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Published: July 28th 2006
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Having done everything I wanted to do in Mbabane I decided to head for the Malolotja Nature Reserve. I headed for the bus station and got on a minibus heading in the direction of Piggs Peak. I spent a good 45 minutes waiting for the bus to fill up before it could leave, so I was already pretty stressed by the time the driver turned the engine on, especially as the conductor insisted that I travel with my backpack on my lap. So, the engine starts and promptly dies. It took another 20 minutes for the bus to be pushed to the main road, where they eventually got it going. I didn't see much of the scenery on that journey as all I could see was my backpack! I arrived at the reserve at about 1pm, paid the entrance fees and headed down to the campsite. It was like a scene from the Flintstone's, and I was the only person there to enjoy it - fantastic!
Having set the tent up I started walking. The warden had said that there was a waterfall about 5kms away and had given I a map with the hiking trails on, so I figured
that would be a good place to stahe scenery was pretty impressive. The Lonely Planet describes Malolotja as Swaziland's great wilderness, and I would have to agree with them. The trail was pretty easy to begin with, but as I got closer to the waterfall it became a lot steeper and a lot more difficult. It was worth it though - the waterfall was pretty impressive. According to my map there was only one trail heading back so I wasn't really paying too much attention, I just took the first path that I saw, assuming it that it was the one I had come on. About 30 minutes later I realised myself that I had come to a dead end. I couldn't really understand how this could be as the scenery looked the same and there was only supposed to be one path. I had to get back before dark and I hadn't really allowed time for getting lost as it was all supposed to be so simple. I certainly didn't have time to go back but I also couldn't see the correct trail. I figured out that it must run parallel to the trail I was on, just further
up the side of the hill. The slope was pretty steep, but there were some rocks and some clumps of grass that I thought I could cling on to, so I scrambled up the slope. Thankfully it wasn't too long before I hit the right path. From there I route marched back to the camp and on to the shop to get food and firewood. I had great visions of soup and bread followed by barbeque chicken. Unfortunately it was not to be. When I had finally got the fire going - pretty difficult considering the wind - I looked into the bag that I had been given at the shop only to discover that the chicken was frozen. I ended up having very nasty oxtail soup, boiled eggs and stale bread! What a disappointment. All the same the sunset was spectacular and I felt that it had all been worth it. Sleeping that night was pretty tough, the wind was strong that I feared that my tent would take off at any minute. In addition there are wolves in the reserve. Now I'm sure my fears were groundless, but I was convinced that the wolves were trying to get
into the tent. The above two factors plus the freezing cold meant that I literally leapt out of my sleeping bag as the sun began to rise, with a view to packing up and moving on as fast as possible. I packed up and left the reserve by about 10. Luckily I caught a minibus to Mbabane almost immediately and shortly afterwards I caught another one to Manzini. There wasn't really anywhere to stay in the city so I caught a taxi to a backpackers on the outskirts. I was by an extremely enthusiastic South African woman, who showed me where I could set up camp and how to get to the Spar. Thank goodness she did. As I was walking around the supermarket , a this guy kept staring at me. He eventually came up to me and asked if I was Sri Lankan. When I said to him I was he said that he too was Sri Lankan, and that I must come to his house straight away. He owned a factory in Manzini, and had been living in Swaziland for years. When I got to his house, I was met by three more Sri Lankans. I spent
the evening eating rice and curry, chatting and watching England play Ecuador. This was definitely more like it. They dropped me back at the backpackers that night and I fell asleep content.
The next day I went to the Mkhaya Game Reserve. I arrived at the Manzini bus station fairly early as I had to be at the reserve by ten. As I was waiting for the minibus to leave a scary looking guy said something to the driver in Siswati. When the driver didn't respond he said "surprise". I kind of knew what was coming. The dodgy guy pulled out a huge machete from inside his jacket and waved it in front of the driver. I couldn't help feeling that I'd be next, but once the guy had got a few rand from the driver he seemed satisfied. Those few minutes were very scary. I made it to the reserve and had a really good time. I saw Rhinos within the first twenty minutes. I spent that night at the same backpackers, with the aim of heading to Maputo first thing the next morning. It was not to be. The enthusiastic South African lady wanted me to take part
in a blanket donation at a local orphange - I couldn't exactly say no. It was kind of weird as there were loads of backpackers randomly handing out blankets, just because they happened to be around that morning. The children seemed to have fun though, which is the main thing. There were two girls from London who also wanted to go to Maputo that day, so I hired a taxi together. It cost us 10 pounds each for the whole journey. Our driver was a Phil Collins fan, so that's what we listened to as we zoomed towards Mozambique. I have to say I was pretty pleased when the English girls told me that they had paid 50 pounds each for their Mozambican visas - I had paid just 8 pounds because I got mine in Swaziland. I made it to Maputo by about 4, having discovered that despite his protestations to the contrary, that the driver had no clue where he was going. I made it to the hostel eventually though and I even managed to get a pretty good pizza before getting some much needed sleep.
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