Hlane Royal National Park

Explored the park for 4 hours (50 km) and saw Elephant, Giraffe, Buffalo, Hippos and lots more

Left Mbabane early in the fog and arrived at the Hlane National Park at around 9am. Explored the park for 4 hours (50 km) and saw Elephant, Giraffe, Buffalo, Hippos and large herds of Impala, Warthogs and lots of birds. Unfortunately, no Rhino or Lions. It was a good drive and I saw no other vehicle in that four hours – I think I had the park to myself.

The time I was there it was quite dry (in the middle of a drought) so probably saw fewer animals than might otherwise have been as many of the waterholes were dry.

I stopped at the Park Restaurant for lunch and had a delicious Impala and Cheese Jaffle, chips and salad.

The park was a great place to see animal. I self drove through the park. It could have a few more sign posts as it was not always clear from the map, exactly which track one was on. You do need at least half a day to see the park properly - unfortunately, my schedule only allowed me to spend half a day in the park.

Spectacular! With our knowledgeable guide, we saw giraffes lunching on leaves, a pride of lions snoozing, elephants flapping their huge ears to keep cool, hippos submerged in water pools, and most special of all, walked close to about 20 white rhinos, and watched them eat, nap, scratch themselves on tree branches and roll about in a mudbath. Brilliant!