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 [View Full Entry]

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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 [View Full Entry]

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Unable to stay longer than a night here as the frigin baz bus will not run untill Tuesday now and that is tolate for me. Vey anoyed by this as I was really looking forward to seeing this small country instead im rushing through! From what i have seen though this place is beautiful, staying in a nature reserve, its so quiet here. Fantistc view of the mountains from the dorm room. Looked in to getting public busses but i would have to change times! Wish i could spend more time here. :( [View Full Entry]

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Swaziland was a lucky country. Our first lucky moment didn't have to wait us enter the country. Al thought Brazilians need a visa and they are not issued at the border, we managed to get in without one. As we arrive very late, the border gates were closed and they didn't have any options but to let us in. Amandine of course, with her french passport didn't have the same problem. Sometimes we get really jealous.... hehehe. And amazing as it may sound, we didn't have to wait 24 hours to have our second lucky moment. After waking up late next [View Full Entry]

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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 [View Full Entry]

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Yebo!! Greetings from Swaziland. We have now headed south down the coast into the Kingdom of Swaziland. The first thing that struck me was the number of cattle here - it literally did almost strike me as our mini bus dodged a kamikaze bovine as it stepped out in front of us on the highway. Some interesting facts about Swaziland: It is a Kingdom and hence ruled by a King. They call this absolute power but it sounds to me like a bit of a dictatorship - but then neither of us here ever studied politics or history! This King really [View Full Entry]

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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 [View Full Entry]

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Hello from Swaziland! Am having a great time, having met some wonderful people and am very busy working on my volunteer project. As opposed to teaching in a regular school as originally planned, I've moved to a different and in some ways more challenging project. I'm based at the NCP (Neighbourhood Care Point) where there's about 26 orphaned or 'at risk' children aged between 18 months and 18 years! All the children come to the NCP because they can not afford to pay the school fees required at all schools in Swaziland. All are 'at risk' children either because they are [View Full Entry]

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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 [View Full Entry]

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From Swazi BP it was a short mini bus trip to the Matsapha market turn off, followed by a 1 or 2 km walk to the House on Fire tourist centre where we scored a lift in the back of a pick up with an expat who was going where we were going, Sondzela BP. It was almost too easy. Set within the grounds of the Mlilwane Wildlife Sanctuary, Sondzela was spectacular and beautiful. There were no staff around to greet us however so we found a spot to pitch our tent whilst the curious but very shy warthogs grazed around [View Full Entry]

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