Day 10 Swaziland

This morning we were booked on a game drive through our lodge, unfortunately this was cancelled as there had been heavy rain during the night, which made the off road activites impossible with flooding in areas of the reserve.
Kath looking out from our veranda over the Ubizane valley, watching the rain clouds in the distance, we were fortunate with our room as Lynn and Jeff  had rain coming into their bathroom during the night.

View from our Rondavel

Ubizane valley

This morning we were booked on a game drive with lodge, unfortunately this was cancelled as there had been heavy rain during the night, which made the off road activites impossible with flooding in areas of the reserve.
Disappointing, but at least we had spent time driving through the Hluhluwe-Imfolozi Game Reserve last night and had seen lots of wild game. As the girls were checking out at the reception, Jeff and I carried our luggage out to the car park and to our suprise we found more antelope feeding off the shrubs and bushs.

Adult Male Nyala rather shaggy coat

Male and Female Nyala's  feeding in the carpark

As the girls were leaving the reception to come out to the car, I noticed this insect, that looked more like a frog, than a fly type creature!!

What is it

Not to disappoint the wildlife were still grazing as we drove down the single track back towards the N2 main road.  This had still been a wonderful experience.

More Male and Female Nyala's

Male Nyala

Once we crossed the rail track at the bottom of the reserve drive, we headed north for Swaziland, to a town called Malkern's where we were booked into the Malandela's Hotel.
The border crossing was very informal with guards just hanging around smoking chatting and not really bothered with the normal border checks, and we had to ask several guards for a lend of a biro, before we found one that had a pen. Once we had completed the forms paid the due fee, we entered Swaziland.

Border crossing to Swaziland

While travelling in Swaziland we still managed to spot some zebra grazing at the side of the road.

More Zebra

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We arrived at Malkern's just before lunch time, all the staff in the hotel apart from the receptionist were away celebrating their Christmas lunch. What in February!! Apparently Christmas was their busiest time and this was the first opportunity for the management and staff to get together. Just our luck, bar shut and no restaurant facilities this evening.

Weird entrance to Malendala's Hotel

Malandela's Thatched Huts

Lovely grounds and gardens

The rooms were colourfully decorated especially our bed headboard, as you can see in the picture below, Kath wasn't sure about the headboard,  I thought it was quite quirky and fitted in with the other decorations in the room.

Snakes and Ladders

Relaxing before we go looking for lunch

We drove into town and found a small shopping parade, where we had lunch in a cafe, serving delicatessen sandwiches and snacks, very quaint and old school types of people were also dining in the cafe.  I would guess that these types were the local land owners and farmers, and that they were used to being pampered.
We returned to Malandela's, for a lazy afternoon, catching up with some sunbathing and cooling off  in the pool, and of course one or two drinks as we always had our own supplies, which was just as well, what with the bar been shut.

Pool all to ourselves again

More thatched huts around the grounds of the hotel

Lynn Kath and Jeff on the right taking picture

This evening we drove, not too far to a local pub, with pool and snooker tables, none of us really excelled at either game. After some pub grub we returned to continue with our card game of "Nomination Whist" which would hopefully last for the 2 weeks, for us to see who the eventual winner would be.