Swaziland

The next day we had a relatively short couple hour drive into Swaziland. Swaziland is another landlocked country, the smallest in the Southern Hemisphere. We crossed the border, taking care to ensure we received a stamp and made our way to the Milwane Wildlife Sanctuary. We had reserved a campsite there for two nights but after spending the past three nights at terribly outfitted campsites (no fire pit, no running water, no picnic or other table..) we were over it. Luckily for us they had two rondavels available, which are traditional southern African round huts. We each had our own nicely outfitted little hut with great views off across the valley through the sanctuary.

'Sheba's Breast' according to local legend

it's not a trip to a foregin country without a ridiculous sign

beehive hut

view from the rondavel

We spent the afternoon on a walk through the sanctuary. There were no fences, but they had no predators – only zebras, hippos, antelope (of all types), crocs, etc. In a different part of the sanctuary this was a restaurant overlooking a watering hole where hippos hung out and we relaxed there for a while.

Hippo Haunt

hippos!

The next day we had signed up for a mountain bike safari and cultural tour. Matt & I had loved the cultural bike tour we did in Vietnam, but in this case the safari piece was quite cool, and cultural ‘tour’ a bit of a let own. We biked around 15 miles around the sanctuary, seeing new scenery and spotting wildlife. Most of it we had seen from the car but it was much easier to sneak up and get close on the bikes.

us + Sipo

zebras ahoy

more zebras ahead!

 

The ‘cultural tour’ involved a long traditional dance that was interesting (for the first 10 minutes at least) and then a tour of a reconstructed traditional village by a guide who knew her script. It was nothing like getting to see real people’s home and real boats and crafts being made in Vietnam but at least vaguely interesting all the same. Our guide was somewhere between hilarious and obnoxious, though a champ on the mountain bike.

breakfast on the open fire

banana/corn milk. Weird.

inside the rondavel

Sodwana Bay: South Africa

After that it was north up the coast to Sodwana Bay. Also on the Elephant Coast, but much more remote, we camped there for another two nights in the park, in a large campground right on the beach. Sodwana is renowned for it’s coral reefs and fish life – scuba diving and snorkeling. Matt & I had booked two dives, and A&S spent the day snorkeling. The waters in the bay are very rough and there are many reefs, which makes boating a challenge. Matt and I had the experience for the first time scuba diving off a rubber inflatable boat, and the journey out was harrowing to say the least.

ghetto campsite

Sodwana Bay

After we had finally gotten past the breakwater, someone spotted dolphins following in our wake, the boat screeched to a stop and our dive master asked ‘do you want to swim with them?’. Before we could say yes, he was throwing masks and fins at us and tossing us overboard. There were 5 or more dolphins we got to be in the water with – they were swimming around, breaching, diving, playing with each other, and swimming almost right into us. The dive master had forbidden us to touch but I could have reached out for a ride!

A&S were able to take their camera b/c they were snorkeling, stole these from their dolphin adventure

After our dolphin adventure we were off to the dive site. Both dives of the day were fantastic with diverse coral and huge numbers of schools of tropical fish. I wish we’d had a camera with us for the whole thing, but it was too deep even for the trusty waterproof. We also saw rays, eels, turtles and more. On our second dive we were supposed to end near a place that was frequented by reef sharks, but unfortunately most of the group was low on air and we had to come up before arriving. We did find ourselves some shark teeth along the bottom!

Back on the beach by mid afternoon, we relaxed, reading and walking.

A&S on the hammock

This is what happens when your campsite has no fireput and no table:

bricks, charcoal, aluminum foil, and suitcase for seats

St. Lucia: South Africa

After our days of hiking in the Drakensburg, we made our way south and east through Durban to St Lucia. We contemplated stopping in Durban for lunch but in the end decided we would rather spend the time in St Lucia. St Lucia is on the ‘Elephant Coast’ and is part of an enormous wetland park. We camped while there, and spent the afternoon just up the coast in Cape Vidal, which is known for nice snorkeling and great whale watching, along with a great drive through a game reserve to get there. We partook of the whale watching since it was the perfect time of year – humpback whale migrate south from Mozambique with their babies. They were a good ways off shore but we saw 50 or more humpbacks breaching and blowing, a fantastic sight.

campsite

Ash & I on the beach

hippos

whale breach

We were camping but had seafood dinner in town that night and then checked out the local nightlife, where we met some friendly South Africans. We hadn’t managed to secure any fuel that matched with our camp stoves, so the next morning we wandered over to the neighbors (desperate for coffee) to ask for some hot water and discovered none other than our friends from the previous night! They tried to persuade us to stay another night for a braai, but unfortunately we were off for yet another adventure.

first kudu

Our guidebook stated something along the lines of ‘South Africa has no cohesive national cuisine’ and we found this to be reasonably true. Mostly it was what we would think of as relatively normal food. We had plenty of decent food though for the first two weeks nothing stood out so we often chose to cook for ourselves. ‘Braai’ is South African for ‘BBQ’ and it is truly a national obsession. It’s usually done with charcoal or wood logs (not gas) and we tried our hand a number of times.

The next day we went on our first safari – a kayak safari! Our aim was hippos, crocs, and other wildlife. We saw the hippos from afar and many many interesting birds. The crocs we got to paddle right up close to and hang around to observe. It was pretty neat to be right at the water level and watching life go by.

evil camp monkeys

more hippos

pointing at the croc

open mouthed croc