South Africa, Lesotho & Swaziland
Travel Report
Mlilwane Wildlife Sanctuary
Palaces to Caves
Printer friendly version
Travel Notes
Mbabane
Photos
Swaziland
Soundbites
Bird Song
Geoff's Travel Mailing List
You can subscribe to Geoff's Travel Mailing list to receive copies of my travel notes while I'm on the road, as well as notification of updates to the website. Click on the link below to subscribe or unsubscribe from the mailing list.
Subscribe/Unsubscribe
Contact Me
To email me please Click Here
Travel Notes from Mbabane
Hi Everyone,
It was tough to leave Maputo, I had really enjoyed the time I had spent in the city and could have easily spent the month there watching the world cup. The world cup is seriously disrupting my travel plans at the moment. Most mornings I have the difficult decision to make of whether to travel to another city or country, do some sightseeing where I am or watch football in a bar from breakfast time until the middle of the afternoon. Football seems to be winning far too often. Well this is supposed to be a holiday and I should be enjoying myself; after all I've completed the arduous part of the journey, from now on the travelling should be fairly straightforward.
(PLEASE NOTE: The Swaziland Backpackers is now under new ownership and has moved to new premises. The details below of the place I stayed at back in 2002 has nothing to do with the current NEW Swaziland Backpackers. Maybe a change in name would of helped !)
I hitched a ride out of Maputo with Lou and Fran, the owners of The Base guesthouse I was staying at, who were just going to the country on a day trip. Swaziland is the smallest country in the Southern Hemisphere covering an area of just over 17,000 sq km with a population of approximately 850,000. A couple of hours after leaving Maputo we were in the heart of Swaziland and Lou dropped me off just to the west of Manzini at the Swaziland Backpackers hostel. Manzini is the industrial centre of the country and the gentle rolling hills that surround the city are covered in factories and warehouses. This is not what I was expecting to find in this small country. The hostel I stayed at was terrible as well and looking back on it I should of just left, the country is small enough that you can get anywhere in an hour or two. The hostel was in the middle of this industrial wasteland; there was no-one else staying there when I arrived. The toilets were broken, pipes were leaking and all the staff were doing was sitting around drinking and smoking.
First thing the next morning I left and hitchhiked the short distance to the Mlilwane Wildlife Sanctuary and the Sondzela Lodge that had been recommended to me by many people. The main reason I came here was to see the hippos because I'm becoming desperate to make a sound recording of them for the website. I hiked the short distance to the main camp where there was a restaurant beside a waterhole. Wildlife casually strolled through the camp, small herds of impala and warthogs while I ate a late breakfast. I went for a hike in the late afternoon to the hippo pool but there wasn't a hippo in sight, only a couple of crocodiles lazily swimming across the lake. As the sun was setting behind the mountains I walked back to Sondzela.
I woke the following morning to be greeted by an ostrich drinking from the swimming pool outside my room. Today I decided to take a hike around the sanctuary, it was nice to be out in the wilderness again walking past herds of zebra and impala and also some other antelopes I have yet to identify. In the wooded areas I came across troops of grey monkeys and back at the hippo pool again not a sight or sound of a hippo, although the crocodiles were now sunning themselves on the banks. It was a nice walk that took most of the day although the distance wasn't great I spent a lot of time just sitting and watching the wildlife and enjoying the peace and quiet. I've run into winter again down here, the season I escaped from all those months ago at the start of the year in England. As soon as the sun set in Swaziland the temperature plummeted and I felt cold for the first time since climbing the high mountains in East Africa. Despite the cold at night the days were warm, the skies clear and sunny, very different to a winter back in England.
The lodge had a satellite TV and I stayed to watch the crunch match between England and Argentina on Friday, there were six of us gathered intently around the television. After the final whistle I picked up my pack and walked, with a huge smile on my face, back along the track, past the pineapple plantations and to the main road from where I hitchhiked down to the next junction. From there I took a local minibus the approximately 25km to Mbabane the capital city and arrived just before dark and checked into the Chillage on Mission Street. I only planned to spend a night at the Chillage but ended up staying a lot longer. The place is run by an English couple, Liz and Des with their young daughter Ava (and Bob the dog), and it was more like staying at someone's home rather than a guesthouse, there was a really laid back, chilled out atmosphere to the place. That evening we all went out to a party where Swaziland's top reggae band, The Black Roses, were playing. Also at the party was Mandala, the guy who was working at The Base in Maputo, together with another traveller who was staying at The Base. I had only been in the city a few hours and I already knew a small circle of people.
I spent the weekend relaxing in Mbabane, I really needed to spend some time doing nothing and have a break from travelling. I did go out for the day with Des' mate Skinny the taxi driver to have a look around the north of the country around Piggs Peak. One of the things I wanted to see were the bushman paintings. It was a bit of a mission finding them in a valley by the Komati River. We took directions along some dirt back roads and some local villagers pointed out the rock in the valley. It all looked easy from the ridge, but once we were in the valley, thick in the bush it took a long time back tracking up and down the valley to find this rock. The paintings were well worth the effort and the first bushman paintings I had seen in Africa.
I think its time now to leave Swaziland; if I stay longer I may be here for a very long time. The hippo hunt continues into another country.
Regards,
Geoff
| 
