swaziland

Swaziland

Thursday 4th September 2008:

Crossing over into Swaziland, we arrived at one of the friendliest and smallest border posts of the trip, Bhulembu. This border post is only open from 8:00am until 4:00pm. The man and woman working there were very enthusiastic, finding out about our trip and how we had gone. Our passports were stamped for us to enter Swaziland and we paid R50.00 road tax for the car. With our paperwork done and them being inspired by our trip, we drove on towards the Piggs Peak area, on our way to the Ngwenya Glass factory. This road entering Swaziland was quite steep and windy, but was also very pretty, climbing up and down mountains through pine and wattle plantations.

We arrived at Ngwenya Glass in the late afternoon and looked around their amazing factory shop, selling plain and coloured glassware. They have a huge variety of things for sale - solid glass animals, drinking glasses, glass jewellery, ornaments etc. We popped up to the observation deck, where you can walk above the glass factory, hard at work below. There weren't too many people in the factory and each person was busy. Some were blowing glass, others shaping and filing it, others making obvious glassware like jugs, vases, animals, serviette holders, etc. It was hot above the factory and it was fascinating watching the red hot glass coming out of the furnace, being worked on and then cooling right down to become clear glass again. Seeing the factory workers at work, made you appreciate all the glassware in the shop even more. Glass blowers only have a matter of minutes to work with the red-hot malleable glass, before it cools and becomes brittle. All the the glasswork is handmade, so no two pieces are the same and the animals each have their own personality. Approximately 1 500 items are produced each day at Ngwenya Glass - amazing! Interesting info is that it takes approximately 1 year before a person becomes a skillful member of the glass making team. 2 people are needed to make animals like elephant, kudu and a wine glass, while 3 people are needed to make paperweights, fish and birds, AND all the blowers are right-handed. You are not allowed to photograph the workings inside the factory, but at least are allowed a glimpse of the skill these workers have, to create such beautiful things out of glass and recycled glass.

We wanted to buy each of our Mom's a vase from Ngwenya Glass, but they seemed to be out of stock, so we ended up with two different types of beautiful vases, one being the display vase which they had to remove flowers from. With these two lovely vases packed up and boxed for our special moms, who we'll see tomorrow and the next day, we popped up to the coffee shop upstairs and bought two huge slices of cake (1 chocolate cake and 1 carrot cake) to take away with us, as they were closing the factory. This was our lunch, and what a delicious lunch they made. While we were eating our cake outside in the car park, the owner came over to warn us about riots that were occurring in the centre of Mbabane today. He warned us to avoid large groups of people. Before leaving the factory we had watched as every staff member leaving Ngwenya Glass had been body searched and their stuff had been searched too, to ensure nothing leaves the factory that shouldn't.

The riots in Mbabane were happening because the Swazi people are fed up with King Mswati III wasting their money on his private extravagance. There are BIG celebrations planned for his birthday on Saturday. Luckily, with all the new highways and roads we didn't need to go through the centre of town at all, and didn't see any massing groups, but we did notice a big police presence and armoured vehicles. Maybe that's why we were delayed in finding vases. It gave the rioters time to disperse as it was now past home time.

Ross was amazed at how much infrastructure there is now in Swaziland, and how quickly we got from Ngwenya Glass to Mlilwane Wildlife Sanctuary. The roads are new and some parts are still being finished off, but are double laned and well sign-posted. We entered Mlilwane after signing in at the gate and drove through to the Rest Camp. We were greeted by a very professional lady and were tempted by their mouth watering 3 course dinner menu. Being our last camping night of the trip though, we decided to enjoy it by cooking our normal way. We hoped to braai up the wors we'd bought in Vilanculos. In the early evening we sat overlooking the little dam near the reataurant/bar area, looking out for hippo and crocs, but only saw lots of birdlife. There were notices up, warning that crocs can jump 2m out of the water, so not to stand overlooking the railing. The restaurant and bar area is beautifully laid out and the whole set-up at Mlilwane Rest Camp is very relaxed and nicely done. There were warthogs, nyala and ostriches wandering around. We'll definitely come back to spend longer in Swaziland, when we have more time to explore more of this lovely country.

We chose a beautiful campsite on the edge of the forest farthest away from the restaurant, overlooking the valley below. Ross made an amazing fire which lasted all through the night and would've been perfect for braaiing on, but sadly our wors had a disappointingly strong "not so fresh" smell, so was binned rather than braaied. Heidz cooked a penne-pasta cheese, garlic and peppered mushroom one-pot dinner instead and was glad to use some of the ingredients we still had in our food box. We finished off the last of the Konyagi with tonic water and were both feeling very emotional at this being our last camping night of our amazing Africa trip. We said Grace and gave thanks with tears running down our cheeks. Wow, we've had a ball in Africa. We have grown from all our experiences - good and bad and have been so blessed by the amazing people we've met in Africa. We both know we are HOME, and are very appreciative to God for enabling us to have shared this experience of a lifetime together. We'll always be able to re-live this special time, of 24-hours-a-day-together time.

We sat chatting next to the perfect fire, marvelling that our Africa dream has been realised and about how we're feeling about the next stage and the future. We know God has been with us every step of the way through our Africa trip and we know He'll be with us every step of our future lives too, whatever and wherever that may be. We settled into our very comfy rooftop bed and home for the last camping night of this trip, with silence all around us, except for the odd crackle coming from the fire. The exciting part of settling in southern Africa is that Africa is all around us and it's so easy to explore more of it, now that we have Duz all set up.

Happy birthday Andre. We hope you have a fantastic day and are spoilt rotten by Bren and Aaron.

Friday 5th September 2008: Mlilwane Rest Camp, Mlilwane Wildlife Sanctuary, Swaziland

GPS Info: S25° 21' 07.4" E31° 00' 32.6"

Miles Today: 246 Total Miles: 36 212

Up to the sound of zebra calling in the distance and chain saws cutting trees down in the valley nearby. We had both slept SO well and were very mixed with emotion - excited to be going home to family and friends, but sad too, because our trip and special time together was nearly over. On walking to the loo, we passed a young male nyala, a few nyala does and warthog all busy munching around the thatched beehive chalets and other campsites. We had lovely hot showers and packed the tent up for the last time this trip. It'll be good to be able to give everything a really good clean and we both look forward to a future trip with far less stuff and far more space! Duz is also looking forward to shedding some of her/his excess weight, which she/he's carried valiantly for us. Ross filled the last white space, of our flag panel on the side of Duzi2, with the Swaziland flag and added the little Ngwenya crocs on too. Nats, Heidz's sister, would already be on the plane from Australia to South Africa. She is flying out for Mom's 60th on Sunday. This will be the first time we'll have seen her since our wedding nearly 4 years ago! There are lots of exciting things to look forward to in the next few days and weeks ahead. Caron, Greg and Murray, Ross's sister and our nephews, also fly out from Australia to South Africa at the end of the month for a month. This will also be the first time we'll have seen the boys since our wedding too!

We went across to the office to swop some SA Rands for some Swazi money, to add to our African money collection, and decided to pop back over to the dam to see if we could see any hippo or crocs The birds were still there, together with 2 big crocs lazing in the sunshine. We met Anne Riley and her father Ted, sitting together having a catch-up meeting over coffee in the restaurant. Ted is the owner of Mlilwane, as well as other wildlife places, and was the founder of wildlife reserves in Swaziland. Anne had studied at Edgewood and Heidz knew her from there. She is now involved with tourism and running their reserves. We chatted to them for a bit and then moved on past the ostriches, warthogs and nyala. We stopped off at another dam and saw a few hippo squashed on to a small island sunning themselves in the sun. There was a tiny baby fast asleep with its mother resting her mouth and head gently on the baby's back.

From Mlilwane we drove through the little village of Malkerns to Swazi Candles, to see how they make their world famous candles. The factory is very simple and the workers all work in full view of the public. You are allowed to photograph them as they rub, press and mould the warm wax into various shapes and animals, before placing them into cold water to cool. One man showed us how to make an elephant. First, he rolled the warm, soft white wax into a ball. Next he pressed two coloured wax pieces around the white ball, completely covering the white, before pressing and shaping the combined wax into a trunk, head, body and ears. With a knife he made 4 cuts to form the four legs, next he pressed in 2 eyes and made a hole for the wick. He carried on shaping the ellie until he was totally happy. Once complete, the ellie went into a bowl of cold water and he started the next ellie. This very talented man made an animal every 7 minutes, and he made whatever was needed to be made. He had been working at the factory for 10 years. Next to him was another man who was skillfully making zebra candles and another man making owls. Across from the men was a lady who told Heidz she'd been working at the factory for 22 years. She was making cute little tortoise candles. Heidz asked if she ever got sore fingers from constantly using her fingers and hands and if she makes mistakes, to which she replied, "When you first start off you don't make too many candles a day and you do make mistakes, but you learn quickly and as you get better you make more candles more quickly."

We had a hard time choosing which candles to buy, as there are so many and they are all so beautiful. They make candles in SO many different shapes and with SO many different colours and designs. We both loved the African print ones, but still struggled to choose what we wanted. Finally, with a bag of selected candles, we left and bought a quick toasted chicken mayo sandwich on health bread, to eat on our way. From Swazi Candles we looked out over the valley and could clearly see Thenkuku Farm, where Ross's Mom and Dad had been living for about 4 years while Ron managed Thenkuku Farms, which are a big chicken farming business in Swaziland. We drove out past the turnoff to Thenkuku Farm and along the road to Manzini lined with fields of pineapples and sugar cane, before turning off on to the road to the Swaziland / South Africa border. It was very hot today and with the constant climbing of hills, Duzi2's temperature rose quite steeply, but settled once we were on flatter land.

Mahamba Border Post was bigger than the Josefsdal Border Post we had crossed through into Swaziland. The border officals were very friendly and stamped our passports, before giving us a ticket with Duzi2's registration on it to hand in at the final border gate. After a very fleeting trip through Swaziland, our 25th African country, we were finally entering back into South Africa, our final destination. We will come back to Swaziland to see it more extensively, as it is a lovely country and the people seem very friendly. The roads are good too, which always make a country more tempting to visit a second time.