#mbuluzi

A few days after we arrived in Mbabane, Shaun and I took a little vacation to Mbuluzi, a game reserve on the far side of the country (which is still just a 90-minute drive from Mbabane). There are no elephants, rhinos, or lions there, so it's safe enough to take walks all over the reserve. That means you can round the corner and find yourself face to face with a giraffe.

Like I said.

  To me, this was completely magical. Some animals, like impala and nyala, are more skittish and will pretty much bolt on sight of you; the giraffes are big enough that they don't seem to mind you (otherwise known as the “I know I can stomp you to death if I need to” attitude), but will still keep at a reasonable distance. But all of them felt closer by virtue of not being fenced in, and by the fact that, as much ground as we covered and however many other visitors might have been staying at the park, it was usually quiet enough to hear the animals rustling around in the bush.

Game watching felt addictive from the first sighting. Even just hearing a branch snap under a footfall nearby was exciting and tantalizing (until we realized it was one of our footfalls). Giraffes were by far the highlight of our Mbuluzi trip, and although we saw a lot of them, and even saw many of the same ones over and over again, it never got boring. There's something about their heavy-lidded eyes and their slow, methodical trot that makes them seem perpetually calm, and calming. Here's a video of a giraffe just not giving a f*** about me.

A baby giraffe, showing off