Chapter 6 - Swaziland

Thursday, January 13th

Do you like flowers?!?!?!  If so this entry is for you.  If not, no worries.  This entry is short and sweet.

From Kruger we would head east to the mountain Kingdom of Swaziland.  Landlocked by South Africa on three sides and Mozambique on one, Swaziland is smaller than Kruger National Park!  The current King Mswati III is one of the last absolute monarchs in the world and has taken 13 wives since he began his rule.  This part of the trip felt like a mini vacation in the middle of our safari.

Swaziland

The country landscape is beautiful and mountainous.  We felt like we were in the Alps.


As we would see in parts of SA, there is rampant poverty in Swaziland.  77% of the country are employed in subsistence farming with 60% of the population surviving on less than $1.25/day.

The vendors that we would see on the side of the roads and in markets were much more agressive in their marketing efforts.  We crossed a bridge at one point and came upon three young children dancing in the road with strings of bananas around their neck.  A pretty valliant effort to peddle fruit.

Although we would take note of this in SA as well, our travel along the roads through Swaziland  were marked heavily with people and animals.  We could be driving 110km/h and we would pass small children walking the edge of the road with no adult supervision.  People would more often travel in the back of open vehicles than they would seatbelted in the cab.  We would also have to come to a halt from time to time to avoid the cattle that would graze and roam freely.  It just goes to show what positive effects government regulation can have on a country.  Our guide David said many lives are lost as a result of such poor traffic laws.

   
For the day we would spend in Swaziland, most of it would be relaxing at the Forrester Arms Hotel.  The weather was sunny and 85 and we were ready for some pool time. 



The Forrester Arms









The hotel had a lush garden with all sorts of flowers in bloom.  Yup, I took pictures of flowers. For those of you looking for animals, you won't find them here.  Feel free to skip to the next chapter.

Mrs. K

The hotel was run by an expat from England.  Despite the english reputation for mediocre fare, our dining experience here was wonderful.  We had a designated table for all our meals which was pretty cool. 

Ready to head back to SA after some pool and sun.

It was nice to put the camera down (for the most part) and get to relax.  However, we found we were looking forward to getting back to South Africa. 

Easiest entry yet.