week 74 - 76 - exploring Eswatini, safari times and a perfect farewell to South Africa

Tom and I were a bit nervous regarding the border crossing to Eswatini after our experience at the border to Lesotho a couple of weeks earlier with our still pending visa extension application in South Africa. It turned out that our worries were unfounded; the immigration officers at the border post asked for the receipt of the pending application and stamped us out - not a problem at all. From Eswatini, I expected something similar to Lesotho, maybe because of the similar size of the two kingdoms, but the vibe after the border was actually very different to Lesotho. Eswatini was quite touristy, good tarmac roads and many signposts to show you where the next attraction was. Also the houses along the street were more modern, a lot of them with two storeys. We had already planned a nice route together with Urs and Barbara. Our first stop was at the famous Swazi Candle factory. Next to the factory there was also a restaurant, a crafts market and many other stores to buy souvenirs. At the factory, we could watch the people working there making candles and forming all kind of animals and other things with the wax.

After this first stop, we went to visit a crafts market and then stopped at a cultural village, where we learned how the people in Eswatini had lived in the earlier days. They also made a performance with some traditional dances and songs, it was a beautiful show. Our first night in Eswatini we then spent just next to the cultural village at the “Legends Backpacker”, where Tom had already stayed on his previous trip through Africa; however, this time, he wasn’t sleeping in the dorm but in our Defender :)

The next morning, we headed towards Sibebe Rock, a granite mountain in Eswatini. It is the second largest monolith in the world after the famous Uluru in Australia. Of course, we wanted to visit this place, and it was a very cool trip. On top of the enormous rock, there is a lodge. You can drive up there; the street was bumpy but not a problem for the Landcruiser of Barbara and Urs and our Defender. When we arrived at the lodge, we were amazed; it was very nice! It had a huge pool, a restaurant, a zip line, a nice bar and of course a very nice view; apparently, a new investor was putting some money into it, so everything was still quite new. We parked our cars and hiked a short trail about 30 minutes to the highest point of Sibebe Rock and took some pictures; when we returned to the car, it was already noon, and we decided to stop at the Ramblas restaurant in Mbabane, Eswatini’s capital, with a population of only 95’000. The restaurant was described to be the best in town; so we wanted to try it. It was nice, but I’m not sure if I would drive the extra mile for it, though ;)

Our next planned stop was the glass factory, another tourist attraction and cool place where we could see the workers making some beautiful glass art. The day went by quickly, and we did not have time to visit the oldest mine in the world, which is close to the factory. We, therefore, drove to Hawane Lodge to spend the night. It was a beautiful place with a very friendly owner who was originally from Uganda. He was very interested in our travels through Africa, so he joined us at the campsite and we had a lovely night around the fire.

The following day, we drove back to the mine. Especially Tom was very interested in visiting this place. We had a very friendly guide who showed us around; a part of the mine is still operating and, therefore, strictly secured, but the rest is open to the public.

From there, we drove to the Phophonye Waterfall, where we went on a short hike down to the waterfall and enjoyed lunch in the Phophonyane Falls Ecolodge’s beautiful garden. We then continued to Mbulezi National Park, where we spent one night. The road was quite wet from the rain, and we didn’t see many animals on our way to the camp. The campsite was very basic. The following day, we decided to drive straight to Hlane National Park, where we were more lucky and got to see many rhinos. We enjoyed watching them and then continued to our last stop in Eswatini - Mabuda Farm, a campsite that had been recommended to us by other travelers

At Mabuda Farm, we planned to spend a few nights and relax, after the quite busy program of the past few days. It can get exhausting and overwhelming to visit so many new places. The campsite was indeed lovely, unfortunately, we were not so lucky with the weather. Everything was wet because it had been raining quite a bit. On the bright side, they had a great coffee shop where they sold their self-grown coffee; of course, Tom and I enjoyed this place a lot. Still, after two nights, Barbara, Urs, Tom, and I decided to continue because we all had some things to do. Barbara and Urs had to drive to Richard’s Bay to receive their new Carnet de Passage, which had been sent there from Switzerland. Tom and I also wanted to get across the border to South Africa because I had some catching up to do with blog writing and the Internet in Eswatini was rather slow. Furthermore, Christian, a friend of Tom from Switzerland, called us to let us know that he was in Cape Town with another friend of his, Fabio. We told them, that we were already further east, quite a stretch away from them. The two spontaniously decided to fly to Durban, Fabio’s parents knew the owners of a private game reserve called Sensiri Plains, very close to where we were staying. They didn’t have any bookings for the next couple of days, so they invited us to spend some days there! That’s how quickly we changed our plans and instead of driving to the Hluhluwe National Park to go on some self-driving safaris, we drove to Sensiri Plains to meet Christian and Fabio and enjoy some days together.

The lodge was beautiful, we had amazing game drives every morning and also in the late afternoons together with Tim, the manager of the lodge, who is an amazing safari guide. Suzette, his wife, in the meantime spoiled us with amazing food; we were back in feasting mode ;) The rest of the time we enjoyed the beautiful lodge we had all to ourselves. The weather was hot and we mostly just sat in the pool with a glass of Suzette’s tasty Sangria.One afternoon, Tim took us to the shooting range, where he shoots his guns. He let us each have a go, definitely a first for me to shoot a pistol, I also missed the targets terribly bad, not a natural talent here ;) Tom on the other hand, did a great job!

It also turned, that Tim and Suzette were camping enthusiasts. They had already planned a short holiday in Kosi Bay for a few days after we left the Lodge. Tom and I had also planned to go there with Barbara and Urs. So after our short retreat at Sensiri Plains Lodge and catching up with the visitory from home, we first drove to Sodwana, to meet up with Barbara and Urs. The landscape and beach in Sodwana is absolutely beautiful; we explored it the next morning on foot and had the whole beach to ourselves.

Then, we continued to Kosi Bay a few kilometers further north, where we met Tim and Suzette again at the Casitas campsite, where we spent two amazing days altogether. We went on a boat trip on the three lakes and of course, the legendary braais couldn’t be missed every night together with some bottles of wine. It was a perfect ending to our time in South Africa. After four months in this beautiful country, it was time for us to leave it behind and explore another new place - Mozambique.

week 72 - some more rain, new cultures and reunions

We woke up on our second day in the Addo National Park, and it was still raining. Furthermore, we received a message from friends from Jeffrey’s Bay warning against roadblocks in the area just outside of the National Park. Unfortunately, we have heard about this happening especially in eastern South Africa. Because some people are very poor in this country and unhappy with the government leaving them with nothing, they demonstrate and sometimes block roads and even damage cars, and rob people. This warning message triggered us even more after our experiences in Angola, and we realized that maybe, we haven’t completely processed what had happened to us up there… Of course, the shitty weather also didn’t really help with getting back into our positive travel mood. Tom suggested to drive to a hostel in Hogsback, a place he knew from his previous travels. It would be a safe haven and a good place to recharge our batteries, sit out the bad weather and plan our next steps. He texted Shane, the owner of Terrakaya Backpackers, who was happy to host us and had a room for us at his beautiful eco lodge. The weather stayed bad, but the place was lovely, with very welcoming people, dogs, cats, and many horses, a perfect place to chill. Shane also recommended a coach in the area who is dealing with people’s traumas. We decided to give it a chance and meet him and talk about our Angola experience. It turned out to be helpful in overcoming the fear of bad things happening on the road. We stayed four nights at Terrakaya, and on our last day, the rain finally stopped. Shane took us on a beautiful horse ride through Hogsback, so luckily, in the end, we still got to explore this beautiful place in the sun. We cooked a traditional Potjiekos, a traditional Afrikaner dish, cooked over a fire for our last dinner together, a delicious meal and a fun experience.

With new energy, we left Hogsback again, and even though the weather forecast didn’t look amazing, we decided to stick to our intended route and drive into Lesotho. This place was also new to Tom, so we had something new to explore together for the first time in a while. We spent the last night close to the border on a small campsite, had our car cleaned, and also washed our wet and dirty clothes from the past rainy days. After this, we felt ready to hit the road again. However, an unpleasant surprise waited for us at the border… What was supposed to be a straightforward and quick border crossing didn’t go according to plan. When we wanted to exit South Africa, the immigration officer told us he couldn’t let us leave since our application to extend the South African visa, which we handed in more than two months ago, was still pending. We showed him the receipt from the application, with which we were told we could travel freely in and out of the country. We already knew that the Visa office was far behind with handling the applications; they even informed us that, most likely, we would not hear back from them before the end of our granted visa but that this wouldn’t be a problem, we would just need to show our receipt and it would be fine. Apparently, the immigration officers at the very small land border to Lesotho weren’t informed about that. The officer told us that we should wait for his manager, who would be here in 2 hours, or alternatively, we could drive back to the next town with a VFS office (e.g., a two hours drive) to handle the situation there. Knowing that they probably wouldn’t be a big help, we decided to wait. I was already devastated because I was so much looking forward to visiting Lesotho. Finally, the manager arrived, telling us the same story we had heard from his colleague: If he would let us exit South Africa, the system would kick out our pending application, resulting in an overstayed visa for us and therefore, he would have to give us an “undesired” stamp, meaning we could not return to South Africa for 5-10 years. Of course, we didn’t want this, and also, Lesotho being a landlocked country surrounded entirely by South Africa, we would have been stuck there forever… The manager, however, understood our dilemma, and he also understood that it wasn’t our fault since we applied on time, paid the extension fee, and had done everything we needed. Luckily, he was very helpful and started to make a few phone calls. We waited again patiently, and another two hours later, he called us into his office again and informed us that he would let us pass. We were allowed to exit without being marked as overstayed. We were beyond happy and entered Lesotho.

The vibe after the border was very different to South Africa; we felt like being back in east Africa. The streets were bustling, kids were waving at us when we drove by, the houses were more basic and the people wore very traditional clothes. Above all, we felt very save and welcome. We bought two sim cards just after the border and were surprised by the excellent coverage throughout the whole country! It was definitely worth buying them. Our first stop was at Mount Moorosi Chalets, a cute little lodge and campsite, run by a local guy named Telang. He was very welcoming and even offered us a Rondavel for a reduced price. Since it looked like it would actually not rain for a night, we decided to camp. We were lucky and had a dry night; even the morning remained dry, so we decided to hike up the mountain, which is a historical place in Lesotho because in the early 19th century, an important battle took place at this place against the British. Telang knew a lot about it, and it was an interesting hike up.

Can you see the waterfall behind us? yeah, we didn’t see it either …

From there, we drove to Semonkong, another Lodge with a campsite. As soon as we sat in the car, the rain started again. We texted the lodge owner, who informed us that the campsite at the Semonkong lodge was VERY wet. We decided to go there still and see what we could do. The owner, a lady originally from St. Maurice, was very friendly. She had spent a lot of time in Lesotho and told us a lot about the culture. The lawn of the campsite was indeed very wet, already the road to the lodge was super muddy, and our car looked again like we had just driven a Ralley. But luckily, they had a nice indoor kitchen and sheltered area for campers, so we decided to stay and sleep in the car - after all, our roof tent is waterproof. The following morning, the rain had stopped again, so we got up early and joined another couple for a hike to the highest waterfall in Lesotho. The weather stayed dry for our hike, however, the ground was very wet. We crossed many fields, and our feet were soon soaked. Still, we got to enjoy a breathtaking scenery; it was amazing to explore these even more remote places on foot. We enjoyed the hike, but when we finally reached the waterfall, it was hidden behind some big clouds; we literally didn’t see anything of the waterfall; we only could hear the water falling over the cliff. Thanks to our drone, we still got to take some pictures of the waterfall ;)

We hiked back to the lodge and enjoyed a hot coffee before we continued further north in our car. Our next stop was the Thaba Bosiu Cultural Center, a small museum, where we learned much about the Lesotho history and culture. Again, it was raining in the afternoon, but luckily, not very severely. We found another homestay on iOverlander, Metolong Backpackers, run by a very friendly man named Tlali. He welcomed us warmly, and because the rain picked up again, we spent the evening in a local bar close by, playing pool against the locals. When we woke up the following day, the sun was out again, and we walked down to the dam with Tlali’s trainee, a girl who studied Tourism Management in the capital city of Maseru and was here to complete a three-month internship. We were only her second guest, but she did a great job showing us around, and of course, she had lots of questions about Europe and all the places we have traveled to.

After these three rather wet days in the car on basic campsites, we looked forward to a hot shower and some shelter. All our clothes just didn’t seem to get dry anymore, it stayed damp inside the car. We asked a hotel in Hlotse, a town along our route, if they had a room and they offered us an excellent deal to spend the night. Along the way, we stopped again to visit another old cultural village with huts built into caves. The young local tour guide spoke English very well and explained much about the place’s history.

When we arrived at the hotel, we were amazed: It was a beautiful place, the rooms were clean and modern, and we enjoyed the strong hot shower and the comfortable bed a lot. We wanted to eat at the small restaurant but forgot to tell them when we checked in. When we walked to the restaurant around 8 pm, everything was closed already. So we returned to our room and cooked a small dinner on our gas stove just in front of the room :D

We woke up excited the following day: today, we would meet again with Barbara and Urs, our fellow Swiss overlanders with whom we had spent a fantastic time in Zambia and Botswana. They were back in Africa after a visit back home, and we had made plans to travel together again. We met them at a campsite called Mamohase, about an hour away. En route, we stopped at a car wash (yes again, the muddy roads kept our car very dirty) and at a tourist site, where we could see dinosaur footprints. Unfortunately, half of them were underwater because the river was very high. Nevertheless, we got to see two of them, and the size was indeed very impressive.

Mamohase was another locally-run campsite with a lovely view. The sun was shining when we arrived, and Barbara and Urs were already waiting for us. We sat together, and of course, we had plenty to tell each other. Unfortunately, the weather didn’t stay dry, soon again some clouds appeared, and we had to move our gathering under some shelter. The lodge owners, three cousins, were very helpful and brought some dry wood, so we could still make a braai. It felt like no time had passed since we last saw the two; we were excited to hit the road together again for some weeks.