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Sleepy Rhinos, Hlane National Park, eSwatini

 

Hlane Royal National Park is the largest of eSwatini's (formerly Swaziland) game parks. It is home to the country's biggest herds of game and known in particular for its lion and (white) rhino populations. We paid a visit - on our way to another of the country's reserves - largely because we wanted to see the latter.

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As is obvious from the photos, we were not disappointed. Within less than 10 minutes of passing through the park's gates (shown above) we spotted the first rhinos.

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It was around midday and most of the rhinos we encountered had sought out a spot in the shade, like the two in the photo at the beginning.

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There is plenty of other wildlife here, too.

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There were very few other visitors. In fact, I seem to remember that we only saw two or three other vehicles during our time in the park.

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We could, therefore, view the animals at leisure and position the car appropriately to get good photos. In many parts of Kruger, by contrast, a rhino sighting is likely to create a traffic jam. If you are visiting both eSwatini and South Africa it is perhaps useful to know that an 'All Parks' SAN Wild Card covers Hlane as well, i.e. you get free access.

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Look at the bright side - at least you have seen one more wild rhino than most people! :-)

However, if you want to increase the count eSwatini is THE place to see them. The country appears to be doing very well in terms of preventing poaching - not an easy thing to do when you're up against well-organised criminal gangs who even use helicopters to pursue their prey.

https://www.telegraph.co.uk/tr...ni-wildlife-holiday/

Unfortunately, the senseless killing will not stop until there is no market for rhino horn any more. That probably means convincing the end-users in China and Vietnam that what they are buying (and paying handsomely for) really is chemically identical to human toe-nail clippings.

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