Update: -
Place: Istanbul/Turkiye
Day: 186 (return to Turkey)
Distance: 29,580km

After such delay I am not sure if there still is anybody out there reading. I have run out of excuses, too. Anyways, let me try to move on.

By the way, I must emphasize a fact. My trip has been far less interesting after Kruger National Park. That was supposed to be an “Africa” trip as you know. But especially after you cross South Africa border, it is no longer Africa in the sense of authenticity. With its modern cities, developed infrastructure, malls, luxury cars and life styles, it is rather Americanish or, as I mentioned earlier, Australianish, and therefore not much of interest for me. Furthermore, I need to load the car to a vessel in Cape Town and finish custom clearance before the 4+ days of Easter holiday starts, precisely on 14^th of April, 2006. As per 4+ days, let me explain. When Easter Friday and Easter Monday merges, it becomes a 4 days holiday. However, people tend to drink so much in this long weekend, “alcoholiday” as a dear old Irish friend of mine once referred to, that they usually need a few days + after that. Besides, the only (don’t know why) way to fly from Cape Town to Istanbul is with Qatar Airlines with one night stay in Doha (Qatar’s capital) and that means if I miss my mark of 14^th, this might eventually prove to be a delay of more than a week. All these facts make the rest of the trip a bit of a race against the time. I need to make 3,000km in 6 days. No time to fool around.

I can only hope that the explanation proves to be an excuse for the simplicity of the continuation of my blog. So let’s move on, shall we?

Swaziland:

Earlier on 7th of April, Friday, I thought it was 14:19 and put this to the title of my update as well. When I checked the GPS readings I realized that it actually was 14:06 and 14:19 was the mark I pulled over next to Swaziland customs building i.e. out of South African border in 13 minutes flat. Don’t think that it is a record because the Swaziland customs turns out even faster releasing me merely in 6 minutes. Mbabane is the target now; this is the capital of Swaziland.

Swaziland is a mere 17,363km², which can safely be compared to city of Adana in Turkey, meaning it won take long to enter from one end and exit from the other. I will stay one night

Mbabane though as I can’t just skip Swaziland like that.

Population of Swaziland is 1,136,000 and it is the country with shortest life expectation in the world for its people with 36.62 years. %38.8 ratio of HIV infected/total population being the main reason, which is also world leading. Result: a very young and starving population, thanks to those in power sucking all the revenue of the land like vampires.

Swaziland is one of the few countries in this continent rule with monarchy. Current king Mswati 3rd is obviously more reasonable than the previous king  Sobhuza 2nd (father of Mswati – Sobhuza 1st is the one who established the kingdom in the beginning of 19th century). Kings of Swaziland are notorious with their unmeasured spending and marriages. Everybody is talking about how ostentatious the palaces and how splendid the fleet of cars the current king has in his garage. Latest example of Mswati 3rd’s unparalleled extravagance is his mere (!) 24 million USD worth new jet, bought back in 2002 in spite of strong opposition from parliament and harsh criticism from international public. What? Would they have spent it to feed the starved or cure the diseased when their poor king needed that plane so desperately, don’t be funny!

Besides, the matrimonial expenditures of kings always dig a big hole in Swaziland’s modest budget. Resources say that father Sobhuza 2nd had 120 formal wives when he passed in 1982. That is believed to be doubled with the addition of informal ones. His son, the current king only has 6, the poor guy! May be father deserves o be called poor better as he had to deal with 120 wives. It is not only the OPEX you need for so many wives, but also the CAPEX. To marry, you need to pay the bride’s family a hefty sum of “lobola” in Swaziland, usually by means of breeding animals. Imagine the total lobola Sobhuza 2nd had to pay!

Everything (ground, trees) is covered with a strange type of ivy, Ngonini

On the way to Mbabane, the road takes twisting turns on to Piggs Peak. I have a quick launch in a road diner and enjoy the nearby souvenir shop to make my first ever shopping session since the beginning of my trip. I can’t just go back empty handed after such a trip, can I?

I think I already mentioned how I hated shopping. I don’t only hate it when I am traveling; I also hate it when I am settled in Istanbul. It is such a torture to me that even when Buket asks me to buy things I make a complete list down to the kg’s and brands of each item so that I can complete the list and get the heck out of the place as quickly as possible. You won’t see me go “hmm that looks like a hell of a fresh tomato, lets make it 5kg instead of 3kg on the list”.

That sometimes drive my travel-mates crazy. I always study my lesson before a trip and serve as a perfect guide for you but if you ever intend to stop and fool around for shopping I’d ruin it for you.

Anyway, since I got so far, I needed to buy a few gifts and I did accomplish that duty on the mountains of Swaziland.

There is a mark on the map just before Piggs Peak, showing Phophonyane Waterfall. This waterfall, along with the surrounding woods is a protected area and inside there is a lodge named after the waterfall. I have always been fascinated by waterfalls and so I need to see this one. It is a steep and rough track. There was no one in the lodge but me as I arrived through a dense forest. I pay reception the entry fee and get a plan of the road to waterfall. Walking on a footpath built by carving the rocks, I first get to the rock pools and eventually to the waterfall. What a disappointment! Back in where I came, we need the water to fall from a great height, before we can refer to a place as a “waterfall”. Here, the water does not “fall” though, just flowing rapidly from a somewhat steep slope. What can I say; I need to content with this one.

Phophonyane “Waterfall” if you can call it one

I take an alternative way back from the waterfall as to go around the front part of the lodge. Lonely Planet deems Phophonyane Lodge as the most beautiful and peaceful resort of whole Swaziland. It consists of luxury safari tents and comfortable rush-roof cottages surrounded by a dense green fauna and massive trees. It features a large restaurant, too, which is said to have a nice variety of delicious East Africa plates.

Phophonyane Lodge

I thank the receptionist lady and walk to my car when I see her coming behind me. She asks if I could give her a ride to the turn ahead. That rings some bells in my mind; remember the hitchhiking incident in Tanzania? But this one at least speaks English and seems to be an executive of the hotel so the risks are not that high, I accept it. She asks me politely to wait for 5 minutes.

As I find out that she plans to take a bus from the turn to her house in Mbabane, I suggest driving her to Mbabane which she gladly accepts. She is a university graduate and a very clever, alert young lady. She likes talking and I let her drive most of the conversation. She says she started to work here after graduating from the university in Jo’burg (Johannesburg / Republic of South Africa) as an assistant manager. Manager is another lady who also owns the place. They work in shifts with her I guess but it seems that this one is taking longer shifts as the other is the boss. She aims to complete a master study on her job somewhere abroad, preferably in the UK and then live there.

It is a very difficult task to avoid crazy trucks that are carrying heavy logs on the serpentine turns of Piggs Peak. Approaching to a blind right turn, I find myself in the verge of a deadly decision between crashing into one of them came from nowhere and driving into the huge hole that connects to the cliff! Crashing into that truck would eventually mean going down the cliff anyway so I desperately align the hole driving my left front wheel into it. The car elevates so high that my back tire jumps over the hole. I take a deep breath on realizing we are still alive and on four wheels whilst my short term travel companion tells her story with no interruption at all.

We get to Mbabane at about 17:00PM. After leaving her at a point near her house, I am heading downtown to check a few pensions listed in Lonely Planet. The city as a whole looks like a huge construction site, by the way. The main road which originally drives through the city is being removed to outside with viaducts, while downtown huge buildings are climbing their way up into the sky. Mbabane looks like a small, modern city, with lots of fast food restaurants, malls, chain stores as usual in such cities. As I said, I no longer feel I am in Africa. It also shows in each of the pensions I have been knocking, very expensive. Some of them did not have any vacancy anyway. I find the best option in a relatively safe and reasonably priced one. They give me a room which opens to a living room where I can watch TV together with the family and other guests. A couple of 25-30 years, possibly of South African origin. They have a small kid at about 3 years of age. There are 2 other young girls staying here, plus a guest of the owners, a middle aged guy. We share the kitchen and bathroom. While I am preparing the meat and vegetable stew from my stocks in the kitchen for dinner, we are chatting with one of the girls. She is a doctor, an intern working for an aid organization. She is here for a 6 months duty and due to leave in about 3 months.

My plate in one hand, I go down to the basement bar of the pension to grab a bottle of Swaziland’s 1.5 liter beers. Hosts, their guest and another guy is sitting there, smoking conically shaped cigarettes with a weird smell. As I enter to grab the beer, I see another guy, fastidiously breaking the joint into small pieces. I go out to be handed a neatly rolled joint by one of them which I politely refuse. I sit on the stairs, eating my stew, sipping my beer and chatting with them. They want to know about my story, I tell them, they find it very cool and show it with loud cheers.

I am leaving Swaziland the next day, but first I need to get some fuel and the filling stations only accept Swaziland Lilangeni. Emalangeni are the plural word for Lilangeni. When I first walked into the station, I offered the cashier South African Rand and then credit card only to be refused twice. He insists I must pay in Emalangeni. I try to figure out what Emalangeni is because as far as I know the currency is called Lilangeni. You can spend South African Rand all around Swaziland. For instance I paid for the food, for accommodation, souvenirs all in Rands. But the petrol stations is an exception, perhaps along with others. Anyway, I have to get some local notes. I withdraw Lilangeni from the ATM in the mall, just enough to take me out of Swaziland. The reason I am being so tight is that diesel fuel and gasoline are extremely expensive in Swaziland.

I have 188km lying in front of me before I can leave Swaziland behind. I will leave the country from the south-eastern most end, namely from a border town called Lavumisa. I chose this location on purpose, in order to use the famous N2 highway which cuts South African shore from eastern most to Cape Town and will take me all the way to Cape Town following the shore, too. For obvious reasons, it is all about being fast now. I need to make 2,600km in 5 days and leave some safety margin for possible mishaps.

Before I leave the country I want to give you some more information about it. As you know, monarchy rules in this country, but not in the sense of what we understand from a typical monarchy. Yes, there is a king but another person with lots to say about the management is his mother. Swaziland kings are all referred to as “ngwnyama”, meaning “lion”, and their mothers as “ndlovukazi”, meaning “Big Elephant Woman”. This woman is deemed to be the national and spiritual leader of the country. As I mentioned earlier, before the current king, his father Sobhuza 2nd was on throne. This guy ruled the country from 1921 to 1982 when he passed away. An amazing 61 years that gives him the world record on that area. Upon his death, first the mother queen Dzeliwe, one his wives ruled the country. But a group supporting Sobhuza’s younger son Makhosetive to be the new king, put Makhosetive’s mother Queen Ntombi in force with a rose revolution in 1983. Makhosetive was on throne in 1986 as the new king.

I mentioned that the people in Swaziland are starving in the hands of poverty. Ironically enough, with an average national income of USD 2,336.00 per capita (according to IMF 2005 data), it is one of the wealthier states in Africa. Unfortunately, the insatiable hunger of king and his crew prevents 1 million people of reaching a reasonable standard of life. Furthermore, the unemployment rate of workable population is %40 and rising.

I leave Mbabane at about 08:30 in the morning and after a quite trip leave the country via Lavumisa border gate at about 11:00PM.