Safari and more

Saturday we went to Hlane, which is one of Swazilands "Big Game Parks." It is the one where the king's lions are kept. The total costs of getting in to the park and the guided tour was roughly $35. This place is really nice! They have camping spots available or small guest houses (fenced off from the animals of course!) I would love to stay there the next time I come to Swaziland. At the base camp there is a small restaurant and bar with a view of a watering hole where rhinos, hippos and elephants were cooling off. The only thing separating the two areas was 2 lines of barbwire "electric" fence (I'm not convinced it was on though). We were able to walk the fence line for a good distance, and got to a point where a herd of elephants were passing by fairly close to us. We got excited and were taking pictures. I guess we were being loud, which apparently upsets elephants. The next thing we know, momma elephant was charging toward us!!! I honestly thought she would plow through the fence, but luckily she stopped. Biggest adrenaline rush of my life! We all laughed about it so much back at base camp. It was a scary event at the time, but now its an awesome story. Not many people can say they were charged by an elephant (or atleast are alive to talk about it!)

The guided tour was great! We got VERY close to animals. First we came across a lone elephant, that seemed to be much friendlier. He gave us quite a show, getting pretty close to the land rover (about 30ft) and even bathing in a mud puddle for a long time. It also seemed he was following us as we slowly drove away like he wasn't done showing off! Soon after that we noticed something lying beneath a small tree near the dirt road. Sure enough, it was a male lion napping in the shade! I am not exaggerating when I say this: he was roughly 20ft from the rover. Less than 10 yards! He opened his eyes due to the sound of the truck, but didn't attempt to get up.

Zoom was NOT used when I took this picture, and I left the ropes from the side of the rover in the shot to give perspective of how close we were to him.
We sat there in awe of this lion and how close we were to him. Eventually he lifted his head, but still did not seem threatened by our presence. For at least a minute I just stared into his eyes. It was the most terrifying and exhilarating, yet almost soothing thing I had ever experienced. As he seemed to stare back at me, his demenor was so peaceful and calm. It was absolutely amazing.

Throughout the rest of the tour we saw many more elephants, plenty impala and antelope, a few rhinos, giraffes, warthogs, and one lone zebra. It was a great ride. Once we returned, the guys, which had stayed back at base camp, had cooked chicken for us over a fire. It was possibly the best chicken I've ever had! We also ate some potato chips and Pap (the white rice-like dish I had mentioned in another post but didn't know the name at that time). After we finished eating we headed back to Manzini and called it a night.

The next day, Zakhle took us to church again, but this time we went to the one he grew up in. It was drastically different from last Sunday's experience! It was in a very small concrete building in the middle of a rural community. The people there were so very friendly, many of them welcoming us with hugs. Although the service was almost 3 hours long, I liked this church better than last week. One of the lady's had a daughter who just recently started in college in Iowa. She asked if we could put us in her suitcase and take her with us! (jokingly of course) This church also had quite a few talented singers leading the music. One tiny girl (I think she was smaller than me, but I don't really know) had a surprisingly powerful voice and it blew me away! She couldn't have been more than 15 years old. The drummer, which was also awesome, was only 8! We plan to go back again at least once.

After we left church we headed to the Swaziland Cultural village and falls. They have a tour where they do traditional dances and such. However, we had to walk a very long way to even get to the entrance gate so by the time we made it we were a little late. We decided that the main thing we wanted to see anyway were the Mantenga falls so we paid a small fee to enter and walk to it. It was still another 1.7 km walk to them, and had I known I would be walking this much all day I would have worn better shoes! I also would have worn my bathing suit had we known we were allowed to swim too. But that didn't stop Rachel and Emily, they swam in their skirts! The falls were beautiful and relaxing, I can't wait to take Brant back one day. They also have camp grounds and huts within the village that I think would be nice to stay at as well.

Over all, we probably walked over 10 km that day. We were exhausted! Surprisingly, I'm not as sore as I thought I'd be either. My body was totally and completely worn out, but it was worth it! This week we will be working shifts in the ER where we will get to help with procedures like chest tubes and lumbar punctures. The doctors in Internal Medicine here don't really do procedures, they just send the patients to the ER to have it done there. Yesterday we just observed, but today we are working evening shift when its busier so we should get to do more.

Thanks for reading. Have a good day (where ever you may be!)