Home » Swaziland Ukraine » South African Adventure 1999, Part 9: Exploring Swaziland

The first days in Swaziland we took part in the daily life at the orphanage, learning how Borgny coped with everything. We also had some time to explore Swaziland in more detail than during the tour with Drifters. Eventually we visited Mbabane to obtain visas for Mozambique and drove to Hlane Game Reserve near the border to spend the night. We stayed in a nice big house near a water hole and saw lots of animals coming to drink in the evening.

South African Adventure 1999, Part 9: Exploring Swaziland

Jan Arild Teland
2006-05-08 20:28:11

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We had never expected to find such a cafe in Swaziland, so we really seemed to have underestimated the country! This seemed like the perfect time to send a few more e-mails so we went inside and were assigned a computer. The cafe wasn't very big, only around four computers, most of them busy at the moment. However, it was very cheap at only 10R for half an hour.

Once again it was great to read new e-mails from back home. I sent out some messages telling the latest news of our trip before logging out at 1245. After some final purchases at the mall, we had all the stuff we could possibly need for the rest of the trip.

For simplicity we all had yet another meal at KFC before driving up to the Mozambique embassy to collect our visas. We sat in the car while Gunnar was waiting in line outside the gate. The embassy was supposed to open at 1400, but apparently they were having an extended lunch break because as time approached 1445 the gate was still closed and we could see no sign of any activity inside.

Finally, some guy came out and announced that they would open in about an hour! However, then he smiled and everyone realised that he had been joking as he proceeded to open the gate. Once inside, Gunnar quickly collected our passport with the visas inside.

We now headed back towards Manzini but instead of turning south towards Nhlangano we proceeded eastwards through the city, not stopping until we reached the Hlane Game Reserve.

We were now only about 20km from the Mozambique border at a place called Ndlovu camp where we would spend the night. After checking in we were shown to our accommodation which was a large house with four bedrooms. It was real luxury! Further, the house was located very close to a water hole. The sun was about to set and lots of animals were now gathering around to drink. It was just incredible to watch them so closely! There were several rhinos, waterbuck, impala, ostriches and warthogs amongst other things. We stood watching them until it finally became too dark to see anything.

We started making dinner around 1830 and it wasn't finished before 2000. Once again we had a braai, but this wasn't just any braaii, it was in my opinion the best braai ever! (Sorry Kurt!). The meat was just perfect and we had brought salad and potato salad with us, making it a perfect meal.

It had been some weeks since we had been in the wilderness, and I have to say it was great to be back to only being surrounded by the wild African bush! We sat there relaxing until around 2200 when we all went to bed.