Swaziland!

After the Game Drive, it was back to our cabins and off to drop Eniola off at school in Pitermaritzberg. Instead of taking the long way around and through South Africa. We decide to head straight south through Swaziland.

Swaziland is the familial homeland of the Zulu nation, direct ancestors of Shaka..
"kuyintfokoto lenkhulu kutsi sihlanganyelwe kanye nani imihanbo, nemasiko, imvelo kanye nebuve bemaswati!".

Translation: "It is of great pleasure to know that you want to share the culture, heritage and way of life of the Swazi nation".

In April 1986 Mswati III was crowned as Ruler of the Kingdom of Swaziland. The family name of royalty in Swaziland is Dlamini.



Those of you familiar with Kingships or even the Ausar Auset experience may be familiar with this..

The Queen Mother is the First Lady of the Royal Household and the most influential woman in the Kingdom. However, the King may have.. and in this case does.. have many wives.

Swaziland is a country that resides INSIDE of South Africa, inside of the southern Africa's Kwazi Zulu Natal territory. So as we get to the boarder, we must go through customs.. twice.. once for South Africa and then for Swaziland.. the same at the other end. We drive through in approximately 1 day.

This place although not as Rich a country as South Africa is incredible..

We found here a beautiful scenic country.. mountainous. Altohugh Swaziland is not as rich as South Africa, it still retains it's own character and beauty. Much of it is surprisingly VERY green.. like we saw rows and rows of thousands of pine and evergreen trees.. we drove through forests.. not jungle.. forests..

It is also the place where I get my first flat tire in 16 years.. on the side of a mountain.. nothing but fields and sky.. and the second car speeding ahead. It took them about an hour to figure out we were not behind them and circle back...

Oh well.. it's an adventure right?

At the end of the day.. we had made it past Swaziland and out back into South Africa where we called it a night. The roads were black.. Me and Petra (Mom) were tired of driving.. and we were all starved.

We wouldn't make it to Durban and Sun City that day.. we'd have to adjust our plans.. the driving was more than we anticipated..

Tonight we decide to take a rest at the Blarney Inn about 30km I think outside the Swaziland / South Africa border. This place is nice. It seems that many ‘Hotels’ are like places with small cottages or apartments to rent for the night.. And we’re paying like 20 USD equivalent or more to boot! (The exchange rate is very favourable right now.)