Mlilwane

What a fun trip!  I love animals and this is definitely animals.  We saw so many and so close to us.  I was amazed.

This is a wild game park just outside of where we stay in Swaziland.  We have driven past it many times and decided on a day when all our appointments had canceled that we would go visit.  It cost about $2 a person.

This is a monument to ORiely.  He donated the land for this Wildlife Sanctuary some 70 years ago or so.  The king at that time agreed and took the land to create this park. 

I love the way the Swazi people make their fences.  They put sticks straight up in the ground close together and just run them for however long they want.
Fencing, by the way, in Swaziland is an interesting thing.  They have all kinds of fencing but I believe it is more likely used conscientiously  to keep animals out than in.  You never want to drive on the roads in Swaziland in the dark.  The cows, goats, etc. run wild on the roads and the hump/bumps put in for traffic speed are horrendous.

Now, about the fencing......You see fencing, modern fencing, all over but there are always holes in the fencing along the road.  I would think you might as well not have any fencing at all if you are going to let the fence get holes in it.

I was thinking of this thought when listening to the words of the sacrament song, "There is a Green Hill Far Away".  In that song, one of the verses says, "He, only, could unlock the gate of Heaven and let us in".  If the gate is open, then there is no need for the fence.  God has opened up Heaven.  He is not keeping it from us.  Do we know the gift heaven is?  Do we want heaven enough to use our probationary time to KNOW GOD, to take upon us His Name
 and in doing so, recognize the great gift of this open gate?  Or are we still seeing the fence around it not ready to receive the great gift that has already been given us.  The gate is open!!!!  Will we walk thru it?

Birds live in this hillside

We were so taken by this little beautiful bird that I did not get a picture of.  It is bluegreen feathered around its wings but red throated and it's head just glistens in the sun.  It is only about 5 inches long from head to tail but it pecks holes in the side of this hill for its nest.  We watched them fly in and out for quite a while. This was on the Hippo Trail!

Impala beauty, tail down

Warthogs in the distance with big tusks

baby warthogs not quite big tusks

baby Nyala let me get real close

Big Nyala daddy.  See the pocadots on his face!

Sis. Martins and me close to the warthog babies

baby zebras have fuzz on their furr

Pretty park

First guinea hens I have seen. Suppose to be country bird.

We hope to visit more of the wildlife parks to see what we can see.  This was an amazing adventure.  I told the grandkids we need to have an African rodeo.  How many of these animals could you ride?  On Swiss Family Robinson movie, they rode a few of them. 

Still hope to see a Hippo and a giraffe and an ostrich.  These are ones I hope to see on my list of animals to see.  I would love to see more monkeys.  We saw a monkey on a leash at the grocery store yesterday.  It was a spider monkey.  The spider monkey on a leash was the first wild animal I saw when we came to Africa and the only wild animal I saw for 5 months.  However, I have only seen these two monkeys in the wild.  I did see 4 monkeys on the road to the Swazi village when we visited Swaziland the last time though and are told that the missionary home, (called the green house) wakes up each morning to the laughing and swinging from the limbs of the monkeys.  Wow!  What an experience.