Monday, June 7, 2010

Swaziland!

I recently took a vacation to Swaziland for the Bushfire music festival. It was four days of awesome afro-beat/indie music, great food and dancing. There were people in animal skins with drums, women in crazy outfits and recycled jewelry and "emo" guys with eyeliner tears down their cheeks. The concert-goers were an equally eclectic group from all over the world. Jenna, Valerie and I stayed at the Mlilwane Game Park reserve and got to see some classic African wildlife including impalas and other ungulates, wildebeast, warthogs, velvet monkeys, zebras, hippopotamuses, crocodiles, birds... We got pictures of some of it. There was no need to pay for a game drive since you could just walk down the road and see the wildlife on foot. Signs warned us not to get too close as there were no fences separating you from the animals. All in all it was a great adventure, but I'll let the pictures speak for themselves. I plan on returning to Swaziland in July to see lions, elephants, white rhinos and giraffes in Hlane Game Park.


Crossing the border.

We caught a ride and made a friend.

Swazi countryside

Our lovely accomodations, a "beehive hut"

The doorway to our beehive

The view from our hut

Impalas

Read the sign
Crocodile/hippo pond

There's the croc

More impalas

Valerie and me

Warthog crossing

Warthog digging up grubs

Warthog and zebras

Zebras!

Another beautiful ungulate

Wildebeast

This guy was hanging around our hut

Brilliant blue kingfisher

At the festival - funky inside venue

The big stage outside

Housemates : )

Jenna, Anna, yours truly and Valerie


Hanging out with local kids at a grocery store