September 23, 2025

September 23, 2025

We got a break today from the early wake-up call routine. We needed the sleep. We stopped at a glass factory near our hotel to start the day. We toured the production and retail store. It is all very nice but too breakable to drag around Africa.

We spent some time at the other craft stores. Aimee especially liked the jewelry that was made from recycled paper. I was more intrigued with this Peacock doing an elaborate dance for his prospective bride. He never gave up, spreading his plumage and shuddering often. Like all ladies she was having trouble making a decision.

I was really happy to see a tree filled with another colony of Masked Weaver birds. Before leaving I ran to get my telephoto lens to get a few quick shots. The nests they build must be time-consuming to make.

We then travelled northeast across the top of Swaziland. It is very hilly and we pass timber fields, and saw mills along the way. This is another reason Swaziland wasn’t incorporated into South Africa. It is somewhat isolated in every direction by hills and mountains. We exited at the very top tip of Swaziland, returning to South Africa. Like before we got another set of exit and entrance stamps in the passport.

Swaziland is still a very traditional society with a king and lots of tribal chiefs. Just across the border we stopped to visit the Matsamo Cultural Village to learn more about Swazi culture. The park has an impressively recreated historic village complete with round thatch huts enclosed in a wooden stockade. A young Swazi girl gives us a tour of the compound and her cultural practices. Her father has two wives and twenty-five kids. She is interested in being my second wife but somehow I have to come up with 12 cows to give her father.  Aimee would become the queen with the second wife picking up all the cooking and cleaning duties.

Afterwards a group of men and women put on a dance and singing show. I am usually a cynic about these things but it was all very interesting and entertaining. We stayed for a delicious lunch.

Continuing north we soon reached Kruger National Park in the northeast corner of South Africa. Kruger is huge covering some 7500 square miles or the size of New Jersey. We enter at the Malelane Gate with our reservation in hand. Visitation is limited. We walk across the Crocodile River Bridge to enter the park. It is aptly named as we see lots of huge crocodiles in the water below us. On either side we see elephants and antelope.

We drove slowly across the park stopping frequently when one of us sees something. Almost immediately we see a dead Black Mamba on the road. This is one of the most venomous snakes in the world. I wanted to stop and open its mouth to see the black roof but Aimee wouldn’t let me out.

Kruger Park is mostly dry scrubland with short barren trees. This is the end of the dry season and the animals have eaten through the forest leaving little. We see lots of Impalas, a few giraffes, some elephants, a Wildebeest, and some Kudu antelope. All are in the distance and hard to see through the brush.

We stopped at the Afsaal Picnic site to use the restrooms. On our way out we see a lone Spotted Hyena lurking on the edge of the picnic area. He is another of the Ugly Five of Africa.

About halfway through the park we see a group of elephants to our left. They seem to be on the move, so we back the vehicle up a hundred yards. We get lucky and this troop of seven elephants with three juveniles nonchalantly cross the road in front of us. So cool!

A few minutes later we get lucky again and we encounter three giraffes just to our left munching on vegetation high in the trees.

The luck continues with a nice male Kudu antelope showing us his cool spiral horns. We see some Zebra reasonably close but there are some annoying branches and a tree trunk hiding them.

It is getting late, and the light is starting to dim, so we sail through the rest of the park exiting at the Paul Kruger gate. There is a huge head of this former President of the Dutch Colony. He is a folk hero who led the Boer farmer's resistance to British rule.

There are a lot of kids running around because tomorrow is a South African holiday. It is called Heritage Day or Shaka Day commemorating the day the Zulu King Shaka died.

Leaving the park we drove west to the town of Hazyview where we found our next accommodations. It is a nice resort in the bush. We have the buffet dinner.