Blogs from Swaziland, Africa - page 13

Stayed on the sanctuary and spent the days hiking and horseback riding.... read more

The kingdom of Swaziland is a little jewel in the crown of southern Africa. This small country has a long tradition of kings ruling the country from the Ezulwini valley, and gained independence from Britain in 1968. The original constitution was largely modeled on the English system, however it has subsequently been abolished, and the king now rules Swaziland as an absolute monarch. The famous reed dance is an annual ceremony where the king chooses a new young bride from the naked girls who dance before him. Swaziland is surrounded by South Africa, and the border with Mozambique to the east. A visit to the kingdom provides a relaxed and modern stopover for visitors to southern Africa, where travellers enjoy a warm welcome from the friendly locals. The last journal left off in Maputo, dear reader, ... read more

Greetings! So i've got alot to get through in this entry! It'll have to be brief. We've now finished the project phase, but since my last entry, we've been working on two different game reserves, Mbuluzi and Hlane. We were first at Mbuluzi, doing a game ranger course (for which I have a rather snazzy certificate). Then we were at Hlane, which is the royal national park. Here we were trail blazing, which involved cutting a walking trail through the reserve next to a hippo and croc infested lake (SAFETY...!!). Hlane was cool the manager is a nutter, catcing snakes, taking us swimming in a river (prior to which he poked around it with stick to check for crocs...) hehe. I also found me some diamonds in this river! shhh. After Hlane we returned to Mbuluzi ... read more

Hello! This is my first entry so here goes! Am currently sitting in an internet cafe in Mbabne (the capital) and its RAINING!!! shock horror. still rocking with the flip flops though. So what have I been up to? THe first 4 night (i think) i spent in a place called sondzela backpackers in the milwane game park (north west Swaziland). We left there on Sunday the 11th to head to Shewula, a remote community in the north east of the country. This is where we spent the first 2 weeks, working with the local community renovating a school building in a school for orphans called Majembeni. We were staying in Shewula mountain camp in lovely rondavels (apart from the scorpion spiders under the beds and the trillion tiny ants wasn't so lovely). The view here ... read more

Phew! I have just travelled from Ezulwini to Mbabane, a seemingly endless journey of only 25 minutes but 25 minutes of pure kombi hell. A kombi is a kind of minibus designed to supposedly seat 14 people, but there was at least 22 people of the one I was travelling, not including babies and baggage and in 35 degree heat and humidity, I'm really not a lady to be reckoned with! I am now enjoying basking in the luxury of air-con in the Internet Cafe trying to figure out how to condense my Swaziland experiences to one journal entry. It's going to be a challenge...advance apologies for excessive detail!!! This week at the NCP has been hectic. It's the week leading up to Xmas so we planned lots of crafts, cake decorations and basically had a ... read more