Swaz Safari

Most people envision Africa like a sceane from the lion king, but a lot of it doesn't look a bit like that terrain and lions, zebras, and elephants don't roam freely. Much of the remaining large animals were killed or fled during the civil war in Mozambique, the survivors live on a number of wildlife refuges where they are trying to build numbers again. Fortunately for me, many of Mozambique's neighbors have much more populated wildlife refuges. When I went to visit Swaziland, I went with a couple Swazi PCVs to Hlane, the king's royal park.





We actually decided to camp at the park which was interesting. The camp ground is surrounded by the kind of fence used to keep cows in pastures in Iowa. Call me crazy, but I think someone needs to re-think the differences between cows and rhinos. Oh well. We were informed by the staff that we could quietly and calmly approach the fence to take pictures. As we set up camp and made dinner we actually got to see rhinos and hippos.



The next morning at 5AM we all piled into the safarimobile with our driver/guide and headed off into the park.



At first, some of the animals were a bit shy, so we did a lot of grass-gazing.



Sweet. A turtle. Can we see the lions now?



Anyone know what this guy is?





White rhino



Giraffes

Antelope



Warthog

finally...the king
And my favorite...elephant. Definitely the most exciting. This one actually charched the jeep. Still pissed after we disturbed him last night.

This is him the night before. We were makin dinner and he was just on the other side of the fence eating. We quietly approached him to take pictures and he got really really angry and charged. Good thing there's a big fence. Can you see it?