Terroir Travel

Went flying on the first morning, beautiful day, great fun.   
    
That big rock there is called Domboshawa. I don’t know it on this day, but I’m going to fracture my ankle there in about a week. 

Well, here’s something you don’t see everyday.

  
It’s not recommended.

Crossing from SA into Swaziland was a breeze, at least on the road I took (see last post).

Taking the major highway back into SA was crazy. The Swaziland side was much more orderly. First you get your gate pass from the parking lot guard. Then you get in a long line which files into the building, get your pass stamped, then get your passport stamped.

It took about 20 minutes, but the process was pretty orderly and fair.

Then you drive to the next parking lot, about 200 feet away, and get in the line for the SA entry. You are also needing a gate pass here, which I totally missed, and had to go back for.

This side is a free for all. I squeezed through to stand in front of a window that seemed to have the shortest line, but I made a critical error in that judgement.

Never, ever get in behind a family. My original thought- one group, fast and easy, right? No. In Southern Africa, any child under 18 must have not only a passport, but also a notarized birth certificate, and permission to travel if either adult is not the custodial parent. Each child must be then put into a registry book…. All this takes forever, especially when you are dumb enough to get behind a family with 5 children, and they keep running off, but the passport control needs to see their faces with the passport to compare.

So I finally get to e window, and the lady wants the gate pass that I didn’t collect, so she holds my passport while I weave back through the tight crowd to collect, showing my key for the plate number, and then squeeze back through. Fortunately the people that were behind me wave me back to the front of the line, I get stamped, en get the gate pass stamped again (this person doesn’t even look at it, you shove it through the window and she stamps it. So I’m through, get in the Hyundai and head for Pretoria.

Feeling the need for a little karma, I pick up a hitchhiker. They are all over, but I decide when I see this old woman on the side of the road I pull over. She doesn’t speak any English, but she’s going my way, and it’s all good.

I stayed a night at “Bushwacked Barberton”, another small guesthouse with just a couple of rooms. The family lives in the adjacent house, and Pete is helpful upon checkin, then pretty much leaves you on your own. Perfect, and I’m getting used to not eating dinner anyway. That sounds snarky, but it’s really not, it’s good for me. There was one other room occupied by a charming older couple from Cape Town who had come up for their granddaughters’s wedding.

Here’s my very comfortable room, and the view at sunset.

But the real thing was the drive from Barberton to Pigg’s Peak in Swaziland. Just gorgeous, and I always had to be on the lookout for wandering baboons crossing the road, which was an excellent road in SA, then had me seriously worried for my rental Hyundai on the Swaziland side.

All along the SA side were turnouts with discussions of the geology- it was really fascinating, and very well done. You can see on the map screenshot how twisty the road is.

More views

Entering Swaziland! This border crossing was smooth and quick.  I was the only one there. They seemed to be surprised to find a single american woman crossing at this remote spot.

Right past the crossing was when the road turned to pitted, potholey and then dirt. Pete told me that if it had rained the night before, to not even attempt it, but as it did not, onward I went. Interestingly, there used to be an aerial tram that took people, probably loggers and/or miners to Bulembu, just over the border. Here’s the station standing in disuse.

And a look at the logging that’s happened along the route. What I’m essentially driving on is a logging road, meant for big heavy trucks.

I picked my way to Pigg’s Peak, then headed towards Mbabane, planning to stay in the hostel in Ezulwini valley, but it was pretty bad, so I went to lunch in the marketplace that has wifi, and booked myself at the Mantegna Lodge. And even though here was a restaurant on site, I’m getting used to not having dinner, so I had a glass of wine in the onsite pub. Beautiful setting.

Monkey Gland Sauce. Not for vegetarians, the menu said. I googled it, it contains no monkey business, and sounds a bit like Thousand Island Dressing.

What an amazing experience. To be driving along, and having these amazing animals just right there. Sometime too much as the people in this pic discovered. They had stopped to view an elephant that crossed behind them. Then the rest of the herd came out of the bus. That big tusker crossed, then made this feint back at the car as they were trying to slowly back up. I really though I was about to see them get crushed.

  
As you can see, there are elephants everywhere. When they finally got back to where I was, they were in shock. The daughter had some amazing pictures.

Here’s my giraffe friend. I stopped to observe her, said hello, and she looked at me and smiled. 

  Who’s a pretty girl? Giraffes are the best.
Zebras, Cape Buffalo, baboons, wart hogs, more elephants and giraffes, rhinos, hippos, antelope, elands,  it was a good 3 days. The only big cat I saw was from a distance, resting under a tree near a fresh kill. Terrible pic, though, so I won’t add it.

Hot. Pics to come

Pics: did I mention hot? And snakes? And the toilet being literally a stinking cesspool?

Because of course I am researching the availability on interesting eats, I am coming across many terms that I am unfamiliar with. Here are a few:

Bunny Chow: also known as a bunny, this is a hollowed out loaf of bread, filled with an Indian style curry. Fast food, created in Durban, and what the Indian sugar cane plantation worked had for their lunches.

Ting: a sour porridge made from sorghum, generally served for breakfast.

Samp: Cracked hominy. Often cooked with beans in a dish called umngqusho, aka samp and beans. Onion, potatoes and spices are added. Said to be a favorite of Nelson Mandela.

Biltong: like jerky, nut usually not as hard. Made from any animal- eland, ostrich, etc.

This takes even me by surprise. If you’d have asked me a year ago, I would have said with good confidence that Africa held minimal interest for me. Maybe it’s all the conflict one hears in the news. I should know by now to give short shrift to that, having been in Bangkok during the riots, which, although very real, were completely unseen by me. And, when one leaves the city, not even a blip on the collective conscience.

Looking to keep traveling, I started looking at wildlife conservation efforts, dusting off my Master’s Degree in conservation bio… and Africa came into focus. It helped that my friend Monika was now living in Zimbabwe, and loving it.

So now I’m laying out the pack again- better knowing what is superfluous, what is going to really come in handy, and picking up a few new items that I wish I had before. Southern Africa is not SE Asia, but general ideas apply: lightweight versatile clothing, good first aid kit, quality shoes. The rest you can buy later, and the good thing about Africa is that the little Cambodian girls won’t laugh at me when I try and buy a bra. 🙂

Friday, I’ll start the next journey. The plan is to work in Limpopo for a couple of months, then visit Monika in Harare, make it to the beaches of Mozambique, and then back into SA to see Cape Town, and maybe take the cross-country train.

But I’ve learned that the gods indeed laugh at plans.