Once at the camp I got myself a local guide and walked around the community seeing their agricultural fields, rural schools, and their holy grounds where the village chiefs are buried, and their homestead. At the homestead I entered a small hut where a lady was sitting in front of a barrel and a few tumblers. Upon asking what that was, the guide told me it was their local beer and asked me to try some. I would not really call the place a brewery and a hygienic place for brewing since the beer was mixed and brewed in a plastic barrel and the glass jars that they were served in were lightly rinsed in a little water before the next person was served but then…it’s a lifetime experience so I was not going to back down plus I had just two more days before my vacation ended so if there was a time I could try it, it had to be then.
The beer was decent but had a mild fermented smell to it. The best part thought was just interacting with the locals over a drink. All of them were speaking in their local dialect (SiSwati) so all our conversations were interpreted through the guide.
Getting back from the village, we had a sumptuous Swazi meal after which I spent about an hour gazing from the plateau top knowing my time in Swaziland was coming to an end as I had to head back to South Africa the next day to catch one last game. I passed a longing glance at Mozambique which was so close yet so far and made a wish to visit it someday. It was about 4pm and we decided to head back to our hostel (yep, the same one with the armed robbery a few days ago) in Ezulwini valley.
That day was the 26th and the first knockout games were to be played that evening so I was planning on watching the games at the hostel. Before the game started I got to chat with a Serbian Journalist who was writing stories on Africa as well as a couple of interior decorators from South Africa who seemed interesting chaps
They said they were working on designing the interiors of the King’s villas. I wondered if that was really the case otherwise why would they be staying here at a cheap hostel. One of them suggested that I take a look at their work on the villas and I was like...sure…yeah...what more, but I had to refuel the car before I dropped it off that night so I agreed. I have to say that I was pleasantly surprised when I go to see the royal villas and they were infact who they said they were. Evidently the King was hosting a delegation of African leader in the royal villas in August so a company in South Africa was given the contract of renovating all the villas and these guys were on assignment for that work.
I have to say that the place was pretty posh and I would never have gotten in there without their permission. You are just not sure who you might meet at a hostel and that’s one of the reasons why I love staying at hostels.
We caught part of the USA vs. Ghana game at a bar at the royal villas and the later half at the hostel. That night some Aussies had checked in at the hostel and they were gleefully cheering the Ghanaians on to victory. Too bad for the American team, but I never felt that the team was going to win it all. I would have been pleasantly surprised if they would have made it past the quarters. Based on what I have seen, it might still take a few World Cup more for the American team to be competing to actually win the cup.
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