Kruger Day 9 - Eswatini / Malalane to Crocodile Bridge

Apparently an annual catholic event where worshippers from the area come to enjoy an evening of worship, wine, and hip swinging happened to be on the night we had planned for our early start. The music blared into the night but thankfully it still gave us enough time to rest well before the 5am alarm call.

Trees Too Lodge is conveniently located in proximity of the Crocodile Bridge Gate which in our opinion is the finest of the access points we'd visited in the park. Once through the gate, it is all to play for. The only time we had entered the gate at the 5.30am opening time to chance upon some early foraging mammals.

It was a truly stunning morning. We wanted to re-trace our steps from the day before taking the S28 north. The lions were still in situ but we didn't linger too long in the area and continued heading north.

Birds were more of a feature this morning more than mammals. This brown snake eagle posed beautifully for us.

Whilst common in the park, lilac-breasted roller are a real head turner.

Had no idea what this was but apparently its a yellow-throated longclaw.

But today the plan was to do something different and with Eswatini only an hour and half drive from the gate, we wanted to check it out. The drive down was uneventful and after around 20 minutes at passport control, we were through the border.

The lush green landscape was far different to that of Kruger. Heading south, our best laid plans to visit a nature reserve fell horribly flat on discovering that the track leading up to the reserve was being resurfaced, and the immediate area lacked anything on interest. Passports now lavished with country stamps and a few hours out of the park, we were already suffering with withdrawal symptoms and promptly headed straight back toward Malalane Gate.

It felt great being back in the park and it had only been four hours since we'd left.

It was early afternoon and late lunch was the immediate mission so stopping off at the charming Berg-en-Dal felt like a desert oasis.

One of the birds of the trip was seen from this viewpoint. A trumpeter hornbill flew into the trees as I was looking at an elephant feeding on vegetation close to the al fresco dining area. Unfortunately it evaded the lens but an amazing bird nonetheless.

Time was now an issue but we persisted on driving the southern track (S114) toward Crocodile Bridge - these journeys take a lot longer as these dirt tracks take a while to traverse. This track offered potential but mammals were generally sparsely distributed although it was great for birdlife.

We were careful not to drive over this hinged tortoise that walked slowly toward the car.

A bull elephant walked serenely by.

Some great birds though en route that kept us stopping at regular intervals, marabou stork, yellow-billed hornbill, and the glorious saddle-billed stork.