Staying among the animals in Eswatini (Swaziland)

This female nyala loved acacia leaves but she couldn't reach them so I helped out; Mlilwane was cool because we could walk among the animals since there were no dangerous species in the sanctuary

This was our lodging, built to resemble traditional huts; as of 2018, Eswatini has the 12th-lowest life expectancy in the world, at 58 years (mainly due to high HIV prevalence)

I had always assumed wildebeest were mean but maybe that's just because they look mean; they actually are in the same family as antelope, cattle, goats and sheep

Male nyalas are shy creatures but prized by game hunters for their impressive horns; nyalas became extinct in Eswatini in the 1950s but have since been reintroduced

Eswatini is one of the smallest countries in Africa (120 miles x 80 miles) but has very diverse climate and topography, ranging from a cool and mountainous highveld to a hot and dry lowveld

White-fronted bee-eater; this species has one of the most complex family-based social systems found in birds; non-breeding individuals become helpers to relatives and assist to raise their brood

Blesbok; it was so cool to be able to walk around the many animals at the sanctuary!; you sure couldn't do this in the Serengeti or at Kruger

Nyalas; Eswatini is the name for the country that, until 2018, was Swaziland; it is a landlocked country bordered by Mozambique on the NE and everywhere else by South Africa

Supposedly it was safe to wander around the sanctuary but there were crocodiles in the lake; they would come out on the banks to sun themselves and sure looked hungry

This cute warthog couple just couldn't resist snuggling in front of us; if one moved, the other would follow as if they couldn't be separated

Swaziland has their currency pegged to the South African rand so you can just use South African money here; somehow I managed to get this bill which is worth about 60 cents and will now be a souvenir

Gnu is always a great Scrabble word and is another name for a wildebeest; despite the famed annual great migration of wildebeest in the Serengeti, not all wildebeest are migratory