Bye Bye South Africa............'till the next time

Well we're here at Istanbul Airport, on our way home. We've had another brilliant trip to a wonderful country. Not without it's challenges, but friendly people, beautiful scenery and what wildlife.

Hope you have enjoyed the read. Here's our favourite picture. Wild dogs at last.

Wild Dogs..............at last!

It’s a lottery what you see. The only guarantees are in a horrid zoo! Impala are so plentiful you are all but guaranteed a spot. Leopard, Cheetah and African Wild Dogs are a different 'kettle of fish'

Hey! Today we were really lucky and for the first time in 7 trips we saw a pack of Wild Dogs. They’re much bigger than we expected. Quite a scramble to get a good view!

Also spotted more than 100 Elephant, most looking very thin as vegetation is scarce and everyone is waiting for the summer rains to come. Loads of other spots on our drive through Kruger, on our way back to the Rissington Inn in Hazyview, Mpumalanga.

African Fish Eagle

Ground Hornbill

Boomslang

Sundowners by the hippo pool and a mad dash to try a see a Leopard made our evening game drive quite exciting even though the Leopard snuck away! Unfortunately the morning game walk was OFF! The strong wind made walking too dangerous, too easy to surprise an animal or for them to surprise us, so off in the truck again. Saw a beautiful male elephant busy eating branches from a tree it pushed over and an impressive herd of Buffalo. 

Mike the bush guide found a Boomslang in his room, highly toxic……..

Arrived at Caroline and Flips lovely house in the bush, complete with pool and several thatched outbuildings. 

After breakfast we tried to chase out an elephant that had broken down the fence and was busy pushing down trees and making a mess of the garden, but had to retreat. By the afternoon he was back and we had to have a go again, however he got a bit too agitated and we had to make rather a quick get away in the hilux!

Quad bike safari was in the afternoon, what brilliant fun!

Scorpions, Elephants and Lions.

The journey from Swaziland to Joburg and back to the Rissington was a bit long and tedious (8 hours) but it had to be done.

Blesbok saying bye as we left Malaloja, Swaziland.

The welcome at the Rissington however made up for it and we had a lovely evening and diner there.

As soon as we arrived at Africa on Foot, a back to basic lodge inside the Kruger it all kicked off. Elephants noisily came through the camp in the afternoon and again in the evening sending everyone scurrying about.

Deb found a black scorpion in our room which had to be removed by one of the guides, I was about to pick it up thinking it was a bit beetle…….! Good job I didn't!

Great evening came drive seeing a big herd of Rhino, 3 Lions and an old male Giraffe. Awesome sunset. Lovely dinner surrounded by lightning and later heavy rain.

Took me ages to get these guys to line up, Mary on the end still spoilt it!

Best walking safari ever….. tracking a pair of Lions which we then saw from about 30 meters away, got my heart racing a bit. Later we were told to quicky crouched behind a bush and keep very still as a herd of Elephant walked slowly right past us…… All these next photos were taken on foot.

Here you can see us crouching, then the guide with his gun and then the Elephants.

You can just see the guide on the right!

Can’t wait to go out again later. 37 degrees today!

Malaloja National Park – our last few days camping

After our last experience of camping in Swaziland we were a bit wary about Malaloja and asked to see before we checked in. Whilst the park and site are really beautiful, the loos etc, passed, but only by a whisker……. Lots of maintenance needs to be done. A chap sits and stokes the fire for the hot water all day! Costs £3.50 a night........

Wash up area......

Hot water system....

Shower

Lovely and challenging walks, the high canopy tour was both brilliant and exhilarating.

Blesbok and Eland are grazing around the camp and Zebra and Warthogs are pottering about too. 

Blesbok

Eland

The birds are amazing as are the wild flowers. Many of the flowers are the same as we see in our gardens at home.

Off to Joburg tomorrow at 6.30am

Mantenga Cultural Village and meeting one of the Swazi Kings wives.

After a chilly start (a relative term!) we arrived here in Mantenga, half way between Manzini and Mbabane the capital of Swaziland. 

We found a Lodge easily and then spent the morning at the Swaziland Cultural Village (and waterfall) and the afternoon at the Milwane Wildlife Park. The cultural village was quite touristy but the singing and dancing were really good. The rest camp at Milwane was full of locals BBQing together, celebrating birthdays and having fun. The pool was so packed you could hardly see the water.

When we got back to the lodge the car park was full of police cars and body guards. One of the Kings 13 wives was having lunch. So well…. we didn’t actually get to meet her but we did watch her get in her car and see her cavalcade drive off!

Enjoyed a chilled beer on the hot veranda before a lovely dinner!

Setting off for the Malaloja  National Wildlife Park tomorrow for two nights camping again. 

Then we swop vehicles in Joburg and drive to Hazyview in a car to stay for a night at the Rissington Inn. Yey! We’ll have internet again there. And our phones might work again.