First game drive, and onward to Eswatini!
Oh, dear. I am so far behind! I am starting this in Johannesburg, as I get ready to leave for Victoria Falls, with the end of the trip 4 days out. I've got Eswatini and wonderful Kruger to write about. I'll do the best I can.
We climbed on our vehicles for our first game drive into Hluhluwe-Imfolozi Game Reserve. I need to take a picture of the vehicles. They are like pickup trucks with seating areas mounted above the bed. There are 3 rows of 3 seats, with each row raised higher than the one in front of it (like stadium seating). It was a great drive. We saw white rhino, zebra, all kinds of deer types (I have trouble telling them apart, but I'll put pictures below), giraffes, Cape buffalo, and many many birds.
The most annoying man was sitting behind me. He was sitting next to a mother and daughter, and spent the entire drive mansplaining everything to them. And me, when he could. And much of what he said was not right. I finally told him, yes, I knew something about whatever he was expounding on at the moment—that I was a trained zoologist (BA Biology, MS Zoology). He then made some comment about my knowing birds, and I kindly explained to him what zoology means. It did no good at all. This man was an "expert" in everything, from elephant dung to economics. (He has now left the trip, and the remaining 9 of us spent the first 10 minutes on the bus laughing about him—we just called him Mr. Know-it-all.)
But, back to the game drive!
Then there were the birds!! I have been in bird heaven since I got here, and it just keeps getting better.
We stopped for a bush breakfast, which was lovely, with tables by a river and more delicious pineapple. (I spent more time birding than eating. That's where the lovely swallows were.) Then back on the vehicles for another couple of hours of more mammals and birds.
We then got back on the bus for the drive to Eswatini. Crossing the border was interesting. We had to exit South Africa, then walk into Eswatini where we went through their passport control. I got lots of passport stamps in 2 days, fortunately all on the same page!
The bus stops every 2 hours for us. Sometimes it is just a bathroom break at a gas station (always pre-vetted, so always clean and with paper), and other times it is at a local craft area or factory. This time, we stopped at a place called the Candle Factory. It did have a place where they were making candles, and outside vendors selling Eswatini crafts. There was batik, wood carving, beadwork, stone carvings—a little of everything. I bought a rainbow colored sarong that I didn't need.
From there, we drove to our hotel in Eswatini, the Mountain View Hotel. This was my least favorite hotel of the trip. (Most have been lovely!) The only good thing was the spectacular view of the Ezulwini Valley below. But my first room had a view of tall grass. And a toilet that ran. It was just one night, but I noped right out of that! I got switched to a room with a good view, but it was an older room. The view made it okay.
One funny thing about this hotel—all the hotels have room safes and we are encouraged to use them. I always have mine stuffed with my passport and money, my iPad, my medications, and, of course, my cameras (when I'm not carrying them). They are standard room safes, where you set a 4 digit code. Well, all of the safes in this hotel were already locked, so we couldn't use them. One person asked, and the desk said they'd have to send someone with a master key, but they didn't seem very eager. So, we crossed our fingers.
The food left something to be desired too, but our tour director had arranged a cake for the birthday of one of our trip members, and they did do that well. (There were sparklers on the cake.) Yes, this hotel was not a winner.
But, I got up early to bird the grounds, and that made it all okay!
At 3 AM, my phone rang, a FaceTime from Jake. He seemed surprised that I was asleep. ("You're asleep?") I reminded him that I am 6 hours ahead of Virginia, hence 3 AM. But we had a nice talk before I went back to sleep.
I'll stop here, and pick up the story in the next entry.
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