Home » Swaziland » South African Adventure 1999: Part 3: Swaziland and Zululand

After leaving Hazyview we drove down to Swaziland where we stayed at the Swazi Cultural Village in the Ezulwini Valley, not so far from the capital Mbabane. Having been introduced to the Swazi culture, we exited Swaziland and entered the Zulu region of South Africa. Here we visited a Zulu Village and went on another exiting game drive in the Hluhluwe-Umfolozi Park.

South African Adventure 1999: Part 3: Swaziland and Zululand

Jan Arild Teland
2006-05-08 19:55:19

Displayed times (last time: )

of an elephant yet, so it was great to finally see one so close. The other animals seemed to back off as the elephant approached, making sure it had the whole water hole to itself. Although, we now had quite a lot of experience with African wildlife, this scene was just so wonderful. Seeing all those different animals together in their natural environment really was a dream come true for both of us.

The elephant went over to the water hole and lowered its trunk. It was fascinating to study the way it was drinking, first sucking the water in through its trunk and then squirting it into the mouth. For some reason, I had always thought that elephants were actually drinking water through the trunk, but now it was immediately clear that I had completely misunderstood. We watched the elephant for a long time before moving on further into the park.

Around 1300 we stopped at a wonderful place to eat lunch. There was a river floating past so the vegetation looked very nice and green. Lunch was tuna sandwiches, which is not really my favourite food, though. However, Tina loves this, and there were a lot of monkeys in the trees which seemed to be very interested in them as well.

I thought this area was much nicer to drive around in than the Kruger park. Vegetation was much greener, not everything was dried up, and we drove on dust roads giving a better wilderness experience. Wildlife was much of the same as in the Kruger, but on the whole we probably saw more animals in the Kruger than in this park.

Around 1500, we stopped at the Hilltop camp where we had a great view of the park. We bought some ice cream at a shop there and sat outside eating and enjoying the view. After this, we drove through some areas in which there must have been a large fire, as everything was black and burnt all around. However, here we saw two rhinos, although they were quite far away.

We returned to the camp around 1715, just as the sun was setting. We relaxed until dinner, which today was spaghetti with meat and cheese. In my opinion this was our best meal so far! It was just brilliant!

This evening was also spent relaxing inside the camp. The Belgians showed us a funny little game called "Halli Hallo". The object of this game is the synchronised movement of glasses on a table, all according to a predetermined pattern. There is no prize for doing it right, but there is a penalty for doing it wrong and consequently breaking the pattern, as whomever fails must drink something like whisky, vodka, beer or whatever awful stuff is available. If you're not good at it, playing this game may eventually get you very drunk!

Anyway, I thought it was quite easy and was doing really well until some wiseguy suggested that we invert the pattern and go clockwise instead of anticlockwise. I had some relatively minor problems adjusting to the new system, and this seemed to be the source of some amusement amongst the others. Okay, so I failed on the first move five times in a row, but I'm sure this could have happened to anyone :-)

May Tina's remark: "The rest of us managed the change in direction relatively easy and really enjoyed seeing Jan sweat in his efforts to get it right. I laughed at his sorry attempts for days afterwards!"

There you can all see what I had to put up with for more than a month! :-) Anyway, we went to bed in our tents around 2230.