Four countries in one blog post must be a record, so here goes..
From beach life in Mozambique, we headed to the capital city of Maputo. As always, it was nice to have some city time, a break from truck life, a hotel bed and the novelty of eating out and choosing off a menu.
From Maputo, we crossed the border into Swaziland. Swaziland is a tiny country which meant nice short driving distances. Unlike most African countries, it has a king. Our first stop was at a community camp where all the profits are fed back into the community. Here we visited the local school for orphans. At the school, they had lists of the children and their family situation. It is staggering how many children have only one or neither parent still living due to AIDS. This is true of much of Africa, not just Swaziland - it is not uncommon for HIV infection rates to be around 25% of the population of any one country. Aside from visiting the local community, we also went to a traditional healer, watched traditional dancing and did some hiking.
Next stop was Mlilwane game park. It is sad to say but we have all become quite blase about game viewing because we have seen so much already. Mlilwane doesn't have any of the big 5 so you can walk safely without fear of being eaten by a lion or charged by an elephant. Rather than walk, Claire, Cherie and I chose our preferred mode of transport - horse back. Really loving all the horse riding that I am getting to do on this trip - such a relaxing and fun way to see the scenery and animals. Tried out impala steak and wildebeest wors (sausages) at the camp restaurant - certainly made a change from a cheese sandwich from the truck!
Final stop in Swaziland was at Sundowners Backpackers where we spent quite a bit of time just waiting...and waiting.. for our new truck to arrive. As you may recall from previous blog posts, we cannot take Athena into South Africa because she is registered in the UK and South Africa now only allow SA registered trucks in with passengers, hence our need to change to a SA truck. So our time at this backpackers was spent cleaning Athena and packing up our stuff (although I was smart enough to book an adventure caving trip and miss the worst of the cleaning - that's not why I went but it was a happy coincidence). Everyone was sad to say goodbye to Athena as she really has been our home for the past four months. Apart from a few tough times in Ethiopia when we seemed to have breakdown problems every day, she has served us well. It would have been lovely to finish in Cape Town with her but sadly that is not to be. As all the other overland trucks we see seem to be newer than Athena, we had high hopes for the new truck. Well, yes it is newer but that it about the only positive. In terms of storage and space, it is very poorly designed so we now appreciate Athena and the thought that went into designing her more than ever. Whoever designed the new truck really didn't think things through. The kitchen equipment is stored in shelves at the back but you have to climb up to reach anything above the first shelf and there is no ladder. So we now have a new job role - the kitchen monkeys - whose responsibility it is to get out and put away the equipment each day. In fairness, it is a fun job and makes a change from roof crew that I have been doing for the past two sections of the trip. Roof crew involves getting the tents down from the roof and hauling them back up, along with firewood, charcoal and anything else we store up there. It is definitely a good work out, but you end up filthy most of the time. Still, I can't really complain given that I asked for the job. At the start of the trip, it was deemed that only men could be roof crew. Naturally, some of us girls thought this was somewhat sexist and reckoned we could do the job too. Slowly, Alison was persuaded that girls could be roof crew and at least it has kept me fit.
We are now in South Africa (our final country) where we have visited St Lucia wetlands game reserve and are now based at Sani Lodge in the Drakensberg Mountains. Sani Lodge is at the foot of the Sani Pass which leads up to the mountain kingdom of Lesotho. Lesotho is a separate landlocked country within South Africa (Prince Harry has a charity in Lesotho so you may have heard of it). The Sani Pass is accessible only with four wheel drive and even then it is pretty hairy. We took a trip up there yesterday and crossed the border into Lesotho (more passport stamps!). The views were truly spectacular - probably the best of the trip. I wouldn't want to live there though. At almost 3000m the winds are constant and it really is desolate landscape once you reach the mountain plateau. Had a drink in the highest pub in Africa - mulled wine which went down a treat given how cold it is up there.
Less than two weeks of the trip left now.. sad times.
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