Our Blog - South Africa Safari - Day 6

We had an early morning, traveling to the Hluhluwe-Imfolozi Game Reserve, for our first game drive. I mentioned in the previous blog that we were in the KwaZulu-Natal province. This province, known as the garden province, was created in 1994 when the province of KwaZulu (which means the Place of the Zulu) was merged with the province of Natal (which was the Boer republic of Natalia before becoming the British Colony of Natal). The original ZkwaZulu region was created under Apartheid to be the home of the Zulu native tribe and they still are somewhat of a "kingdom", with a King. He has no direct political power, but he still has influence among the more traditionalist Zulu people in the province.

The first thing we saw were impalas, which are a type of antelope. We actually saw lots of impalas. The male impalas have horns while the females do not.

We came across this Cape Buffalo (sometimes just called an African Buffalo) hanging out along side the road. I would guess that it was an old buffalo. You can see the horns, which are a characteristic feature. They have fused bases which form a continuous bone shield across the top of the head referred to as a "boss". They are quite large, and can weight up to 2,000 lbs.

Next were a few giraffes. Initially, they were quite a ways away (I put a circle around them) ... this gives you an idea of how difficult it was to sometimes see the animals. We were in a public game reserve and so we couldn't leave the roads. So if the animals weren't near the road, it was a bit difficult to see. In the last picture, you can see the head and neck of the 2nd giraffe to the right of the main one you can see.

Then we came across another Cape Buffalo, this time walking across the road.

And then, the highlight of the day! A pride of lions ... one male, a couple females, and a few cubs. In the first picture, the male is pretty visible, but the others are at the back in front of the last car that is visible. Then I got a nice picture without most of the cars, the male looking back at the females and cubs behind him.

Then a little video of one of the female lions and the 3 cubs walking up towards us.

And then more pictures as the females and cubs got a bit closer. By now, the male had already went past our trucks and headed off into the grass.

What you see in the tree are Weaver bird nests.

I think these are Nyalas, which we saw at the place that we stopped for a break. Another type of antelope, these should be fairly young since the adult males (with the horns) color changes from rusty to a dark brown. As well, the females and young males have white stripes on their sides that get less visible when the males get older.

Near the Nyalas, we also saw a set of Vervet monkeys. If you look closely, you can see the blue scrotum of the male. There were several adults and a couple of babies, running around the grass.

I wasn't really taking many bird pictures, but I made an exception for the Cape starling, or glossy starling. It was a bright blue and looks to be glittering. The first couple were in trees, but then I saw one down on the ground and you can see the color difference against the dirt (well, against the animal poop).

No animals, but I wanted to give a view of the land and vegetation in the park.

These will be a little harder to see ... right in the middle of the picture, you may be able to make out a herd of African Elephants. Try to pick them out in the first 2, then the 3rd I tried to point them out at least a couple of the more visible ones.

Another Cape Buffalo, this one munching the grass.

Then a whole herd! And they were right up close! Several of them had babies along with them. I was a bit concerned that they would charge and attack to safeguard the kids, but they just stared at us for awhile.

And then we got a video of all of them including a really cute little one.

Here is another hard one ... this was some type of antelope that was running away from us, up a hill. You can see the horns, which would indicate a male.

A much better view of an African Elephant, including a fairly good view of the tusks. We found that the trees and vegetation in this park, as well as in Kruger (that you'll see shortly), made it a bit more difficult to see the animals than we remember on all of those Discovery channel documentaries we had seen in the past. One species of the African Elephant is the largest living terrestrial animal, and can weight upwards of 13,000 lbs. Unlike Asian elephants, both male and female African elephants have tusks. However, I'm pretty sure this would be a male since they tend to live alone while females tend to live in herds.

We crossed the border into Swaziland, or the Kingdom of Eswatini as it is now called. It was an interesting border crossing. Everybody got off the bus and went into the South African border control where they stamped our passports as we left South Africa. Then we walked up the road (yep, walked) about 50 feet to the Eswatini border control. So I guess that 50 feet or so is somewhat of a no-mans zone. Then they stamped our passports (Swaziland still, as the official name didn't change until April 2018 and not everything has been changed yet). Eswatini is interesting in that the Kingdom is ruled by an absolute diarchy, jointly ruled by the King (his title is Ngwenyama meaning Lion) and Queen Mother (Ndlovukati meaning She-Elephant).

As we drove to our hotel, we saw lots of Sugar Cane fields. They export large amounts of both raw cane sugar as well as refined sugar. We stopped at a handicraft village and I thought these little wax animals were interesting.

Then at our hotel in Swaziland. It had a nice pool and large-size chess set, although it was a bit chilly and overcast for me to spend any time at the pool.

You can go back to the main Safari page or continue on to Day 7