Hluhluwe-imfolozi park, which sounds like Shush louie and full-o-z when said aloud, is a park in the heart of Zulu country was once the private hunting grounds of the King shaka, but has become recognized for white rhino conservation. I spent 12 of our 36 hours on game rides around the park and saw: giraffe, kudu, vervet monkeys, baboons, bush babies, spotted hyenas, leopards, elephants, white rhinos, zebras, warthogs, hippopotamus, cape buffalo, blue wildebeest (gnus), impalas, duiker, nyala, white tail mongoose, and numerous mice.
I spent 6 hours with two different guides, Xolani and Ephraham. My two favorite sightings were both with Xolani. On the 6 am drive, we saw two leopards, one female on the right on the way down the road, then a male on the left after we spun around. Mary, one of the women on the trip with me, spotted the first leopard and did a great job not hollering “leopard” and scaring it away. She was small and yellow, but her belly was almost white. The second leopard was male, larger and lithe. I didn’t get pictures of either leopard, as Xolani says, “must have just a memory picture.” On the 10 am drive, Xolani looked very hard for elephants for us and we finally found some. A family of 6 were playing in the mud hole and the smallest baby elephant I’ve ever seen, which wallowed around in the mud for some time as we snapped till our hearts content. A couple of the women with me got video of the interaction among the elephants. It was such an obvious demonstration of family love and bonding that it made me a bit teary eyed. They were magnificent.
The little house I stayed in with Kori, Erika, and Heather was simply lovely, even better after the maintenance man came and threw the breaker for the plugs to work. Kori is a good roommate. I think things go ok for us. She does her own thing. I do my own thing, and then we sleep. It works.
I spent 6 hours with two different guides, Xolani and Ephraham. My two favorite sightings were both with Xolani. On the 6 am drive, we saw two leopards, one female on the right on the way down the road, then a male on the left after we spun around. Mary, one of the women on the trip with me, spotted the first leopard and did a great job not hollering “leopard” and scaring it away. She was small and yellow, but her belly was almost white. The second leopard was male, larger and lithe. I didn’t get pictures of either leopard, as Xolani says, “must have just a memory picture.” On the 10 am drive, Xolani looked very hard for elephants for us and we finally found some. A family of 6 were playing in the mud hole and the smallest baby elephant I’ve ever seen, which wallowed around in the mud for some time as we snapped till our hearts content. A couple of the women with me got video of the interaction among the elephants. It was such an obvious demonstration of family love and bonding that it made me a bit teary eyed. They were magnificent.
The little house I stayed in with Kori, Erika, and Heather was simply lovely, even better after the maintenance man came and threw the breaker for the plugs to work. Kori is a good roommate. I think things go ok for us. She does her own thing. I do my own thing, and then we sleep. It works.
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