Umfolozi /Hluhluwe Game Reserve

Well we finally got some reception here at Crocodile Bridge in Kruger Park and we are cooking hot at 35 degrees with a lovely hot wind!  Bit too hot to go on game drive just yet so have a few mins to do some uploading!

Here are some photos from Umfolozi game reserve in KwaZuluNatal - we stayed 2 nights at Mpila Camp in a beautiful cottage with Hester - Christo's mom, Felicity - Christo's sister and Ron - a friend.  The view was amazing. Sunrise photo!

A highlight for us was a tour of the game capture bomas - where they were holding some white and black rhino and some babies until they go to their new reserves!

A female white rhino in the boma.

 We enjoyed game drives that made us smile!  New warthog piglets were a treat to watch!

The birds were amazing - we watched a sunbird make a nest and this pygmy kingfisher was happy to have his photo taken - he smaller than a sparrow!

We had no less than 23 white rhino sightings on the first day! The poaching is well controlled on this reserve, luckily! Elephant and buffalo were also plenty.

 To be fair we did suprise this elephant and he took exception!

 We signed up for a night drive where a lady ranger took us out with spotlights to see what nocturnal animals we could spot. We only missed the leopard from the big 5 in one drive and had the bonus of a black rhino sighting!  A porcupine was the icing on the cake!
We had a few visitors to camp - there is only one strand of wire to keep the elephants out- birds, impala, warthog, nyala and every night a spotted hyena came to supervise the braai - South African BBQ!  Cheeky!

Helmeted Guinea Fowl with Christo and Hester.

In an emotional and simple ceremony we buried Jan's ashes (Christo's dad) at Mpila camp - the place he loved so much.

Our trip with Hester, Felicity and Ron was over and we said a tearful goodbye and headed to the base camp for 2 nights in the wilderness on foot.