Bronnie's African Adventures: Swaziland Safari!

Sanbonani! (Swazi for 'i see you' - which is like hello)

So this weekend I went to Swaziland with some of the ladies - it was AWESOME! We caught the minibus up there - an experience that has left us with memories mingled with the odours of methane, burbon and BO - a charming combination for 6 hours! But it was fun, the burbon eventually led a few of them quiten down/pass out, and then the journey was very enjoyable - the scenery was magnificent! I am sooo in love with Africa! Our hostels were pretty sweet too, so was Mbabane and Manzini - i agree with the Lonely Planet that says the racial tensions are less palpable in Swaziland, we all felt so much safer there even walking back to our hostel just as it got dark. The people were so friendly too - we hitched out to see the Milwane Game Reserve with a nice guy called Arthur who came back to get us at the end of the day, and on Sunday after the festival we met this girl (who may be somewhere in her teens) called Faith who walked us to the minibuses (which were so NOT in the direction we would have headed, so I was very grateful for that!). We did get ripped of by these two jerky taxi drivers. It was the last night, and we stayed in Manzini (which is where the minibus to Durban departs from). So we got there just as it was dark so we decided on taxis to be safe. These two guys insisted they knew where we were going, then once we had divided into 2 taxis (there were 6 of us) they both admitted they didn't know where they were going and asked us for directions. Long story short, the Swazi backpackers where we stayed is AGES out of town, and has moved about 500m or so from where it was 1 month ago. So the taxi drivers take us off road where there are no signs to the old packbackers (allegedly), and I was like 'where are we going?' and he was all 'don't be scared, swaziland is poor and not as pretty as your country' or some crap. so we get to what is now a private residence and the drivers ask the new owners where the backpackers has moved to, then demand more money to take us there! I was furious and so was Amy, Doucette and Andrea so we stood there for 10 minutes argueing and eventually coughed up less than 1/2 of what they asked for just to get out of there. I hate taxi drivers - scum of the earth rip off merchants. I much prefer the minibuses - they are honest (way more than I expected), follow set routes (or close enough) are cheap and go all the time.

Anyway - there were much more exciting things in Swaziland also - this post I'll tell you about the Milwane Game Reserve - next time the Reed Dance festival (which TOTALLY rocked)!

Are these not THE most amazing photos ever! At Milwane they have hippo feeding time at 3 - so this is mumma hippo (bub stayed in the water) who came out at like 10 to 3 and waited for lunch (which was basically bird food... interesting given i thought hippos ate like grass... but whatever...) I was literally like 1-2m away from this beautiful animal, i could not stop smiling! It like made my whole month, probably year actually, i was soo excited!

This is mum and bub - they are soooo beautiful - yes I have a thing for hippos and for those who share my obsession i have MANY many more photos of these two!

Andrea and I also went on a horse-riding safari (this is andrea, i'm on her camera we have to swap, but you get the picture)