Hluhluwe-Imfolozi Park and Hluhluwe Game Reserve - South Africa, Nobvember 2021

 It was an early morning when we left for Hluhluwe Game Reserve. The hotel had sent along boxed breakfasts for us. It will be a long, full day on safaris through the Hluhluwe Imfolozi Game Park. In addition to the boxed breakfast, we will be dining "in style" at a "bush camp" breakfast, prepared by the park staff and later a lunch, also in the park. 

Our hotel was about 15 minute drive to the main gate. The two safari jeeps were there to take us on the game drive. Due to the pandemic, the park was not crowded at all and we had professional game guides for our full day on safari. The Hluhluwe-Imfolozi Game Reserve is a Big 5 Game Park in the KwaZulu-Natal Region of South Africa. It's believed to be the oldest game reserve in Africa. It worked out well that we would have a much longer game drive here in Hluhluwe instead of traveling to Eswatini as previously planned.

Park Gate

Entrance to the Game Reserve - Memorial Gate

A beautiful day for a Big5 safari

Safari Jeep and Guide

Riding shotgun

Soon inside the park, we sighted a lone elephant promenading in front of us. Shortly after, a few rhinoceros crossing the road. Hluhluwe Game Reserve is well known for rhino preservation. These are Black Rhinoceros.

Promenading

He's keeping an eye on us

Rhino crossing

Finally all across!

Zebra appearing.

Large family of zebras

A lone rhino

A cape buffalo ready to cross the road

Impalas

By mid day, we had breakfast in the park provided by the park rangers. It was a nice break before we continued the drive through other part of the reserve.   

Breakfast in Hluhluwe Game Park

The White Umfolozi River 

A Southern African Bird

Round bird nests on tree

Behind the scene, we had a private visit to the rhino orphanage in the Game Reserve. There were two orphan baby rhinos that were rescued after the poachers killed the moms.

Orphan rhino

Rhino orphans.

There is an outdoor restaurant near the Centenary Center where we enjoyed a nice lunch before the afternoon safari..

Centenary Gate

Lunch Menu - Ostrich dishes are quite popular here.

Kudu

Beautiful zebras

Zebras, One of the Pretty5s in the Park.

A crossing guard for his family.

A big herd of Cape Buffaloes

Watching us 


Warthog - one of the Ugly5s

Enjoying an afternoon stroll.

A lone monkey by the road bidding farewell to us as we left Hluhluwe Game Reserve.

We had a wonderful day. The weather was pleasant and the game drive was a successful one. We saw 3 of the Big5s: elephants, rihnos and cape buffaloes and look forward to seeing the other 2: lions and leopards in Kruger National Park.

Durban, St. Lucia Estuary - South Africa - November 2021

 We left Cape Town on a very early morning flight for Durban. The big tour bus was already at the airport upon our arrival. The driver and the bus would be with us for the rest of trip. It was a long drive from Durban to our first night stay in the north eastern part of South Africa. Due to military upheaval, Eswatini closed the border to tourism a few days before we arrived.  Instead of traveling to Eswatini, we would stay near Hluhluwe Game Reserve one more night and a longer game drive in Hluhluwe.

Art work at Durban airport restrooms

Taking a break by the Indian Ocean 

Indian Ocean

We traveled north along the coast and made it to St. Lucia in the afternoon. The boat was already there waiting for us to tour its famous estuary. St. Lucia has one of the largest estuary in Africa with an incredible home for hippos, crocodiles and abundance of birdlife. 

Boat ride to visit St. Lucia Estuary

Estuary bank with (yellow) bird nests

Hippo home

One of St. Lucia estuary's many hippo pods

Another large pod of hippos

 

They're looking at us

Relaxing and cooling off

After visiting Saint Lucia Estuary, we headed out to Hluhluwe. ANEW hotel in Hluhluwe was near the Game Reserve where we'll stay for the next two nights.

Cape Town - Cape Winelands District, Kirstenbosch Botanical Gardens - November 2021

 While some people in our tour group did "Shark Diving" our last day in Cape Town, we chose to go on a wine tour. We had wine tasting at four well established wine estates in the Cape Winelands district. It was a very pleasant drive. The tasting was fun and relaxing. The wine tour took us through the beautiful country side and enable us to enjoy more beautiful scenery outside the city.   

Scenery from the wine tour drive - View of Boland Mountain Complex

In KWV tasting room 

In the production room

A communion wine barrel at Southern Paarl winery

The goat tower at Fairview Wine and Cheese. There was one goat in the tower.

Goats in the Fairview farm

(Wine) Cathedral room

After the wine tasting and on our way out of Cape Winelands, Belinda, our tour guide had a surprise for us. It was a stop at a national heritage site where Nelson Mandela spent 14 months of house arrest after leaving Robben Island to finish his jail sentence. It's also the place from which he took his first steps to freedom.

National Heritage Site

The National Heritage site- Home of Mandela where he spent the house arrest.

  

The front gate to Nelson Mandela's home 

We stopped in a little quaint town in the Western Cape province called Stellenbosch for lunch. It was a good choice of a stop over. Stellenbosch, the second oldest town in South Africa, is known for its natural beauty, matured trees-lined avenues with shops, cafes and restaurants.

View from Stellenbosch park

 Stellenbosch Central 

The Rhenish Mission church in Stellenbosch

To wrap up our visit to Cape Town, we spent some time in Kristenbosch National Botanical Gardens. It's a grand park, nestled at the eastern foot of Table Mountain. We could easily spend a full day to explore the beautifully well groomed gardens.

Kristenbosch Gardens

View of Table Mountain from Kristenbosch Botanical Gardens