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Well most of you are probably aware by now that my big African adventure for 2010 has actually come to an end and I'm now back in Auckland working away trying to save up for my next holiday :-) But I hate leaving anything unfinished so here are the last days of our trip.........

We left Tofo very early in the morning....not as early as the 4 am we had initially been told, but we were waiting from 3am for the bus to leave. We finally got going at about 5 but the conductor then proceeded to tout for extra business...we can't have the chapa with a few empty seats all the way to Maputo apparently! So to cut a long story short about 9 hours later, with a few piglets along for the ride (boy can they squeal!) as well as the obligitory chooks under the seat, a little girl lying across my lap and sacks of millet, coconuts, maize etc filling up the aisle we arrived in Maputo to stay at Fatimas Backpackers. And a lovely backpackers it was too bar the odd rat running around, Kath and I had a huge room all to ourselves which was nice after the last few nights in a dark and tiny bamboo hut.

Over the next few days we wandered around Maputo admiring the amazing old train station that doesn't actually have any trains arriving and leaving...although there are plans to sort that out. We also discovered the fabric shops that were full of beautifully coloured African prints and also lots of Mozambique women all pushing and shoving as they tried to find a bargain. Maputo is quite a developed city and has some real shopping centres with supermarkets that compare with those at home. On our last afternoon in Maputo we made our way to the fish markets for a seafood feast and we weren't disapointed.....a kilo of prawns cooked in garlic butter, some fries and salad later we were happy :-) so we made our way back towards our backpackers and as we walked down a street that looked like we were heading in the right direction I saw a truckload of guys yelling out to us beckoning us over....I did my usual and gave them a bit of a hand signal back which made them all laugh as they drove off......an older guy in a 4x4 then pulled over and yelled out that we couldn't walk there and would probably be arrested if we continued. It turns out that we were walking on the road the president of Moz lived and walking on his side of the road was illegal...thankfully the lovely man offered us a lift which as we were pretty much exhausted we accepted and enjoyed the luxury of his car while we considered that we may have ended up spending our last night in Mozambique in the local prison!

So the next morning we woke up early after a bit of a sleepless night listening to the rain fall outside all night and made our way down to the bus station that the chapas to Swaziland left from. We were told the first chapa would leave at about 7 am so we were there a bit before and quickly found our chapa....the crappiest one in the bus station I might add. Anyway over 2 hours later and after the Moz women in the chapa started demanding a refund we finally left the bus station only to drive around the block once stopping to pick up another couple of woman....don't know where they came from! The we were finally on the way to Swaziland!

After a very easy border crossing and an equally easy chapa ride we arrived in Manzini in Swaziland and quickly found a micro (name for minibus transport in swazi) that would drop us off near the Swaziland Backpackers our home for the next few nights. I was really excited to be in Swaziland as I'd wanted to come here ever since I used to talk to the guys working for Coca-Cola over there when I used to work at CCA but was a little concerned about how cold it was....we were freezing and I ended up putting on pretty much all my warmish clothing when we walked to the place next door for dinner that night! Thankfully when we woke up in the morning we found that the temperature had risen a little and the sun was coming out.

Over the next 4 days we explored Manzini the closest city to us as well as the Ezulwini Valley. Swaziland is a tiny country with only about 1 million people and was a very easy place to travel around. Most people speak english which was fantastic after our struggles with Portuguese in Moz and it's really easy to catch micros all over the place. The Ezulwini Valley is very different to anywhere else we've been in Africa and actually feels a little like you're in the middle of Switzerland with high mountain ranges and lots of green grass everywhere. We spent a morning with Shaun the guy who owns the backpackers driving around visiting a lovely cafe next to Swazi candles which has a fantastic showroom full of candles in the shape of lions, elephants, rhinos, hippos and pretty much anything else you can think of. We also discovered Mandelas/House on Fire which is a complex consisting of a live music venue, B&B and cafe/pub with an internet cafe and a few shops as well.....all in a style that wouldn't be out of place in Matakana or the Hunter Valley. It was all very different to the rest of Africa that we had seen.

On our last day in Swaziland (and Africa) we went to a childrens day care down the road to volunteer. The children here are orphans (there are over 67,000 orphans in Swaziland due to the spread of HIV/AIDS which has spread to over 35% of the population here) but this isn't an orphanage as the children live with people in the village they come from but spend their days at the centre and are lucky enough to have 2 hot meals while they are there and have basic education. Kath and I spent our morning singing nursery rhymes (that the scary teacher seemed to make up at times) and making lion masks which was lots of fun and it was lovely to spend our last day with these very friendly, smiley and sweet children.

We spent our last night in Africa in Swazi and caught a bus from Mbabane to Johannesburg airport in the morning. We had thought about staying in Joburg on our last night but the opportunity to miss the central bus station which apparently is the place you are most likely to get a knife in your back in Africa seemed like a wonderful idea. Everything went to plan and we arrived at the airport with lots of time to spare which we filled with eating and shopping. And I was pleasantly surprised when we boarded our plane to find that I had been upgraded to Premium Economy (thanks V Australia!) unfortunately Kath didn't get the upgrade.....Kath it would have been so much more fun with you up front with me!

Kath and I had to say our goodbyes at Melbourne airport where she caught her internal flight up to Sydney and I stayed put for a few days of shopping and chilling out before I headed back to Auckland. I arrived back here on Monday Dec 6th and by the Friday had a job already which I thought was pretty quick work!

And yes I'm glad to be home.....no more crappy beds, living out of a backpack, wearing the same clothes day after day and sitting in crammed minibuses! But yes I do also miss Africa.....all the lovely people I met in Kampala, discovering new and interesting things and places every day, some of the food (but not all of it!) and the lovely sunny weather.

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