“The world is a book, and those who do not travel read only a page” St Augustine
Crossing the border into on a Friday afternoon was fairly straightforward notwithstanding a bit of a queue of
people working in South Africa and heading home to Swaziland for the weekend. Very little changes once you enter Swaziland from the south, the roads are good and well sign posted, sugar cane fields line the tarmac and you can even use rands as the Lilangeni piggy backs the rand and is always exchanged at 1:1. As you head further north, riding adjacent to the uBombo Mountain range, you start to realise just how beautiful the tiny country is. Swaziland is one of the smallest countries in Africa but contains a piece of every landscape imaginable. While traversing the country you ride across flood plains, through majestic mountain ranges and along wide and winding rivers. South African style petrol stations litter the roads so fuel is the last of your worries and one passes game farm after game farm throughout the country.
I headed up to the western side of Swaziland, passing through Manzini en route and eventually arriving at MlilwaneWildlife Sanctury in the afternoon. Bikes are not allowed within the reserve but they make special allowances for those travelling by motorcycle so that you can get to one of their many accommodation options. I was heading to Sondzela Backpackers, a well run and affordable option that was full up with Mountain biking enthusiasts who had made the trek from South Africa for the famous Imvelo Classic Mountain Bike Race. The MTB
race winds its way around the nature reserve up some steep hills and along some beautiful singletrack. It is the reason I had first come to Swaziland a few year
s back and have returned year after year with friends. This year would be slightly different in that I could not bring my mountain bike along (for obvious reasons) but I still had friends making the trip from Jo’burg for the weekend. This included Dave and Paul on their motorbikes, these two would join me from here on till northern Malawi before heading back to South Africa via Zambia and Botswana. We had a festive weekend in and around Malkerns culminating in a fantastic party at the intricately decorated “House on Fire” concert venue on the Saturday night.
We departed from Mlilwane on the Monday morning, heading for Map
uto and the rest of Mozambique. It was nice to finally have some company on the road and to make things even better we had 3 other friends travelling with us for the next 5 days in a double cab. This meant that we could afford to buy more food and supplies and live in relative luxury for a few days. The trip to Maputo flew by with few stops other than the moderately efficient border crossing and before we knew it we were snaking our way through the busy streets of the capital city in rush hour traffic.
Crossing the border into on a Friday afternoon was fairly straightforward notwithstanding a bit of a queue of
people working in South Africa and heading home to Swaziland for the weekend. Very little changes once you enter Swaziland from the south, the roads are good and well sign posted, sugar cane fields line the tarmac and you can even use rands as the Lilangeni piggy backs the rand and is always exchanged at 1:1. As you head further north, riding adjacent to the uBombo Mountain range, you start to realise just how beautiful the tiny country is. Swaziland is one of the smallest countries in Africa but contains a piece of every landscape imaginable. While traversing the country you ride across flood plains, through majestic mountain ranges and along wide and winding rivers. South African style petrol stations litter the roads so fuel is the last of your worries and one passes game farm after game farm throughout the country.I headed up to the western side of Swaziland, passing through Manzini en route and eventually arriving at MlilwaneWildlife Sanctury in the afternoon. Bikes are not allowed within the reserve but they make special allowances for those travelling by motorcycle so that you can get to one of their many accommodation options. I was heading to Sondzela Backpackers, a well run and affordable option that was full up with Mountain biking enthusiasts who had made the trek from South Africa for the famous Imvelo Classic Mountain Bike Race. The MTB
race winds its way around the nature reserve up some steep hills and along some beautiful singletrack. It is the reason I had first come to Swaziland a few year
s back and have returned year after year with friends. This year would be slightly different in that I could not bring my mountain bike along (for obvious reasons) but I still had friends making the trip from Jo’burg for the weekend. This included Dave and Paul on their motorbikes, these two would join me from here on till northern Malawi before heading back to South Africa via Zambia and Botswana. We had a festive weekend in and around Malkerns culminating in a fantastic party at the intricately decorated “House on Fire” concert venue on the Saturday night.We departed from Mlilwane on the Monday morning, heading for Map
uto and the rest of Mozambique. It was nice to finally have some company on the road and to make things even better we had 3 other friends travelling with us for the next 5 days in a double cab. This meant that we could afford to buy more food and supplies and live in relative luxury for a few days. The trip to Maputo flew by with few stops other than the moderately efficient border crossing and before we knew it we were snaking our way through the busy streets of the capital city in rush hour traffic.
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