Blogs from Swaziland, Africa - page 14

Sadly the birthday celebrations have now ended but I have milked it in true "Claire style" and loved every minute! Last Saturday I had a joint party at the Swaziland Backpackers Lodge with a couple of other girls. Being as the decorations consisted of blown up condoms and surgical gloves, it was pretty much guaranteed to be a pretty good night and it didn't disappoint. Cocktails on tap, being thrown in the pool, dancing till my shoes broke (literally), and a dip in the local swimming pool/Jacuzzi finished the evening at around 8am! But wait, clearly that wasn't enough; the celebrations had to continue... I had another random 'shot/porn' party on Friday then went camping for the weekend to the San River Dam where we experienced the most intense/amazing/frightening storms ever. The tents blew down, a ... read more

On our final journey with Bazza we said goodbye to South Africa and crossed over the border into the small landlocked country of Swaziland. Everyone had told us that although Swazi' was small, it was big in character and colour, and that we stood a good chance of adding to our newly acquired "animal collection" with the numerous game reserves in the area. There were several backpackers to choose from and we decided that we should be able to see and do all that we wanted in Swazi from the one place. At the last minute we chose Swazi BP which seemed the most central and was very accessible transport-wise as it was on the main road between Mbabne (Ma-ba-nee) the capital and Manzini, where we planned to take transport to Mozambique. Swazi BP was like ... read more

St Lucia was difficult to leave behind, but we had a cross border mission to accomplish for Fedders in Swaziland. The border was a bit more active than our last excursion into Lesotho, but just to confirm that everything has it's price in Africa one guy managed to gain entry with an out of date passport! We opted to stay away from the bright lights of Manzini or Mbabne in a backpackers within Milwane National Park - very convenient for walking amongst the antelopes and zebras, but a little isolated. However the following day, excitement came to us! At the posher lodge next door there was a Rhino Conservation meeting and it turned out that HRH King Mswati 111 of Swaziland was coming to open it......and so the King accompanied by a few members of the ... read more

Having arrived in Mbabane I decided to take a taxi to the backpackers as I had no idea how far it was and I was pretty exhausted having been travelling since the previous day. I waited patiently while the taxi drivers argued about who was going to take me and made it to the hostel with plenty of time to put up my tent before dark. I then decided to go out for dinner. I was so determined to find local food, so I asked the Swazi lady working at the hostel where to go. She told me that the best place for me to find food would be the mall. So off I went to the mall to find KFC, a pie shop, Kowloon Take Away and an Italian. Pretty disappointing stuff. I opted for ... read more

I drove to Swaziland with Meke and Irena.....Meke almost drove through the border without stopping before a uniformed man with a gun halted "stop!". Passing through the border was simple and we drove very slowly (they take speeding in Swaziland very seriously) to Matsapha where we stayed at The Swaziland Backpackers (highly recommend this place!!). There were a great many other travelers staying there so I was able to swap stories and tips on traveling. The following day Meke, Irene and I (along with a wacky Irish dude) went quadding (4-wheel motorcycle riding) up in the hills surrounding Matsapha. We stopped to visit a few families and took swim at a waterfall. I even had a wicked accident when I inadvertantly crashed into Irene's quad and I flipped over my quad's handlebars. No injuries luckily. I ... read more