Patrick one of our German guides just returned from the Walking South Africa JJa14 and has the below to share with you.

I have recently returned from our German accommodated Walking South Africa tour (Tour code JJag14) with 8 wonderful clients and my awesome colleague Clinton. We had a few wonderful tour days behind us already, and we were just leaving the Lower Sabie camp in Kruger NP heading to the Crocodile Bridge exit.

On our way out we were surprised by a few close sightings of white rhinos and the tip of the iceberg was a female cheetah sighting a few kilometres before exiting. There were dozens of cars around the sighting, but we had the advantage of being in the right spot in the right position at the right time. As we stood away from the other cars, facing the cheetah with the full view of our right side, the cheetah decided to stand up and started to gently stroll towards our direction. We had a beautiful view of the front and the side of the cheetah before heading out of Kruger NP.

Getting out of the Kruger NP we headed to Komatipoort for some shopping and then continued to the border of Jeppes Reef to exit South Africa and enter the Kingdom of Swaziland. Heading to our stunning accommodation in Swaziland for 2 nights (Hawane Resort), we stopped at Piggs Peak market for some souvenir shopping before continuing to our accommodation. We arrived in good time, and enjoyed some free time for the rest of the day which could be used for optional activities like running, hiking or just walking around on the property of the lodge or around it.
The second day in Swaziland we went to Malalotja Nature Reserve for our first real long walk of approx 18 km hilly and sometime steep terrains. Starting the walk at the reception of the Malalotja Game Reserve, we walked along the service road for a few km before getting off the service road and start descending to the view point of Swaziland’s highest waterfall, the Malalotja Falls of 80m fall. We continued our walk after enjoying the view of the falls to our picnic spot for lunch which is on a nice small stream in the shade. After resting for about 30 minutes we continue ascending back to starting levels and continue on the service roads until we arrived back to the reception.

All in all the Malalotja Nature reserve walk is a beautiful walk along mountainous terrain with amazing views over the mountains and scenes which one would not believe is actually from Africa. The walk is a little strenuous, and needs some sort of fitness level. But it is well worth the effort .