Swaziland. Part One.

a wonderful time this was. We enjoyed every moment of our Swazi  experience, from the moment we crossed the border to our last cup of tea before we left again. We had many lovely individual experiences and found the people extremely friendly and positive about their country.

We left SA through the border post at Golela and headed towards Manzini. We stopped on the way to have lunch at  Nisela, a restaurant  along the road which forms part of the huge Nisela estate where they farm with  Sugar cane, Maize and all sorts.  Sugar cane farming is huge in Swaziland and you see kilometers of land under cane. I didn’t know it, but Sugar cane is one of the main forms of revenue for Swaziland. We headed on towards Manzini, which is a big city and sprawling over many hills. Not too far out of Manzini was our first campsite at Mlilwane Wildlife Sanctuary. It is a lovely place with all sorts of different accommodation, from Beehive huts, to cabins and then a campsite. There is a restaurant and bar as well, as none of the accommodation is self catering, other than obviously the camping, so all the guests have to make use of the facilities. There were not many guests while we were there, however on the Saturdays and Sundays they make big fires in several designated areas where there is then an opportunity for people to come and spend the day and braai and picnic. It seemed to be popular with the local folk, as we saw several groups there both days

Our campsite in Mlilwane

The tallest Blue Gums

Our campsite was rather removed from everything and the walk to the ablutions was a walk indeed. There were no other people in the campsite either , so we had all the facilities to ourselves. We set up a lekker home and we had 3 lovely nights there.  There are huge Blue Gum trees in the campsite which generates some scary sounds in the dark of the night. I woke  up one night and said to Dick that all our stuff will be wet  from the rain and it took some convincing from him that it was not rain, but the wind in the trees! The fact that there were no clouds could have been a clue!

The first day we walked in the reserve. The walk that we did was a self guided one and it took us through the forest and along the river and we saw many birds and hippos and generally had a great time. The weather was warm and we did not miss the cold and rain from Cape Town at all. We sat outside in the evenings in short sleeves and shorts and candles on the table.

The following day we went to do some of the touristy stuff in the area. The Wildlife reserve is in the Ezelweni valley, which is the area where all the hotels, like the Swazi Sun is and also where the King lives. It is in the Highlands of Swaziland and on the main tourist route. We first went to the glass factory at Ngwenya. That was on my “have to visit” list and I was not disappointed.  One can buy the Ngwenya glass in many shops in SA, however being able to stand on the viewing deck in the factory  and watching the guys doing the work just adds a dimension. Luckily we have a space restriction, not to mention a budget, so I was limited to what and how much I could buy. It was only 6 wine glasses in the end. There are also some really good craft places there and the temptation to buy was constantly there. One thing that was very apparent all over Swaziland was the fact that the people of the country and especially the women, are very involved in creating goods, whether it is weaving or sewing or whatever. There was a distinct absence of all the “African curios” that one sees everywhere from Cape to Cairo. There is a much more authentic feel to the crafty goods.

From the glass works we went to visit the “oldest mine in the world” where the ancestors to the Bushmen, some 43 000 yrs ago mined the first Hemitite. It did become a commercial operation from 1964 to 1977 when they mined High grade Iron ore, 28.3 Million tons, to be exact. This was all exported to Japan and would be enough to make all the cars in SA, Botswana and Swaziland today.

The next  day we went to another stop on my “list”of stops. It was the Swazi Candles factory and retail outlet. Dick had often spoken about Audrey from Swazi candles a now I was about to meet her. What a lovely lady. She greeted me like I was her old friend, in typical Swazi fashion, and thanked Dick for bringing his wife along. Clearly she knew a “candle “person when she saw one. Well, what a fascinating place to be. Other than the fluted candles, all the candles are hand sculptured and it really depends on the mood of the candle maker on the particular day as to what he makes.  I will never again look at a little Rhino or Hippo candle and think it is “kitsch”. Just do yourself a favour and go and see it being made. Every candle starts off with a block of wax, which is warmed in the “candle oven”. Once it is moldable the candle maker decides what to make and he then gets going and sculptures his ‘design of the day”. They also cover the wax with a design layer and that is where the colour or pattern comes from. I watched him making a hippo and as unlike I would have been to buy a design hippo previously, so much I wanted to have the hippo I watched being made. They finished it off for me and I bought it. I am sure I will never light that candle. It would be like eating a pet.

The next stop was Manzini Market. African Market at its best. There is something of everything and in the true sense a shopping mall, but without the involvement of the property developers. It covers a huge area and there are very clear demarcations. There is an area for sewing, hair cutting, muti, cobblers and you name it, it is there. I bought a bit of this and a bit of that and a brightly coloured shopping basket. Again, we could have spent  much longer and bought much more, but we didn’t!!!

I have some pics I want t o add in here, but the signal is so weak, I cannot get it to down load. Will give it a bash tomorrow.

And the we were off to Hlani and that is Part 2.