I made coffee in my room, and we were on the road by 7. Our breakfast stop was at 7:45 at a “Mugz & Beanz”, which we see everywhere, sort of like a Tim Horton’s. We are driving away from Hippo-land and head towards a new country, Swaziland which is now called eSwatini. I’ve noticed a few towns that are spelled with the first letter small and the second letter as a capital.
We were at the border by 9:45 and there were no line-ups, so we were through South Africa departure border and into the eSwatini border in no time. No ugly situations this time either, but there are a lot of men with guns, so I think people are on their best behaviour.
No pictures allowed, and I didn’t even try.
I was excited to be here, it’s one of the places that I used to dream about when I was little....places like Zanzibar, Constantinople, Persia, Ceylon, Rhodesia...places that don’t even exist anymore. Lucky I got here before the passport stamp changed!
Speaking of passport stamps, they are stamp-happy here. One stamp coming into South Africa on day one, then a departure stamp from SA as we left to go to Lesotho, then one to enter Lesotho, then another as we left Lesotho, and another as we re-entered South Africa, another as we then left SA to go into Swaziland, then one to actually get into Swaziland and then, yes, another as we left Swaziland and one final one to re-enter South Africa. Nine stamps for three countries. Good thing my passport is a 10 year one with lots of pages.
Anyhow. ESwatini. It’s the smallest landlocked country in the Southern Hemisphere, but it’s not an enclave like Lesotho since it’s bordered by Mozambique as well as South Africa. It’s only 17,000 sq km. The population is just barely over a million. Life expectancy is only 55 for men, a bit more for women. It has the highest rates of HIV/AIDS in the world. The highest. Over a quarter of the population has HIV/AIDS.
The weather is very erratic, causing drought, floods and soil erosion, making farming a declining way to survive. The land is overgrazed and farming practices (crop rotation etc) are very outdated. There is very little potable water, thus hepatitis A and typhoid are extremely common, as is malaria. More than half of the country’s population is unemployed.
Our resort is in The Valley of Heaven. An odd name for such a poverty stricken country. The king however, has 15 wives and 24 children and is worth an estimated $200 million. He indulges in luxury cars and is roundly criticized for his lifestyle while his people suffer poverty. He is allowed to choose a new wife at an annual dance, women travel from all over to participate in the 8 day event. The motto of the Swazi people is “We are a fortress, we are a mystery.”
We arrived at our traditional beehive huts in the Milwane Wildlife Sanctuary. This place is incredible! The doors are only about 4.5 feet high, even I had to bend over to get inside.
As usual, I had a multitude of beds to choose from.
A modern bathroom was attached to the back.
All sorts of wild animals wandered through the grounds, various types of antelopes, bush pigs and warthogs.
This mama warthog tried to crawl under the deck with her babies, but she couldn’t quite make it, so she turned around and backed in...the better to keep an eye on unsuspecting folks who shrieked whe seeing her ugly mug peeking out at them as they tried to get into the restaurant.
The bush pigs were a little cuter, but not by much.
Our first stop here was to go to a nearby village and meet the chief. And, I might add , the chief is a woman, but first, a cooling and celebratory drink with our driver.
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