Swazi Gold and Heading Home
So, I’m slowly making my way home now from Mozambique to Cape Town. The ones who are less geographically challenged will realise that Swaziland and an awfully large part of South Africa lies in between. So, of course, I had to stop in Swaziland.
Swaziland has the feel of one tribe of South Africa living in a country of its own (our currency is equivalent too so you can use rands interchangeably). The places are great and I really liked it. Of course, I only stayed at one spot for two days so I’m kinda not an expert on the whole place but I smaak to go back some day and check out more. The spot I stayed at was a backpackers called Sondzela inside one of the game reserves. Picture a front yard looking out over green hills and valleys with deer, zebras and others in the distance. Described as one of the most scenically set backpackers in Southern Africa, they won’t get any arguments from me.
Since I had foregone Kruger to take the southern route out of Moz, I decided to stop at Hluhluwe Game Reserve after Swaziland. The trip there was a tiny little bit involved and hectic.
Firstly I started 8am the morning from Sondzela to get the shuttle to the fruit market in the nearest town. Then I took a R5 taxi to Manzini, the transport hub of Swaziland. From Manzini, I could have taken a Durban bus for R150 but since I was only going halfway to Hluhluwe, I thought it was stupid to pay the full price, I missioned another way.
I took the taxi I thought was going to the border (R15) but it turned out that it was going to Matapa/Big Bend so I had to catch another taxi (R11) from there to the border. After the border, things got a little bit vague (what a welcome back to South Africa!). When I asked whether there were taxis to Hluhluwe, I was told that I could get one from Mkuse but that there were none to Mkuse anyway and that I would have to hike. I tried that for a about two minutes but then caught a taxi (R5) to Pongola, which is in the wrong direction but I heard I could get a taxi to Mkuse from there. On the way, I spotted people waiting for taxis going the other way so I asked the driver to drop me off at one, saving myself the 20km in the wrong direction.
So I waited at a bus stop and, of course when the bus came, it was NOT going to Mkuse. Are you tired of this route yet? Me too but I got on the bus (R10) anyway because apparently it took me most of the way to Mkuse. I got dropped at the fork where the bus went off to Josina and I considered walking the rest of the 5km for all of 10 seconds. Instead I stood alongside the road thumb in the air, thinking a bus would probably come along. Unknowingly I was participating in one of the those you-have-to-know ways to get around South Africa and soon I was sitting in someone’s car on my way after having negotiated a price. In fact, the guy turned out to be going past Hluhluwe anyway so he dropped me at the turn off (R25).
There was nothing at the turn off so walked to the closest place I could see which turned out to be a farm stall. The lady at the farm stall was brilliant and I buzzed with her for a while before I phoned the backpackers for a pick up. I managed to book a dorm but when I was arranging the pick up my cellphone battery died. The lovely lady at the farm stall phoned for me, because there was no payphone nearby, and left a message on the guys cell voicemail to come pick me up.
Then she closed up shop because it was 4 o’clock. She could have given me a lift into the town, but since she had left a message for him to pick me up there, I was advised to wait in front of the shop for him.
So I waited and waited and waited some more. And it got dark and I had no way to phone, I didn’t know how far or where the town or the place I needed to get was and I there wasn’t much civilisation around. I tried hiking for a bit but no one seemed likely to stop and it didn’t seem like the people who were likely to stop were the type that I would want to stop and pick me up.
I tried settling down and getting ready to sleep outside the farm stall and eat a supper of cashew nuts and half a small bottle of water but I was too restless.
Eventually a guy wandered past and he had a cellphone and I managed get him to lend it to me while I phoned around with my sim card inside it. By 9h30 I got hold of people willing to pick me up was whisked away to a lodge for a quick snack and deep sleep.
It wasn’t as stressful as it sounds though (okay, it was) but the most devastating part of the whole process was that I lost my bloody sunglasses somewhere along the way. I really liked them too. It’s enough to make me cry or get another pair.
The next day (yesterday) I did a game drive (I deserved it) and then made my way to Durban today. And that, folks, brings me up to date. Laters…
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Ghalied