Hluhluwe Imfolozi Park-of 960 square kilometre, consisting of two adjacent parks founded in 1895, and St. Lucia Wetland Park (iSimangaliso Park), the third largest park of South Africa. The Greater St Lucia Wetlands Park was declared South Africa's first Natural World Heritage S
ite, it has 280km of near pristine coastline and comprises of 328 000 hectares of magnificent scenery. Greater St Lucia Wetlands Park encompasses an immense mosaic of habitats ranging from marine systems (coral reefs and beaches) and coastal forests (from salt and fresh water marshes to the open estuarine waters of Lake St Lucia itself) from lush coastal plains to the drier woodland areas. This is a remarkably beautiful place in South Africa. Both parks are located in the province of KwaZulu Natal, which is called the garden province and is the home of the Zulu nation.The skeleton of the oldest human being has been found in this area. Here we stayed in two, by Dutch people –operated, lodges; the Wildebees Eco Logde in Hluhluwe and the beautiful Elephant Coast Lodge in St Lucia.
We drove about 100 km through the Hluhluwe Imfolozi Park, and 70 km through a part of the St Lucia Wetlands park, and made a boat trip on a river in which 2600 hippos and many crocodiles have been counted. Time and again, we were excited when we saw the wild animals, whether they were small or very large.
Hereafter we proceeded to Swaziland, an independent State since 1968, in which the King has an absolute power. We have stayed for two nights in Reilly's Rock Hilltop Lodge, a house in the middle of the Mlilwane Wildlife Reserve. This was the home of Mickey Reilly, one of Swaziland's earliest white settlers and a highly entrepreneurial man, the main building was built of stone in exchange for an ox-wagon in the early 1900's. The house has remained in the family and has recently been 
transformed into a unique hilltop lodge tastefully decorated in keeping with its colonial roots. Until his death in 2004, Prince Bernhard of the Netherland used to stay here every year for some time. 
Reilly' s RockThe fifth park that we visited was the Kruger National Park. This is one of the largest game reserves in Africa. It covers more than 20.000 square km ( half of the surface of the Netherlands) and extends 350 km from north to south and 60 km from east to west. Because of the ever increasing hunting with more modern weapons, the park was initially created in 1898 to control hunting and protect the diminished number of animals in the park. Since a few years, the park is part of the cross-border larger Limpopo Oogrens Park, situated in Mozambique and Zimbabwe.
In the park, visitors are not allowed to leave their vehicle except in one of the 25 rest camps. In addition to the size, this park is also known for the large variation in animal species.
The most well known are the so-called Big Five: the Lion, Buffalo, Rhinoceros, Leopard, and the African elephant. Of the latter the Kruger Park has the largest population in the world. In 2003 there were 11.700 African elephants in the park. In addition to these five species, there can be seen another 147 different species of mammals, such as the giraffe, 
impala, wild dog, hyena, jackal, zebra, cheetah, wildebeest, warthog, baboon. Furthermore 114 species of reptile, including 3000 crocodiles. Out of the 517 species of birds found at Kruger, 253 are residents, 117 non-breeding migrants, and 147 nomads.
The first two nights we stayed in a tent and heard the roaring of the lions and the sniffing of the hippos in a nearby pond. One morning five velvet monkeys stole all what was edible from our refrigerator ! 
We have been driving about 450 km through the park, mainly by our own car, but also with a guide and have seen the big five during the same day. As it was spring here, there were very many newborn animals of which we will remember the four days old giraffe and the tiny rhino most.
From here we went to Guernsey Private Nature Reserve, a private park, where we slept two nights in a tree in the Pezulu Tree House Lodge, an unforgettable experience.
We visited this park by 4WD Landrover and found a lion that had recently killed a buffalo. He was guarding his prey, while vultures were waiting in the surrounding tree tops. We also found four cheetah’s and before sunset we had seen the other members of the big five as well; a worthy end of our visit to the wildlife of South Africa.
From here we drove to Dullstroom and the capital Pretoria and on 3. December we left from Johannesburg to Holland where we will stay until Christmas.
Once more we received many reactions to our blog such as from Pierre and Marlyse Schmid from Switzerland. They have lived on Bonaire for some time and like us, they use to travel the world on a regular basis, perhaps more than we do!
For more pics see our Dutch blog http://www.jan-margreth3.blogspot.com/
