Thursday, February 14, 2019

Wild cat sanctuary Hlahluwe national park...Day 12

Today we picked up by our driver/guide,  “Sibo “ who drove us North of Durban, passing mile upon mile of sugar cane fields. Our first Stop was at a Wild cat sanctuary,  that looks after injured and orphaned wild cats. 











We started off by seeing the African wild Cat followed by the Serval and Caracal then went onto the Cheetah enclosure,  standing just one metre from these animals you could just see the power of these superb animals. Our guide then said we would be entering the enclosure,  we thought at first that he was kidding, but sure enough he opened the gates and with a little trepidation we stepped inside.











The two cheetahs were shading themselves from the sun under a small tree, we walked up to within one meter,  it was thrilling to be so close to these beautiful animals. Our guide told us all about the cats and how they hoped to return them to the wild.



We the drove onto the  Hlahluwe- Imfolozzi national park, we checked into the Hilltop  camp and were shown to our Thatched chalet. After brief lunch it was time to go out on our first Safari drive with Sibo. We left the camp and drove for a couple minutes , as we rounded a Crest, we were surprised to see a huge Bull elephant standing in the middle of the road. We came to a sharp stop and watched  as he swung his huge trunk at us, after several minutes he moved slowly away to graze.



Moving on, Sibo stopped at the track side when a family of 3 rhinos stood, we were within 5 metres of the tremendously powerful animals. The sightings on the Safari continued, seeing Giraffes, Buffalo, more elephants, warthogs, Zebra and a troupe of performing Baboons.
At night we dined in the lodge's restaurant and discussed all we had seen on this special day. After dinner the restaurant staff came out to perform Zulu songs and dances.



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