Going to iMfolozi

Leaving St Lucia means leaving the luxury of the guesthouse where all breakfasts are served with a smile, your car us washed by the gardener daily and all drinks are apparently courtesy when you finally pay your bills.

It was a long drive from St Lucia to Mpila Camp. This camp is located in the southern part of the Hluhluwe iMfolozi Game Reserve, which is called iMfolozi Game Reserve. It took us the better part of the morning to drive a small distance as our car is a very unsteady ride and African highways are a tad different from the ones we are familiar with.
We arrived at the camp around noon which left us plenty of time to make our first rounds in the reserve and to see everything the park has to offer.

Thus very first day, we had a pretty nice record in finding animals, as we encountered 4 out of the big 5 within the first hour at the park!
Yes, the lions were quite a distance away, and we still had to find the Leopard, but it is still quite a good score for the first hour!

After checking in we found that the staff seemed to be quite unhappy about their job as they were not very helpful and bordering rude. This is the very first time for us to see staff this unfriendly towards paying customers…

The Mpila Rest Camp offers a variety of accommodations and we were booked in a safari tent. Consisting of a wooden floor with a tent built on top, it is quite something else to have hyenas howling a few meters away from your bed and all kinds of unrecognizable animals scurrying around the tent in the midst  of the night. We did survive, however I found out that it was quite unnerving the first night.

Tomorrow a full day at the park, so we will see what it has in store for us!