Submitted by SafariADV on Mon, 2018-11-19
This morning we woke up at the Hluhluwe-iMfolozi Park in South Africa, but this was the last night we spent in a park and we're a little sad; we have breakfast and then we load our Dr. Livingstone and we leave.
We drive all the way to the Nyalazi Gate, taking advantage of these few miles to make the last safari of this trip.
We are on the main road, the only one that connects the Mpila Camp and the Nyalazi Gate, when we left the camp we thought "maybe we do not see anything" and instead, in addition to the usual impalas, that have accompanied us throughout our journey, we also see several elephants and some white rhinos, in all we see seven: first two and then a group of five; we can say that on this trip we have just removed the desire for white rhinos.
We enjoy the last glimpses of this wonderful park and then we head to the gate, but before going out, we go to the craft market to see what they sell and, of course, we manage to buy some items, it is impossible to resist the temptation.
Fortunately, many things we had when we arrived, we leave them here in South Africa, otherwise going home with all the shopping would have been a problem.
We leave the gate: bye bye Hluhluwe-iMfolozi, indeed see you!
We follow the road that leads us to the N2, the main road that will take us to Shakaland, our goal today and, at some point, at the roadside, we see an elephant, we wonder what it does here ... the safari mood just does not wants to leave us until the last moment!
We say goodbye to our elephant friend "be good and go back to the park!".
The N2 is quite busy and, after days and days spent in the parks, it seems strange to see so many cars and especially many people and no animals on the roadside.
For a moment we seem to have already returned back home with a sort of teleportation because we seem to be on the A4 Milan-Venice instead of South Africa.
As we proceed the traffic becomes, fortunately, less and less intense, when we leave the N2 behind, our journey completely changes: we find ourselves in a landscape that vaguely remembers Tuscany with lush vegetation and gentle slopes; there is no one here, but us.
How nice to drive here, it will not be like being in the wild but it is still very relaxing.
We arrived at the detour to Shakaland and it is time for lunch, then, before turning and continuing to our final destination, we decide to drive a few more miles and go to have lunch in the town of Eshowe, where there are some commercial places and a shopping center.
After lunch we go straight to Shakaland.
We arrive, we check-in and then they accompany us to the room, this one, like that at the Lesedi Cultural Village, is a traditional Zulu hut, obviously adapted to a room standard and with all the necessary comforts.
This afternoon we have nothing to do but relax and take a walk around the village; first we go to the bar to drink something cool and have a chat with the guy who tomorrow morning will be our guide during the visit of the Zulu village.
We spend the afternoon and the evening doing nothing and talking about possible travel itineraries in Southern Africa and drawing conclusions about this journey that is almost to the end.
