29/10/2009 - Swazi Cultural Highlights Tour

We where up with the sun this morning for a shuttle to Malendelas Restaurant were we met our guide for todays tour. After picking up the rest of our group we made our way to Manzini, the historic capital of Swaziland for the massive Thursday Market. We had 1hr to fight through the masses (as the only white people), picking up a few souvenirs in amongst the hustle and bustle.

After this we where taken to the Swazi Cultural Village, a working village that retains and displays Swazilands cultural history. We watched a spectacular song and dance show, with Nicole being roped in to dance at one point!!! Following this we where led around the village itself, with a guide explaining how the village worked and who was important, Grandma is the Number One!

An excellent lunch followed, although we had to battle with a troop of Vervet Monkeys for control of the food! The monkey's seemed to annoy the guides but me and Nicole loved it!

We then visited a stunning waterfall with Execution Rock (Swaziland used to throw criminals from here!) as a background.

The tour then moved on to a number of craft shops including the beautiful Swazi Candles, Boabab Boutiques (souvenir purchased) and finally Gone Rural, where farmers wives make stunning products out of grass and where we got to see behind the scenes.

The tour finished at the "world famous" House of Fire, an eccentric amalgamation of the work of various Swazi artists with the best female toilet in the world (pics to follow).

We then had an unfortunate wait of over 1hr for our pick up and lift back to Sondzela where we spent an evening relaxing before a sleep with Kevin the gecko in the corner of the room keeping the insects at bay.

30/10/2009

The relentless rain that had been falling for 36hrs was still going when we woke up this morning so we had a lie in. The rain eventually let up around 11am so we decided to take advantage and do a walk through the beautiful Milwane Wildlife Sanctuary. We spent 4hrs walking through the sanctuary sharing the fields with Wildebeest, Zebra, Impala and Waterbuck! At one point we even had a face off with a huge Warthog before Nicole managed to frighten it away freeing the path for us to pass!!!

Nicole was on Steve Irwin form and after noticing a shape on the other side of a pond (20ft away) she decided to take a closer look, before proudly turning to me to announce the presence of a crocodile! Not wanting to appear chicken a joined her for a close inspection before swiftly moving in the opposite direction (constantly on the look-out for other crocs!)

This wasn't the end of the drama, as shortly afterwards we stumbled into the path of a herd of Wildebeest! A huge male seemed to take exception to our presence and after a few warning sounds we got the hint and turned back, taking the long route back to camp.

On return to the hostel we enjoyed some soup before using the evening to pack as we where to leave Swaziland the following day and return to South Africa!

31/10/2009

Another early start as we said goodbye to Sondzela, meeting the Baz Bus before 8am for our trip to Nelspruit!

The only interesting event today was the border crossing. Coming into Swaziland had been easy. However, the paperwork going back to South Africa, coupled with the queues meant that we took almost 1hr to travel 100 metres (Usain Bolt does that distance in under 10 seconds!)