Cycle Around South Africa 2013: Day 65: Swaziland, Manange border post to Hlane Game Sanctuary

The weather had cleared up during the night so it was a pleasant day to ride. The only real place that I had in mind of checking out along the Eatern road that I was taking was the SOS Childrens Village in Siteki. I wanted to give something back seeing as I had been given so much on my bike trip so I found out about the place and decided I'd check it out and see what I could do to help. That was my target for the day.

The landscape was a lot like yesterdays. Canefields, open veld planes, a sugar cane factory. The beautiful mountain ranges in the background that seemed to wrap themselves all along the eastern side of the country. The first 38kms or so were fairly pleasant as I was heading eastwards but once I turned to head south I was now riding into a head wind. This quickly sapped my strength. At one point I rested near the entrance of the Hlane Game Sanctuary. I just lay back with my back resting up against the veld grass. I just felt so tired. A lady walked by me and I spoke to her a bit and asked about the Hlane Park. The entrance was closer than I thought and I decided that I didn’t really want to go any further today. So I headed to the park, paid my entrance then pitched my tent in their camp site. First days riding was done and it was only just after 2pm I think.

Weather was fairly pleasant this first section.

Smells good.

Into the wind from here.

Resting in the grass outside Hlane.

So after a little coffee an bread lunch I decided to go on a bike ride tour through the one section of the game park. The one without any predators. Haha, my rest is more riding. My guide was a very friendly man by the name of Napoleon. I asked him all sorts of questions which he knew all the answers plus I also wanted to know how he got into field guiding which he answered also. The ride was about 12kms in total I think. We stopped at a hide overlooking a water hole where I didn’t really see much but Napoleon explained all sorts of things whilst pointing out birds or buck that my untrained eye had missed. Then we headed back. I wasn’t totally blown away by the trip as much as I had hoped, as I had pretty much seen all sorts of buck on the road so far already, but it was an interesting experience and if you can see them, biking through a reserve makes for a pleasant way of game viewing.

Entrance.

Napoleon my field guide.

Holding still.

The lake or waterhole we rested at.

The viewing spot.

So this is how two bikes can support each other.

Heading back.

Vultures I believe.

Cheers Napoleon.

Afterwards I made plans for dinner later by preordering my food which was one of the most delicious veggie burgers I have ever eaten. As was my custom now when in a new country, I ordered one of the locally made beers as well. It wasn’t the best choice not because of the quality but that the evening was too damn chilly. Something warmer would have been a better choice.

Ouside deck with waterhole in the background.

Skulls, awesome skulls.

Rhino.

Hippo

Rhino and hippo. Damn all these skulls are so huge.

So before dinner I spent some time at the viewing area of the local watering hole to enjoy another beautiful African sunset. Plus soon enough we were all treated to the arrival of two male rhinos who wandered into our view. This was my first and last rhino viewing of the trip and it was awesome. The slowly met each other then proceeded to bump their horns just a little in some display of superiority or maybe just saying ‘wazzup bud’. It was a lovely way to end the day as the animals slowly disappeared into the veld. I went back to shower before heading out for dinner before calling it a night.