Today was a very early morning. Our luggage needed to be outside at 05:15.
We got a very large snack box from the hotel for lunch. It had crisps (potato chips), peanuts, banana, apple, hard boiled egg, a bit of cheese, crackers, mango-orange juice, water and a lollipop.
We arrived at the Hluhluwe-Imfolozi game reserve and departed on a safari vehicle at 07:00. It seemed much later in the day. There were a couple of drops of rain on the bus, so I prepared my camera and lens with the plastic covering I bought before I left. Luckily it did not rain until much later in the day. We drove around until 08:00. At 08:00 we stopped for a bus breakfast with yogurt, muffins, sausage, egg, bread and pineapple.
During the first drive we saw a female lion.
We also saw a warthog, rhino, nyala, elephant, dung beetle and zebras during the morning game drives.
We left the game reserve at 10:00 and drove to the Swaziland border. We got a stamp to exit South Africa (and then proceeded to the toilets) and walked across the border and got an entry stamp in Swaziland.
We drove through Swaziland through the current capital – Manzini to a market area near Mbabane. They had a candle shop where people mold candles from wax into animal shapes (rhino, elephant, etc.). It was interesting to watch. I had thought that the candles were poured, I didn’t realize they were scultped. Just before we were scheduled to depart the skies opened. A tremendous thunderstorm blew through. Large limbs from trees fell on cars near the bus. The rain subsided when we left. We made our way to the Mountain Inn where I was lucky enough to get inside the lobby before the skies opened again. This time it was a combination of hail and rain.
There was a liquor store out front – I got a box with 3 liters of wine for 109 Rand (about $8).
