Malolotja Nature Reserve

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Today was our earliest start yet. Breakfast SERVED at 5.15am in anticipation for a 6am departure from Lower Sabi, for our last early game drive of Kruger. Again, it was a relatively uneventful morning, with few extraordinary sightings. A few cool things to mention included a dwarf mongoose, some tree squirrels and a frisky Honey Badger.

Before we knew it, we had left Kruger and were heading towards the landlocked Kingdom of Swaziland. The border crossing was extremely quick and painless. Once the formalities were done, we walked across nomans land and entered Swaziland, the only non-democratic nation remaining in Southern Africa, ruled by a king; Mswati the 3rd. The population here is around about a million people and its currency is called the Illangeni (on par with the South African Rand). Swaziland has the highest AIDS rate in the world at over 25% of adults. It also has the lowest average life expectancy, being 35.

Our destination for the day was the Malalotja Nature Reserve, a game park with cottage accomodation in unspoiled mountain wilderness. We checked in and embarked on a 10 kilometre sunset walk through the mountains, treated to some spectacular scenery and spotting Bresbok antelope and occasional hyena tracks along the way.

Thankfully, there were no leopard or hyena attacks, and we arrived back at camp in time for delicious roast chicken and vegetables for dinner. We were befriended and essentially stalked by the camp resident domestic cat, TC, who followed us everywhere, spending all his time camped on our cottage doorstep. What a beautiful place Swaziland was!Read more