Virée au Royaume du Swaziland

Deux trois mots en français, the rest in English (see below)

Là-bas, le roi règne sur ses sujets, et même si ça peut nous paraître à nous d’un goût moyenâgeux, en Afrique, ça se fait, et j’irais même jusqu’à dire que c’est ce qui se fait de mieux. Le Swaziland, c’est un million deux cent ou trois cent mille habitants, une monarchie absolue, une alphabétisation meilleure que dans beaucoup d’autres pays africains, ce qui n’empêche tout de même pas un chômage très élevé et un taux de contamination par le virus du SIDA vers les 40%. De la pauvreté aussi, c’est-à-dire, les gens sont pauvres mais arrivent à manger à leur faim grâce à de la solidarité, l’agriculture étant la première source de revenu du pays. La monarque est très respecté, même si quelques étudiants ont déjà tenté une revendication pour un système plus démocratique, non suivie et non écoutée. La criminalité swazi doit être aussi importante que dans n’importe quel pays occidental, les transports en commun sont utilisés par la population noire en général mais les touristes les empreintent aussi sans crainte. L’anglais y est généralement parlé, toutefois, dans les villages, le swazi seul est la langue de communication, là où l’anglais n’est pas utile, ou bien en signe de conservation de la culture swazi, comme au village que j’ai eu l’occasion de visiter (voir un peu plus bas). La vie n’est pas chère, la monnaie est le lilangani, égal au rand sud africain.

J’ai utilisé pour la première et probablement dernière fois le Baz Bus pour me rendre là-bas. Je suis partie avec deux US girls (d’Hawaii exactement!!!!!), Zamo, mon chauffeur préféré, était le chauffeur ce jour-là, il m’avait réservé la place à l’avant pour le trajet !! sympa ! Le Baz Bus est vraiment super, tous les chauffeurs sont sympas et helpfull, Zamo nous a tous bien guidés à la frontière ( on est accueilli par le drapeau avec un grand portrait de Mswati III, roi actuel, ambiance super détendue, toute petite frontière, gardes relax, complètement différent du Mozambique où la pagaille générale est stressante). Le Baz Bus est l’occasion de rencontrer des personnes et papoter pendant les longs trajets et trouver sa compagnie du soir puisque tous s’arrêtent dans des mêmes auberges. Les deux Hawaïennes et deux autres Français allaient au même endroit que moi, on a sympathisé du coup tous les cinq.

So I continue in English.
The King of Swaziland has 11 wifes, so many children I don't remember the amount. Everybody can claim belonging to the royal family then...

Twice a year, the whole Kingdom celebrates with the King. First the young girls dance for him and at the end of the day he chooses one for him, then the young boys celebrates their traditional occupation, indeed huntig with traditional clothes and songs... The tourists are very welcome to take part in the celebration, I guess it can be an amazing experience to attend at it.

The 2 French people, the 2 Hawaiians and I staid in Sondzela Backpacker, always recommended by Dave and Bella. Sondzela is in the middle of a nature reserve, where you can experience the wild life by foot : so great!!!! As we arrived by night, we couldn’t see our environment but it smelt, sounded and seemed like we would wake up with the big smile. I was really looking forward to seeing the sunrise.
We went directly to the main camp to see some swazi dance and songs : a bit wired to sit in an armchair with all other white tourists looking at those black guys dancing and singing, but I also felt they enjoyed doing it then it’s fine. Even if the tourists are not here they dance and sing, just maybe not with the flag and the King on the back…
The Euro championship was already on, then Nicolas had to watch it… I sat at the campfire for a few hours with Black Label, nice people from everywhere going or staying everywhere, very nice evening.

I woke up, ah ah ah , ah merde, it’s still night, I can’t see anything…I was so impatient!! A couple of hours later, the sun started shining and the mountain appeared behind my window just on the top of my bed : I let you enjoy the view :


We organized a full visit day together. First the shuttle from Sondzela drove us out of the reserve and we took a minibus to the craft market : impressive!! A hundred shops with the same stuff in each on the same place!! Here is the market for tourists, no authenticity but a lot of things the tourists just love bringing home…so I did some souvenir shopping there. Then we returned to the fruit market and bought plenty of vitamin. Sri and Rasa are vegetarian, they were very pleased to be able to find so nice fruit and veg’. Around midday, after a complicated way back, our receptionist brought us to one of the four villages of the reserve 30 minutes walking distance from Sondzela : here you are, walking, watching zebras, impalas, wild horses, warthogs, … We met then our guide, actually our translator. Indeed the guide was the chief, or the chief’s wife but her husband died a couple of years ago so she is in charge of the village. She speaks swazi that’s why we needed the help of a translator-guide. She welcomed us very warmly with some children who were walking around. Songs, dance. Mama swazi taught us some swazi words : well some, more than 2 and it was over. I do like learning languages, but I can’t remember any words she brought us. We also learnt swazi dance and song : as you can imagine, we were just able to sing the melody, and some tons that sounded familiar to us from time to time, although she repeated the song with us 5 or 6 times…we were kind of bad pupils I must admit. Then she explained us how the swazi hunt, eat, sleep, what the men do, what the women do. She showed us dishes, bedcover, jersey… the dance we learnt was easy, same repeated foot, I think we danced it like for 10 minutes, which was nice because we really got the rhythm and the contact with “our teachers” was very nice after this experience. We felt like we became swazi, so did the chief think. After songs and songs, the children let us go, at least the four of us but didn’t want to let Nicolas. They were playing dancing together following the melody of the chief’s wife. I enjoyed this instant because it was a true instant. Even if Nicolas a tourist was and the children the swazi children were, at this instant, they really had fun together, forgetting who was entertaining who. It was Africa!…

On the way back to the main camp, we stopped at the lake where we hoped we would see some hippos or crocs, but nothing. A bit disappointed, we hurried to the restaurant, it was time to have something to eat : grilled impala for the French, soup for the Hawaiians, poor vegetarian, I feel really sad for them sometimes. The South African love making braai = barbecue. I had a braai last time with some people staying over the week end. It was so nice, huge piece of meat, the men looking after the fire, the women cooking the pop and salads. Anyway, the vegetarians can still taste the salads, but they don’t know what they miss!! Here down the terrace of the restaurant a crocodile was lying : great! After our lunch-diner, we decided to return to the lake thinking we could be lucky this time. And we were : the hippos were lying in the water, even a baby hippo, look at me with my new friends!!!
We had a very good day all together, nice company in this part of the swazi kingdom, awesome….On our way back to the backpacker; just enjoying the view of the mountains behind the fields and the red earth trails.

I spent my second evening with a German guy, playing pool and watching stars without too much light pollution : possible in the reserve, nice nice.
Second morning, I had to go back to Nelspruit, waouh, it hurts… But it was not yet the end of my trip. The problem was, no Baz Bus this day, then : minibus. It is the point : even if it is not safe blablabla, I alone feeling in jail in my nice though Old Vic, I just take the chance when I don’t have an other possibility. Straight to Mbabane (capital ), I should have taken a bus to Nelspruit. But I came too late, he left already. I knew something would go wrong, I mean wrong, just I knew for some reason I would most probably come late at Old Vic, I was supposed to work at 1pm…So then I took a bus to Pigg’s Peak : the highest swazi peak is 1900m high. I really didn’t regret it : beautiful landscape again. In Pigg’s Peack, an other bus drove me to the border where I was supposed to find a bus straight to Nelspruit. In Matsamo at the border, the guards revealed me, there is no straight bus to Nelspruit, I must first go to Schoemansdale, then Malelane, then Nelspruit… aïe, it was not the plan!!! The officer offered me to ask the cars coming crossing the gate/the border and find a lift or me : thank you for your help guy!! So kind of him. The first car he asked : one black girl and a black guy : going to Nelspruit, great!! Ah no not great, they don’t want to take me because I am white… all right! Take it for you and wait……ça fait mal hein…… A car drove me eventually to Malelane where I took the bus to Nelspruit and asked the bus driver to drop me off before the taxi rang at a safest place. Back at 1:45 pm, not as late as I thought finally.

I am very happy to have taken the chance to go to Swaziland. Now : because I don’t stay in Nelspruit any longer, I escape, finally, I leave Tuesday the 24th or Wednesday the 25th to Mozambique, I thought I wouldn’t have the opportunity to get there. I should have gone there and in Drakensberg + Durban in July as Dave and Bella had given me two weeks holidays. I’m still not going to visit the Drakensberg mountain and it is really a pity because I am sure I would have love it. But now I am on my way to Inhambane and I am also quite sure I will love my life there. Lynne assures me I will have a very nice time there with her and the Mozambican style…I can just believe it. à suivre

One week in Mozambique

Dave and Bella gave me one week holiday and I got the occasion to enjoy the private transfer to Maputo with the Dutch students teaching in Schoemansdale who were also going for their last week in Africa. On the way, kms and kms of sugar cane. Dave took us to the memorial of Samora Michele who was the president of Mozambique and died with a couple of his colleague on a plane crash. They built a memorial on the place the accident took place with the rest of the burnt plane. I am not sure a lot of people get to there because it is quite lost in the middle of nowhere, but it was a good feeling to see some people involved in it even if the museum is not bigger than a few photos of the member in the plane and some words about their position and their role.

At the boarder, Dave arranged everything for us, with a tip of R10, we got the Visa easily and faster. Lots of Mozambican were crossing the boarder by foot with their huge amount of bags and food, regards to the very bad conditions for them at the moment in South Africa. Indeed, all of you heard about the trouble happening for a couple of week now and I received some emails of you worried about my situation. What's happening here is crazy even if it doesn't change my own situation. Most of the victim are Mozambican or Zimbabwean established in South Africa with the hope they can find a better life here than in their country. The South African claim they steal the money, make the suburbs unsafe and take the few jobs available. And for this reasons and wrong ideologies, people get murdered in a very grisly way. The murderer burn their victims alive, strangle them, shoot them if they answer with a foreign accent at their questions. These are the terrible picture you probably saw, or maybe not, but they appear here in the newspaper. I haven't heard any report on white foreigner attack; I would have thought it would give the chance to some of those criminal to in the confusion though. Funny to think that the president of South Africa Mbeki claims since the last election in Zimbabwe the situation in the neighbour country is under control and there is no reason to panic when his population in his country kill those same neighbours...total confusion...

In our first km in Maputo in our vehicle registered in South Africa, a guy in the next car as we stopped greeted us friendly before giving this sad reproach : "what's up in your country with us man? what do you think of we would do the same here?" At this moment, you realize how awful the situation is. However, it wouldn't happen in Mozambique, crime exist also but the difference is an attack in Mozambique means you get robbed, South Africa you get killed. I don't speak about Zimbabwe because I'm not sure how it is but everybody agrees to say, it's worse than South Africa. Don't wonder if they come through here to get some peace, even if it is a complete paradox for us.



Maputo is safer than Jo'Burg or even Nelspruit, but it's far to mean it is safe. Some parts of the capitale are to avoid by day as by night, and by night, ue a taxi everywhere you want to go, don't walk alone,... in a part of the center, street with restaurants and cafes you can walk, always with precaution though. You wouldn't live alone in an appartment in Maputo either, a guard for each house etc...



Dave took us first to the fish parket to have some lunch. I was wondering to see how unconfortable the girls felt when a couple of young people trying to sell us things, walking close tu us keeping talking even if you don't listen to them. It's their business, it can be annoying, but if you are a bit confident and you show them you are not interest then they leave you in peace. After 10 minutes, each of them was come around us and eventually let us the chance to relax. Dave went to the market and bought some prawns, before we went there and smelt the nice fresh fish, prawns, crabs,... it is not a big market, almost a tidy one, with 15 sailors maybe, fruit and vegetable also available. The nice thing about this famous market is to buy your fish and give it to the chef of the restaurant of your choice to cook it for you. Fabulous isn't it?






**********INHACA**************

Inhaca is an island close to the capital. Just the ferry boat is an adventure, jumping in a motor boat before the arrival, I wouldn't recommend it if you have more than one bag, the Mozambican do though, taking everything they can from the mainland to the island to bring to their family and it's a kind of funny mess when you arrive there, more funny than anything else actually.I stayed there in this little hut with other Mozambican tourists from Maputo too.3 or 4 villages in total on the island, the main one is the one here, it means : some shops for tourists, 2-3 bars restaurants, a little-tidy market and a huge lodge for people from oversee with ambiance Club Med on the evenings, too bad...

A motor boat took us for 300 Meticals, 100 rands, 8 euros to Portuguese island, nowhere there just sandy beach and wild desert bush.

2M is the most popular beer in Mozambique, even though I enjoyed the sweet cheap rum : Tippo tinto.




Once back, I was pleased to meet American 2 guys in The Base, central backpacker in Maputo also going to Tofo with the minibus, so I wouldn't have my first long journey on my own. At the taxi rang at 5:30 you can buy every kind of food or other products for your house and on all the way, people all along the road selling fruits, sofas, shampoo.... the mozambican bread is lovely, white bread quite similar to french bread, delicious!! sweet pineapple for 1 euro, coconut for 5Meticals, I don't even try to make the conversion in euro it would be ridiculous.

*********Tofo / Inhambane*********

Tofo is the tourist place in Mozambique : just backpackers, restaurants and see-activities companies, beaches, souvenirs and food market. Lots of accommodation facilities,... I met the duth girls again there even if we didn't stay at the same place, Tofo is such a place every tourist is it was very unlikely I wouldn't have seen them there.

I don't believe it yet but I did swim with whale sharks!! just amazing and unbelievable, but so easily available here, it is a must really even if you are not keen on diving or snorkelling. I must say I was hesitant for the diving tour, maybe later, so I went for the ocean safari and snorkelling. On the wednedsay, normally my last day in Tofo / Inhambane, the tour was cancelled because the weather was too windy and the Tofo Scuba member were not sure they are able to see whale sharks. Too bad, I HAD to come back the day after if I really wanted to do that, so I decided to stay one more day. It just made my trip back to Nelspruit in one day and I didn't know exactly how but anyway, it was one more day holiday on the beach and one more evening with Lynne in Inhambane. So I went on the Thursday, on the tour I met the 2 guys on the right hand side here, a Canadian and a Greek living in Belgium and Germany. It is an unforgettable experience. I didn't expect to be able to jump out of the boat and be so close to the huge peacefully shark!! When I jumped into the water the first time, I almost touched it so close I was!! impressive and king of frightening also...

After all those emotion we deserved a nice meal ; the 3 of us ate seafood at the nice restaurant Casa de comer in a charming environment.

I stayed the first night in Tofo at Fatima's nest which is a very nice backpacker right on the beach, sand everywhere cute little grass huts… For the second night, I stayed at Lynne’s house, a Canadian girl working in Inhambane. She has a house with a free room and bathroom, ideal to receive people. I don’t know how many Couchsurfer she met here before me but a lot. I felt good in her company as soon as we met at the market. Cooking, drinking some Tippo tinto bought in the next baracca. I fell in love with Inhambane because everything is available by foot and it’s safe to walk around, even at night time just make sure to be a group of minimum 2 people for more security and have fun : go to the market, the shops of the nice Indian community, to the restaurant, have a coffee in the morning, a beer in the evening… I met Jimmy on a terrace one morning waiting for the bus to Tofo, we spoke together for 20 minutes and exchanged our phone number which was a great idea for the rest of my African events I think. I’m sure we are going to meet again in the next weeks so he could explain me better chat he is up to, sort of golf place with accommodation…
The second evening by Lynne, a friend of her, Luis, came to cook prawns and coconut rice. It was as simple as delicious, such a great dinner really. Luis is still at school but also a professional DJ. Lynne recognised he has the skills to be better and to become a real DJ and they try to find Luis a school in Canada to study more about electronic music… The third evening we went to 2 barracas and staid until the middle of the night, I slept one hour before I took the minibus to Maputo. Once back in the capital, no time for an overnight, I had to find a minibus going to Nelspruit the same day. The bus driver and a young Mozambican in the bus were very helpful, the taxi driver drove me right to the minibus going to Nelspruit. BUT it was only 5 of us who had to get to Nelspruit, I was waiting in the taxi right in the sun from 11:30am ‘till 3:30pm without any clue if I eventually would be able to arrive in Nelspruit this day. The taxi driver informed us finally that he was not going but organized an other taxi for us, it’s what usually happens if his taxi is nit full obviously. I was glad a guy also going with me could speak English and explain me what was going on ‘cause I felt a bit hopeless during 4 hours reading my book trying not to be impatient… Finally I arrived by nicht at the taxi rang : exactly what you don’t want to, the driver let me wait for my Thabo taxi inside his bus then I felt safe. But Dave and Bella still now repeat me that I must NOT recommend it to their clients because it is really too dangerous. It’s actually not just because of the security, that’s more or less manageable with a bit of sense, but because of the way they drive, fast, risky, and the state of their vehicle…and that’s right, you can’t do anything to avoid it.
Anyway, I arrived safe at Old Vic with the biggest part of my heart staid in Inhambane, peacefully town with charming population. Lynne and Luis’ company, sun and beach, African landscape with grass huts in the little villages all along the road, woman with colourful dress and bandanas in their hairs…