Eswatini: a small adventure

Beautiful valley at the top of Sibebe monolith, Eswatini.

If you have never heard of Eswatini, don’t worry because it just changed its name to Eswatini from Swaziland only 3 years ago. Eswatini (formerly Swaziland), is one of two tiny countries fully ensconced within South Africa (the other country is the highland plateau country of Lesotho). Ryan and I originally planned on going to Lesotho, but the week beforehand we realized that it was going to pour rain all week in Lesotho so we pivoted to Eswatini instead (which had a better weather forecast). 

Our friends from SF met us in Cape Town for New Year’s. Here we are on top of Table Mountain, Cape Town, South Africa.

After our bus trip ended in Cape Town, South Africa we stayed in Cape Town for a few days and celebrated New Years Eve there with some friends from San Francisco. After our friends left us, we explored Mossel Bay on South Africa’s Garden Route and then made our way to Eswatini by flying to Johannesburg.

A panorama of Cape Town, South Africa and Table Mountain from a hike called Lion’s Head.

So, we found ourselves driving from Johannesburg, South Africa, to Eswatini knowing almost nothing about the country. We didn’t even know if we needed a visa until we googled it 30 minutes away from the border. As it turned out, we did not need a visa and crossing the border was hassle free even with our rental car! We did enough research to know that the whole country can be driven across in two hours and accommodation near the capital is best for price, comfort and access to all the major sites. We booked a lodge between the capital, Mbabane (pronounced “mmb-BA-nay”) and the Mantenga Nature Reserve for our five day stay in the country.

Our dinner spot on the deck at Mantenga Lodge, our accommodation for our whole visit to Eswatini.

One of the few things Ryan knew about the country was the unfortunate statistic that Eswatini has the highest percentage of people living with HIV/AIDS. A staggering 27% of the country has the disease. Because of this, I was expecting to see a lot of poverty when we crossed the border from South Africa. However, I never noticed any severe poverty like we had seen in rural Kenya or South Africa. As we approached the border, we drove past miles of timberland that turned into idyllic green rolling hills dotted with picturesque granite boulders. Indeed, this was the majority of the scenery that we saw in Eswatini: basically, Frodo’s shire. Our lodge was surrounded with giant, lush green plants and had an incredible view of bursting forests surrounding a rocky peak. As you can imagine, it rains A LOT to maintain all this beautiful greenery, but we lucked out and didn't get rained on until the day we left.

The shire?! Typical Eswatini landscape view. This is from a hike we did in Malolotja National Park.

Eswatini is ethnically Swazi; they speak Swazi and have a distinct culture from the tribes in the rest of Southern Africa. In 1881, most of Southern Africa was being sliced up and claimed by European powers, but somehow Eswatini evaded colonization and was recognized as independent by the British. Nonetheless, in 1903 Eswatini became a British protectorate after the Second Boer War. Independence was regained in 1968 and Eswatini became an absolute monarchy, as it remains today.

Hiking on Sibebe monolith. It was quite a steep, relentless hike. We started at 7am to avoid the heat of the day, but were still sweating buckets.

Eswatini is trying to paint itself as an adventure capital to attract tourists. In our five days there, we went zip lining, rafting, rock scrambling and hiking. I was particularly attracted to Eswatini because I read in the Lonely Planet that just outside the capital you can hike up the world’s SECOND largest rock MONOLITH, called Sibebe. What an advertisement! I was eager to see an impressive face to rival Yosemite’s El Capitan, and we hired a guide because it looked very steep and we were worried that we wouldn’t be able to find the doable route to the top by ourselves.

A large granite rock called Sibebe monolith, marketed as the world’s second largest monolith. Anyone who has been to Yosemite knows this can’t be true.

Our guide showing us the “road” to the parking lot.

On the morning of our climb, we picked our guide up at a gas station in town and followed his instructions to drive to the base of the rock climb. Eventually, while driving on a two lane road lined with tall grass, he told us to slow down and turn directly into the tall grass. He seemed to think there was a road there… The guide got out and walked into the grass to show us the way and we took a leap of faith and turned our car into the grass. We drove our compact rental blindly through grass taller than the car to a small clearing that was a ‘parking lot’, and then got out of the car and bushwhacked to the start of the granite monolith. When we finally had the whole face in view, we realized it was much smaller than we expected. The guide told us that it is the world’s second largest monolith, after Ayer’s Rock in Australia, but the rock face neither appeared to be a singular uncovered rock nor was it even close to the size of Yosemite’s Clouds Rest, Half Dome or El Capitan. We later googled ‘largest monoliths’ and found Eswatini’s claim to be without a shred of truth. :P The rock face was still quite large and quite steep, but not too steep. If we had hiked it on our own, we definitely could have found a path up it without issues. Finding the parking lot would have been difficult though. :D Despite the lack of grandeur, the hike was still a fun challenge. We walked straight up it, and our calves and lunges were burning! At the top, it was worth it to have a guide because he took us to some secret caves and had us do some stemmy rock climbing moves. 

Funky plant, called “Monkey’s Tail,” that were everywhere in Eswatini.

Our guide taking us into a labyrinth at the top of Sibebe.

Eswatini was one of our last destinations before returning home mid-January to celebrate a “second Christmas” with Ryan’s family, so one day we visited a candle making craft shop on a mission to find Christmas presents. The shop teaches locals how to make beautiful paraffin wax candles and it's one of the most famous souvenir shops in Eswatini. 

A souvenir shop employing locals to make these awesome candles! They use paraffin wax colorful squares, that they skillfully form into animal shapes or regular candles.

We bought some nice candles and then started our drive back cruising along a two lane road. All of a sudden a gigantic pothole came into view and it was too big to swerve around so we had to hit it straight on. I watched in the side view mirror expecting to see rubber tire shreds blowing down the road. Magically, our tire did not blow BUT instead our hubcap popped off and bounced down the road. We stopped and pulled over, and immediately a local who was walking nearby came to help us look. There was knee-high grass on both sides of the road and it happened so fast that none of us were really sure where it landed or what side of the road it went to. We hunted around in the grass and poked sticks in the small nearby canal for a solid ten minutes with no luck! The local gave up and went on his way and Ryan and I poked around hopefully for a few more minutes. We eventually gave up and started heading back to the car, when 15 feet further down the road from where we were looking, Ryan found our hubcap perfectly placed on top of ANOTHER hubcap. We weren’t the only ones to have this happen, and the other people never found their hubcap! We were able to put it back on the car perfectly and continued on our way. :D

eDladleni Restaurant. The best Southern African food that we had on our whole trip. A local chef has taken it upon herself to revive her grandmother’s recipes into delicious, artful dishes. MUST VISIT.

We had some of the best African food from our whole trip in Eswatini at this incredible restaurant called eDladleni. An amazing chef is serving up elegant dishes from traditional recipes made with local ingredients. The menu is a set stream of delicious small plates. The restaurant is tiny, off of a dirt road 6 km from the capital. We ate on a quaint wooden porch overlooking a green lawn and stream. Definitely go here if you go to Eswatini!

We hiked and zip-lined in this idyllic green canyon dotted with zebras and other grazing animals.

On our last day we decided to try rafting. After our string of safaris and seeing many bodies of water in which I wasn’t allowed to swim, I wondered why this river was safe for rafting. On our drive to the river, I asked our guide, “So there are no crocodiles in this river?”. I was expecting him to tell me that this river, for whatever reason, has no crocodiles. Instead, he said, “Well you don’t have to worry about it…. The crocodiles don’t like the rapids.” O.o I did not find this reassuring.

Action photo taken by our guides from the shore nearby. This is the most difficult set up rapids that we would pass through. On our first attempt, we capsized the little raft at the beginning and went for a little swim. This is our second attempt, and we made it through unscathed!

High paddles all around for a fun day!

I rafted once before in Southern Africa, on the Zambezi river at the base of Victoria Falls. I hadn’t been on enough safaris yet to be scared of crocodiles, and it was rafting in an eight-man boat. Instead of a traditional eight-man boat, this rafting company uses two-man rafts. This meant that instead of floating along letting the guide do all the work, Ryan and I were in OUR OWN boat and had to steer it ourselves. Between that and the crocodiles, I was definitely nervous. There were two guides in their own boats alongside us giving advice and showing the way. Coordinating steering and paddling was a serious team-building exercise for Ryan and I. We were up for the challenge though, after tandem bike-riding last year, and did great until the very end. The largest rapid was at the end, and when we went over it the raft tossed us both out into the river. Energized by a fear of becoming crocodile-meat, I immediately grabbed the raft, flipped it upright and performed a heroic leap out of the water and back into the raft. I guess Ryan wasn’t as concerned because he took his time getting back to the raft. After getting back in and collecting ourselves, the guides asked if we wanted to do that rapid AGAIN. I didn’t want to do it again, but it was the last rapid so we felt compelled to try it again. We carried the raft up the rocky sides of the river back upstream of the rapid and got additional coaching from our guide. This time he gave us critical information about the approach to the rapid (it was an angled rapid, so apparently you have to hit it at an angle, not just straight downstream). We were nervous, but we managed to hit it at the right angle and stayed in the boat! We felt very accomplished. 

Some of our best wildlife viewing was at this animal sanctuary installed next to a gas station. There were tons of rhino, ostriches, buffalo and zebra!

A baby rhino at the watering hole with its parents. Who knew a quick stop for gas and lunch would provide amazing baby animal viewing!

The next day we drove from our lodge, left Eswatini and made our way to the Johannesburg airport. On our drive, we decided to stop for lunch. Even though we had spent weeks in southern Africa, we had not yet visited the famous local fast food chain called Nando’s. Nando’s has famous sauces that are sold in most grocery stores in southern Africa, and their ubiquitous restaurants sell chicken products and tasty salads. We decided we couldn’t miss this quintessential experience and I found a Nando’s on our route to the airport. When we pulled up to the rest stop, I realized that I had been to that exact same rest stop the last time I had been in South Africa (en route from Johannesburg to Kruger National Park), and it was an AMAZING rest stop with a bunch of restaurants and a dining deck that looks out onto a reserve for safari animals. We saw almost a dozen rhinos, a herd of cape buffalo, and an ostrich family all from 50m away while eating Nandos. On that note, our adventure in Africa ended and we began our series of flights home to San Diego for second-Christmas. After 24 hours in the air and 8 hours of layover, we were finally back in the USA! We had a few days to get ourselves organized before heading to South America.

View from the plane as we soared high above the African continent back to San Diego.