An Oasis of Calm in Eswatini

From the moment we crossed the border into Swaziland (renamed Eswatini by the King in 2018, apparently to the annoyance of the people!) everything was different. There was a sense of calm and peacefulness. Even people´s faces seemed different – not angry and pinched but smiling and relaxed.

We asked the border guard where we could buy a sim card and he pointed us to the stalls on the side of the road. I asked if it was safe to stop and buy there and he looked at me confused – why would it not be?? Why indeed, we were no longer in South Africa!

We had entered Swaziland with 8 hours left before our visas ran out. We had been running around like crazy people towards the end and now looked forward to taking some time out. With 30 day visas in a small country there were no more time pressures. What a wonderful luxury it now seemed.

Our first stop was Malolotja National Park, high up in the mountains. We arrived just before 5pm to find the restaurant had closed at 4pm. But a quick phone call from reception and the staff agreed to hang on and make us burgers and beer before going home. I smiled at the receptionist and told her how pleased we were to be in Swaziland after 3 months in South Africa. She told us they were pleased to have us and graciously handed me our receipt with one hand placed across the other arm – a gesture of politeness which became very familiar in this welcoming and warm-hearted country.

The campsite was a 15 minute drive into the Park, entirely isolated from the outside world and we had it all to ourselves. We were 7,000 feet up but it was surprisingly warm. When we woke up the next morning the sun was shining and we took our time over training, breakfast and packing up – enjoying the warmth, the quiet and the relaxation.

We spent an hour or so driving around the Park, seeing beautiful mountains and a few antelope, then headed south to lower ground – our destination, Mlilwane Wildlife Sanctuary.

Mlilwane is absolutely stunning. It´s a small nature reserve by Kruger´s standards and doesn´t have the Big Five – mainly populated by birds, antelope, wart hog and crocodiles. But from the moment we arrived we felt at home.

The people were wonderful, the scenery gorgeous and the camp site was second to none. We were camping on our own again, 3km away from the main reception area in a forest. The ablutions block was spotless with hot water and plenty of space. We wanted to move in!

As we set up camp all the stresses of rushing around South Africa started to fade away. The constant time pressure was gone and we could just put our feet up and do as much or as little as we wanted.

And what we wanted right then was very little!

James started working on Henry´s maintenance and I spent some time going through my photos and drafting my very much delayed blog post.

It was bliss.

Our only companions were a group of curious Nyala.

The next day we decided we were going to stay longer and booked another night. We planned to do a game drive around the park late morning and in the meantime James set about greasing Henry´s props. By midday we were still enjoying staying put for a while so pushed our planned drive to 3pm. Needless to say, we never moved from the campsite and the game drive was forgotten!

We did, however, get all our laundry done including the bedding, shake out the mattress and clean down Henry´s insides. We hadn´t been this clean since we left the UK! It was a good day and we were starting to feel back in control.

We also had friends over for lunch….

We slept soundly that night, listening to the sounds of the forest and feeling very contented.

The following day we finally got out into the reserve. The trails around the plains were easy with plentiful antelope dotted around the savannah grasses.

But then we ventured north west to higher ground where the routes became a little more challenging.

Many of the roads were closed off, apparently COVID had meant the regular maintenance of the trails had been put on hold and some were becoming unpassable. The winter season had also been unusually wet making mud patties out of normally dry tracks. So we struggled to find our way to many of the outer regions of the reserve but it was enough for the moment, we weren´t in need of a big adventure!

What we did find, though, was crocodiles! Sunning themselves in the large lagoon near the entrance to the reserve.

As we watched, another croc slipped into the water and started heading our way. I climbed out of Henry to get a better shot.

But there was nothing between him and me so I made sure Henry was close enough to offer safe refuge!

That evening we were in a celebratory mood so opened the bottle of champagne we had bought in Robertston a few weeks ago and raised a glass to Swaziland.

We had been at Mlilwane for three days and itchy feet started to call. So we dragged ourselves away from the tranquility of the reserve and headed back to Malolotje to do their famous canopy walk.

Apparently a canopy walk is otherwise known as a zip wire – who knew?? Not quite what we´d bargained for but it turned out to be an absolutely fabulous experience.

Whizzing down wires amongst some of the most beautiful scenery yet.

The platforms were precarious but the most heart-stopping part was walking the very wobbly suspension bridge!

Our guides made the whole experience very special and took all the photos here for us.

By the end we were both a little wobbly-legged but exhilerated.

We stopped at the restaurant again, for pizza this time, then headed to the Lidwala Backpackers Lodge in town for the night.

Lidwala was a lovely campsite with lovely people but the area set aside for overland vehicles was basically a car park right next to the extrance gate. We spent the evening listening to traffic in the town and looking glumly out at a distinctly urban view. Mlilwane seemed a long way away and we were missing the peace and quiet.

Undeterred, the next day saw us ticking off as many of the sights around the Ezulwini Valley as we could. The King Sobhuza II Memorial Park didn´t look inviting enough to stay long but the Mandenga Craft Market was great fun. I bought two new bracelets and we pottered around the stalls for an hour or so. On a gate into a nearby lodge we saw the sign ´Eswatini – Africa without the hassle!´ and we couldn´t have agreed more!

The next stop was the Ezulwini Craft Market. It seemed to be struggling, maybe another COVID casualty, and most of the stalls were closed down. The people who were there were very friendly though with none of the usual pressure to buy. We chatted to some of them about the country´s name change and most simply seemed bemused.

We finished the morning at Sibebe Rock, the second largest monolithic rock after Ayers Rock, and finished our pizza and cookies from the previous day admiring the scale – which is hard to reflect in a photograph.

Pressing on with our sight-seeing we decided to visit the Ngwenya Mine – the oldest mine known in the world at 43,000 years old!

The area was originally mined in the Stone Age for red ochre and then in more modern times for iron ore. It hasn´t been in use for years and is now a beautiful tourist attraction.

We parked Henry up and walked to the original red ochre cave called Lion Cave

We didn´t see any lions, but the resident lizard posed nicely for his photo!

That evening we headed straight back to our wonderful Mlilwane camp site again – why risk another night like Lidwala when we had already found perfection??

In fact, we loved Mlilwane so much, and were so pleased not to have tight deadlines and busy itineries to follow, that we decided to stay on for another five days! This sort of behaviour is not like us at all but we were enjoying a bit of down time.

James even put my hammock up and I spent the entirety of one day lying in it trying to plan our onwards travel.

The portable solar panels were brought out to help the roof-mounted ones which were struggling to keep the batteries charged under the forest canopy.

And we spent a great deal of time enjoying cooking, something that we don´t always do as we´re often tired, cold or it´s too dark and insecty to be fun. We made a variety of meals from simple stir-fries to vietnamese noodles to a chicken and mushroom braai over the fire….

And the local truffle gin turned out to be a winner!

Trying to plan our next steps was becoming increasingly difficult. We hoped to go straight from Swaziland to Mozambique then into Zimbabwe, Botswana, Namibia, Angola, Zambia, Malawi then up the east coast. I lay in my hammock with the laptop trying to work it all out. A jigsaw puzzle of visas, carnets, avoiding dangerous areas and peak seasons and trying to fit in a trip back to the UK to see family and friends later in the year – meaning securing a re-entry visa, storage for Henry and reasonable flights – seemed to be becoming an impossible equation. We decided to go to the Mozambique and South African embassies for some more detailed advice.

They were both very helpful but ultimately couldn´t fix the problem. Eventually we decided we needed to stay in Swaziland for the full 30 days of our visa then return to the UK earlier, before we entered Mozambique. This plan seemed to fix all the problems in one go – job done, but what on earth were we going to do here for another three weeks??

Each evening we had new people coming to stay on the campsite with us. First a German couple, then an Israeli couple, then Dutch. We sat round the fire swapping stories, experience and advice. It was fascinating to hear about other people´s travels, eye-opening to find how hard it is for people with an Israeli passport to even get into many countries and ego-boosting to have everyone admire Henry and show enthusiasm for our adventures past and future.

One day, as we were busy doing nothing, a large group of school children arrived at the camp site with their teachers on a field trip. The teachers were trying to tell them about the flora and fauna but eyes were being distracted by us and we heard whisperings. Eventually one of the teachers came over and said that the kids were fascinated by our vehicle and would we mind if they had a look around. We were delighted and gave them a grand tour which was greeted by gasps of excitement, oohs and aahs and one young girl said, with great authority, that buying a house was a waste of money when you can live in a car! Even the teachers were impressed and asked for our blog details.

But we were starting to tire of being in one place for so long. To fend off the worst of the itchy feet we decided to go for a few walks in the park. The first was a gentle hour-long stroll in a loop through the plains.

But the next day we wanted something a bit more challenging so drove up to the Execution Rock viewpoint where we parked Henry at the start of a 45 minute hike straight up!

The views were lovely.

And the summit of the Rock looked manageable, even for us die-hard 4x4ers!

So off we went, water and camera in hand, sun beating down on us. Most of the walk was fine, a gentle upwards and sometimes downwards path. But other parts required a bit of rock scrambling and James mused on what on earth I would do if I didn´t have his hand to hold as I wobbled precariously on the rocks!

It was worth the effort though.

James climbed the last few meters to the very top of the rock….

But warned me not to try as there was a sheer drop down the side and my sense of balance is not world-renowned! I would show him!

We got back to the campsite tired and happy. But we couldn´t sit around any longer, we needed to move on – even a little piece of heaven can only hold us for so long.

So the next day we packed Henry up and set off towards the Hlane Game Reserve – a Big Five reserve with elephant, rhino…..and lions!

Hlane has its own blog post which will come next. We stayed for six wonderful days and had some amazingly up close and personal experiences with some rather large animals. But much of the time was spent sitting on the campsite reading, eating in their restaurant or cooking our own lovely meals.

Eventually we felt we had seen all the lions, elephant and rhino we could see and pulled ourselves away. But where to go? We were running out of sites to see in Swaziland apart from the eye-wateringly expensive private lodges where we wouldn´t see anything more than we had at Hlane.

So, with knowing smiles on our faces, we headed back to Mlilwane! The staff were pleased to see us, it felt like coming home……