It was the second time we had passed through Mlilwane.
The first, in April 2017, lasted less than a day.
It left us frustrated. We were part of one of those South African expeditions, on board a truck adapted for passengers.
We left Kruger National Park late.
Along the way, the temperature drops substantially.
We arrived at the border with Swaziland around lunchtime, already under heavy rain.
One of the traditional beehive hut accommodation sections at Mlilwane Wildlife Sanctuary
The First Raid on Mlilwane
At Mlilwane Wildlife Sanctuary, with the afternoon almost over, we only had time to settle into one of its rounded beehive huts and go for a short walk.
The guides serve a dinner, as is almost always the case, improvised by them.
Swazi ethnic dances performed by the reserve workers follow.
Women dance traditional Swazi dances at Mlilwane Wildlife Sanctuary
And a long conversation with leader Alberthram TENK Engel, focusing on the peculiarities of the kingdom of Swaziland
.It rains all night.
After an early breakfast, the group gathers courage.
Even under the annoying, rain-soaked rain, we accept Tenk's challenge of walking the almost 8km of the local Hippo Trail.
The hippos remained in the reserve's lake. We mainly saw birds and tiny antelopes, the wild goats.
Wild goat in the dense vegetation around Reilly's Rock Hilltop Lodge
We returned to Mlilwane camp. Waves of mist kept the weather cold.
We all sat around a fire that the employees had lit, chatting pleasantly.
We are in this entertainment when, out of nowhere, a family of African warthogs appears.
More concerned with keeping warm than with the imminence of humans, they settle down next to the fire and stay there.
Warthogs warm themselves on a cold, wet morning at Mlilwane Wildlife Sanctuary
At about 10:30, we set off towards Zulu zone of the South African coast of St. Lucia. After two hours, we said goodbye to Swaziland for good.
The following year, 2018, marked the 50th anniversary of the kingdom's independence.
King Mswati III dictated that Swaziland would be renamed eSwatini, the term that the natives had always used and with which they identified themselves, instead of the Swaziland imposed by the British colonists and which, allegedly, irritated the monarchs because, in English, it resembled Switzerland.
In February 2024, we will return to eSwatini, instead of Swaziland, this time with “all the time in the world”.
Lucky, one of the security guards at Mlilwane Wildlife Sanctuary
We decided to include a return to Mlilwane to resolve the little or nothing we had explored on our inaugural visit to the reserve.
We traveled from Maputo to Manzini, aboard a “chapa” that Swazi women usually use, at the weekend, to go and buy clothes and other items in the street markets of the Mozambican capital.
We started by dedicating ourselves to “Heavenly” Ezulwini Valley, with a providential welcome at the Mantenga Lodge located there.
View from the top of Execution Rock with the Ezulwini Valley in the background
Seven Years Later, Back at Mlilwane Wildlife Sanctuary
Three nights later, we moved to Mlilwane. We were accommodated in one of the rooms at Reilly's Rock Hilltop Lodge.
Set away from the main camp of the Mlilwane Wildlife Sanctuary, tucked away in the early days and raison d'être of the reserve, this lodge would soon prove to be something special.
The driver parks beneath the tentacular branches of a huge, ancient tree.
Ancient, tentacled tree and home of Reilly's Rock Hilltop Lodge
The Stunning and Historic Reilly's Rock Hilltop Lodge
A few meters away, a staircase leads to a spacious house built of stacked stone. Two maids come to help us with our luggage.
We go to the reception, a mere counter fitted into a living room full of furniture, functional and decorative objects.
Everything radiated an expected colonial atmosphere.
A campfire lights up and warms the night, next to Reilly's Rock Hilltop Lodge,
We were, after all, in the heart of the estate of Mickey Reilly, one of the first white settlers in Swaziland.
Mickey and Ted. Two Influential Generations of Reillys
Resourceful, Reilly settled in that part of Swaziland as a farmer and manager of the McCreedy tin mines, for many years one of the main employers in colonial Swaziland.
Facade of Reilly's Rock Hilltop Lodge, perched atop Mlilwane Wildlife Sanctuary
It is said that, at the beginning of the 20th century, he managed to exchange the construction of that mansion for an ox cart. Originally, the house had four bedrooms.
Today, there are six, all with direct access to a long covered balcony.
As the name of the lodge suggests, the property is located on a hill.
East of the Mhlangeni River, which the Reillys have partly dammed to form a large lake.
Lake formed by the dam of the Mhlangeni River, in the Mlilwane Wildlife Sanctuary
The royal residence of eSwatini is a few kilometers to the north.
The Mlilwane estate is surrounded by pockets of forest, savannah and hillside, which are fenced off to prevent animals from escaping and poaching.
Ted Reilly. Swaziland's Wildlife Conservation Mentor
It was in this environment that, from 1938 onwards, Mickey's son, Ted, already a native of Swaziland, grew up.
Ted learned to appreciate the surrounding flora and fauna.
And, at a certain point, worrying about the widespread destruction of the ecosystem.
Between more or less organized hunts by the colonists and captures by the Swazi people, a large part of the Kingdom's animal species became endangered or even became extinct.
A giant hornbill in the grassy expanse of Mlilwane
Now, owner of the vast lands of Mlilwane, from 1950 onwards, Ted decided to found the pioneering protected area of Swaziland there.
It was the first of several decisive actions in the conservation of Swaziland's ecosystems that earned him the complimentary Swazi epithet of Msholo.
Ted created other protected areas that we would later explore. The Mkhaya Reserve and the Hlane Royal National Park, a trio that he combined under the Trust Big Game Parks.
Reilly's Rock Hilltop Lodge and Royal Botanical Garden
Let's return to Reilly's Rock Hilltop Lodge. We are immediately drawn to the property's humid, verdant charm.
Even before we ventured through its more than 45km2, we focus on the Royal Botanic Gardens that surround the villa.
Description of an Encephalartos Woodii
Tommy and Besh, two young Swazi guides, take us on a guided tour where they explain a little bit about the garden's rich and complex plant world.
Starting with the specimens of encephalartos well highlighted a few meters from the facade of the house.
Like so many animals, a plant species almost extinct due to excessive cutting justified by the flour obtained from the marrow of its trunks and other parts, with the most diverse medicinal purposes.
Encephalartos Woodii, an endangered plant species protected in the Royal Botanic Garden at Reilly's Rock Hilltop Lodge
The guides also show us aloes and, up and down the slope, to the displeasure of a group of guava-eating monkeys, a series of other prodigious trees and shrubs.
Back to the encephalartos, the lap ends.
We said goodbye.
Zebras graze among traditional beehive huts
Base Camp and its Beehive Hut “Villages”
From there, we continued to the base camp, where we had stayed in 2017.
We walked between the beehive huts, through a fresh and tender lawn that attracted zebras and nyalas, not at all intimidated by our approaches.
Ibis and blue monkeys watch over us from the top of the trees, the apes attracted by the aroma spread by the camp kitchen.
This was generated by the preparation of lunch, which we soon enjoyed, in the company of a few guests.
Vervet monkeys in observation mode
After lunch, we met up with Caro, another Big Game Parks guide. We climbed into an old jeep, probably from the time of the British colonists.
And the Discovery of the Four Corners of the Sanctuary
Once on board, we began a long and arduous journey through the animal reserve.
We headed to the Mhlangeni River lake, which we remembered was home to a few hippos.
“Well, we don’t have them anymore,” Caro explains. “Even with its size, the sanctuary borders plantations and villages.
Termite mound on the access road to Reilly's Hilltop Lodge
The hippos turned out to be a real pain. We had to get rid of them.”
Mlilwane was, compared to the other two Big Game Parks, a tiny reserve, with management that was just as delicate, if not more so.
Guide Caro approaches a group of wildebeest.
In addition to hippos, it also could not admit large predators, which would exterminate the herbivores in no time.
Aware of this reality, even while chatting with Caro, we focused on admiring the herbivores and birds we encountered: impalas, a few wildebeests, majestic kudus, zebras and ibex.
A mother kudu and a cub watch visitors watching them.
Still some blesboks, reintroduced into Malolotja reserve and elsewhere, after having almost become extinct in eSwatini. Also giant hornbills, ospreys and even blue cranes.
The afternoon was advanced. Caro had a plan in mind for the end of it.
End of the Day in the Nyonyane Highlands
It takes us up the slopes, to the crest of the Nyonyane Mountains that closed the reserve to the west.
Caro guide leads passengers on one of the red dirt roads of Mlilwane Wildlife Sanctuary
During the climb, we came across some retired wildebeest.
Once at the top, we recognized the Ezulwini Valley and the Mantenga Cultural Village and Mantenga Lodge from our first days in eSwatini.
Caro surveys the landscape, heading towards the crest of the Nyonyane Mountains.
Dear set up a picnic.
Meanwhile, we walk among aloe plants, a type of mountain sentinel, to the famous Execution Rock, from where it is said that, in the past, those condemned to death were thrown without appeal.
Aloe plants on the Nyonyane mountain ridge
Standing tall, the rock offers panoramic views over the cultural and royal heart of the kingdom.
Dark clouds weigh down the sky. Instead of a fiery firmament, the sunset traps us with showers that intensify, with the air of a thunderous storm that forces us to retreat.
That weather was typical of the summer of eSwatini and, in particular, of Mlilwane, the providential sanctuary of wild life.
Of lightning. And, on dry thunderstorm days, of the bonfires they generate.
Dusk in one of the traditional beehive hut accommodation sections of the Mlilwane Wildlife Sanctuary
How to go
Fly to Mbabane via Maputo, with TAP Air Portugal: flytap.com/ and FlyAirlink.
Where to stay
Mlilwane Wildlife Sanctuary:
biggameparks.org/properties/mlilwane-wildlife-sanctuary-2
Email: [email protected]
Phone: + 268 2528 1000 / + 268 7677 6772
