On to Kruger!

Whew! I knew I had written a bunch about this day, but couldn't find it! Then I remembered I had been offline so I'd written it in Pages. All is well!

After my morning bird walk at the Mountain View Hotel, my sneakers were soaking wet from the dew. I am thankful for wool socks, as my feet stayed dry. We climbed on the bus to head north, back toward South Africa.

Our first stop was the Ngwenya glass factory. There were peacocks strutting everywhere on the grounds. Male peacocks are the most glorious birds, but they have the most obnoxious calls! Needless to say, I took many peacock pictures.

The glass factory was fascinating. They use recycled glass for everything they make, from stemware to glass animals. You can go on a catwalk above the factory floor and watch all of the stages. There is a Netflix show called Blown Away, sort of a Great British Baking show for glass artists? Blowers? I binge-watched it recently, and I’m glad I had, since I knew what the different workers on the floor below were doing. It was scorching hot on the catwalk, and I can’t imagine what it was like on the floor. The workers were all wearing overalls too!

There were also some small shops at the site, and I bought a hat with the colors of Eswatini and a few small gift items. Then it was back on the bus to head to the South African border.

I forgot to say much about Eswatini. It used to be called Swaziland. It is an independent monarchy within South Africa. (There are 2 such independent monarchies, Eswatini and Lesotho.) There are pictures of the royal family at the border crossings, and their flag is very colorful.

Exiting Eswatini was identical to entering. We got off the bus, walked to the Eswatini border office and got more stamps, then walked across the border into South Africa. There, we went to their border office for another stamp. It was all quite simple.

Instead of getting back on the bus, we visited a nearby tourist site, the Matsamo Cultural Village. This is the kind of thing that I really do not care for, but it was better than many, because it didn’t feel like it was “natives” being paraded around for the tourists. I have always avoided that kind of spectacle, going all the way back to my visits to South America when I was in my 20s. I rarely take pictures of people anyway, and I never take pictures of posed “natives”. BTW, I don’t mean “native” as a pejorative—I mean it for any time people get dressed up in costumes that they don’t normally wear to show off for the tourists.

But, as I said, this site was better, as we had a guide who walked around the village, explaining the customs of the native villages. All I will say about the customs is that it was certainly a patriarchal society. At the end of the guided walk, we sat on stumps and different groups sang and danced for us. I was messaging with a friend during this part, and sending her videos of what I was seeing. That part was super cool—sharing halfway around the world! (I looked it up—we were over 7,800 miles apart.) They sold CDs of their music afterward, and that is what that friend is getting as a gift when I get home. We had lunch at the village (yum!), then it was back on the bus and on our way to Kruger.

Ah, Kruger! It was so wonderful! I’ll probably break this down into two entries, as I have so much to say about it. First, the hotel, the Kruger Gate Hotel, was perfect. It’s in Kruger National Park (at the edge) and has boardwalks everywhere. There are fences, but animals roam inside the grounds. We were warned to keep our windows closed, so the vervet monkeys and baboons don’t make away with our belongings. There is a river beside the hotel, and there were decks and a bar overlooking the river. I’ll jump the gun and post my sunrise picture from those decks. The rooms were spacious and lovely, and the food! I could write an entire entry about the food.

We went to our rooms, then met up at 6:30 for dinner. It was buffet style, but what a buffet! Our tables were outside, and the appetizer/dessert room was just inside the building. It had regular salad items, plus things like guacamole and hummus. Lots of breads too. But what got me were the cheeses—probably 10-15 varieties, from Edam to blue to feta. I actually ate mostly appetizers the first night. The second night that is all I ate. The hot buffet had everything from steaks and ribs cooked to order to vegetables, some Indian food, and soup. Then there were the desserts! The first night I had a lemon meringue tart, some chocolate cake, and some hot custard. I could hardly move afterwards, but I had to, since I’d booked a massage at 8 PM.

Before I left home, I’d visited each hotel’s website, seeing if they had spas. I knew that the one at the Kruger Gate looked delightful. And it was!! The "room" was a small hut with a glass wall. Unfortunately, it was dark, but I asked the therapist if they saw animals during the day sessions. She said, yes, mostly elephants. At this point, I hadn't seen an elephant, so I was amazed.

After the massage, I collapsed for the night, since we had an early wake-up for our game drive.