Elephant Coast - Hluhluwe-Imfolozi Park

Despite the number of parks and animals I have seen in the past months, the Hluhluwe-Imfolozi Park was an impressive experience. As in any parks, it is possible to drive around searching for animals, but in this park, the attraction was to sit in a game hide near a waterhole and to wait for animals.

Another strong point for this park is the quantity of white rhinoceros one is able to observe. It is one of the oldest parks in South Africa and it is a fertile place for rhinoceros, despite problems of poaching.

Driving around...

Nyala.

In a hide, near a waterhole...

I spent many hours in a hide where a large number of animals came to drink.

A nyala and an impala.

This white rhinoceros came close to the waterhole, but it has never stopped for a drink.

Nyala and warthog.

A nice mud bath.

Impalas.

Smart, this elephant... Instead of drinking 'dirty' water from the pond, why not drink directly from the source point?

Female Nyalas.

An elephant herd going through the waterhole...

It's one of the most impressive sights I have seen in Africa. The hide is about 4 metres away from the waterhole. Thus, it is quite near and there is no noise from cars engine. All the sounds coming from the animals are easily heard.

The first elephants are coming.

This elephant is looking right toward the cache. It is wary of human noise or smell.

After a few minutes, there were elephants all over the waterhole. Probably around 50 went pass...

When elephants are coming, all the other animal species keep their distance and patiently wait their turn...

At the end, when the herd was gone, the pond was looking bad. The water level was quite down and everything had been crushed by these heavy giants. The small tortoise (photo above) was probably quite upset by all this mess.

Leaving the waterhole, another herd of elephants...

Further away down the road, this other elephants herd had come to drink in the river.

Rhinos here, rhinos there...

I used to believe that rhinos were hard to observe. In this park, it was far from the case.

In fact, in Southern Africa, they are much easier to see than in East Africa.