Hlane Royal National Park

Hlane Royal National Park tickets and tours: which one to book

Hlane is the largest protected area in Eswatini, the small kingdom formerly called Swaziland, in the hot lowveld of the north-east, and it lies directly on the main road from the central towns of Manzini and Mbabane, an hour and a half to two hours away, to the Mozambican border at Lomahasha, which makes it a natural stop on the overland route between Johannesburg or Kruger and Maputo. It is managed by Big Game Parks, a Swazi conservation trust that also runs Mlilwane and Mkhaya, on behalf of the king, and its entrance fee is modest. Visitors with their own vehicle, an ordinary car being sufficient in dry weather, can drive themselves round the network of gravel roads in the western section, which holds the rhinos, elephants, giraffes and antelope;

the lions, however, live with the elephants in separate, fenced enclosures of several thousand hectares, which may be entered only on the park's own guided game drives in open Land Rovers, at sunrise, mid-morning and sunset, booked at the reception of the main camp. The activity for which Hlane is best known is the rhino walk, on foot with an armed ranger to within a respectful distance of white rhinos, for which this is one of the most reliable places in Africa; mountain-bike trails, birding walks and visits to a neighbouring Swazi chief's village are also offered. The day tours from Maputo, a long day with a border crossing, and from the Ezulwini valley combine a drive with cultural stops. There are two camps: Ndlovu, the main one, without electricity, lit by paraffin lamps, with cottages, a campsite and a restaurant overlooking a waterhole, and the smaller, self-catering Bhubesi.

Visiting Hlane Royal National Park: what you will see

Hlane, whose name means wilderness in siSwati, was for generations the private hunting ground of the Swazi kings, and the annual royal hunt, the Butimba, a ceremony in which the king and his regiments hunt on foot, is still held here. In 1967, a year before independence, King Sobhuza II proclaimed it a protected area, held in trust for the nation by the monarch, and entrusted its management to Ted Reilly, the farmer who had founded the country's conservation movement by turning his family's farm at Mlilwane into its first reserve. The park covers some 22,000 hectares of flat lowveld bush, with adjoining dispersal areas bringing the total to about 30,000, and its vegetation is a parkland of knobthorn, leadwood, marula and tamboti, with some trees of great age, ancient hardwood stands that are among the finest in the region, and dense thickets along the Umbuluzana river.

By the 1960s the large animals of Swaziland had been almost entirely shot out, and nearly everything here has been reintroduced: white rhinos, which do well and are seen at the waterhole in front of Ndlovu camp at almost any hour, in the company of hippos and, in the dry season, a procession of other animals; elephants, brought as orphans from Kruger's culls in the 1980s; lions, reintroduced in 1994 as a gesture by King Mswati III, the lion being the symbol of the Swazi king as the elephant is of the queen mother; leopards, cheetahs, spotted hyenas, giraffes, zebras, blue wildebeest, kudu, nyala, impala, waterbuck, bushbuck and warthogs. Rhino poaching reached Eswatini in the 2010s, and the animals here are dehorned and guarded. The birds are a particular strength: Hlane has the highest density of nesting white-backed vultures in Africa, in the tall trees along the river, and the southernmost nesting colony of marabou storks, along with lappet-faced and white-headed vultures, bateleurs, martial eagles, and some 250 other species.

Hlane Royal National Park: best time to go, seasons and hours

The gates are open from 6 am to 6 pm, and overnight visitors are asked to arrive before dusk. The dry winter, from May to September, is the best season for game, when the bush is leafless, the grass short, and the animals gather at the few waterholes, with the Ndlovu camp waterhole the easiest viewing of all; days are warm and nights cool to cold.

Summer, from October to March, is very hot, often above 35 degrees, humid and rainy, with thunderstorms, thick green bush, newborn impala in November and December, migrant birds, and some roads closed by mud. Malaria precautions are advised in summer. Allow one or two nights. Mkhaya game reserve, for black rhino, is an hour south, Mlilwane and the Ezulwini valley an hour and a half west, the Mozambican border half an hour north-east, and Maputo two hours.