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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 the Italian, and I have to say I had one of the best pizzas I have ever eaten. I then headed back for my first night in the tent. It wasn't a good night. Every dog in the neighbourhood howled all night and it was absolutely freezing cold. I was so glad when morning came and I could get out of the tent - not
a good start. Thankfully there was hot water so I was able to have a proper shower before going out. I left pretty early as I had to go to the Mozambican embassy to get my visas. Nobody seemed to know where it was at first, but after a lot of asking and a fair amount of walking I found it. I completed my forms and paid 95 rand, and they told me I could come and collect the passport in an hour. Having collected the visa I strolled down to the bus station and caught a minibus to Lobomba, with the intention of visiting the national museum. Unfortunately when the bus stopped there was no museum in sight. I was in the middle of nowhere. All I could see were a few stalls selling fruit. I asked around for the museum, but were met with blank stares until someone eventually told me that I had to get another minibus. Having bought my tickets at the museum, I was informed that there was no electricity so I probably wouldn't be able to see anything. I had a stroll around anyway and then asked to make a booking for the Malolotja
Nature Reserve, as I had been told their office was here. I was informed that this would not be possible. The reason for this was unclear as I could see the office and it was full of people, but ok. I was told to phone them instead so I asked to use the phone - this was also impossible as it was not working. The lady working there advised I to go to the post office and use the phone there. I had to make a booking for the Mkhaya Game reserve as well so I decided that I might as well do that at the same time. I headed for the previous king's memorial garden first as this was on the way to the post office. I got to the entrance, and tried to open the door, only to find it had been padlocked. Unbelievable! I headed back to get the museum security guard to open it. He seemed very surprised and said he'd come with me. As I got closer to the memorial garden I started walking in a different direction. I looked each other but didn't say anything. I walked through another gate further down the road and then up a path to the garden. As I glanced sideways I saw a sign saying Royal Entrance. I had in fact tried to come in through the royal entrance - good thing nobody saw me! Having viewed the garden I headed for the post office where we managed to get through to the two reserves after about half an hour of trying. I then decided to call it a day. I caught a minibus to Mbabane and having failed once again to find local food headed back to the hostel with some biltong and two packets of maggi noodles. I ate most of the biltong on the way back but I still had some left when we encountered the lady from the hostel on her way home. I offered her some biltong and the next thing I knew she had chucked it on the street. I could not contain myself. "Why did you do that" I asked. She asked me why I had given her bones. We couldn't believe it - she had just chucked some fantastic biltong on the floor thinking I had given her bones. What kind of person did she think I was? I returned to the hostel shaking my head in disbelief.
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