Equipped with a head torch and some luggage I peeked outside, anxiously scanned the vegetation for any hungry eyes and proceeded to load the car. We headed off along the dirt track, lights on full beam. The odd antelope hopped off the track ahead of us as we trundled along, but we really weren’t expecting to come face-to-face with three black rhino blocking our path. Darkness turned to light as dawn came and went, we sat patiently trying various tricks to get this group of rhino to move from the track. It was over half an hour before they headed off the track into the bush – we missed our sunrise tour.

Black Rhino Hlane Royal National Park Swaziland / Photo by Stephen Chapman

We pulled into an empty central area at 5.45am with long faces, knowing that we were resigned to a self drive tour around the park, but also jubilant that we’d just spent half an hour with three black rhino.

We managed a decent drive around but didn’t see anything to match our morning viewing. At about 8.30am we crossed paths with the trucks that we should have had a seat on and learnt that they’d had a pretty good morning spotting lion and elephant. To add insult to injury we got back to the main lodge and saw two rhino sunning themselves alongside the waterhole in full view of anyone wanting to see them. We got our money back for the sunrise tour and headed out of the park, and began to see the funny side of our morning activities.

Looking out at the waterhole / Photo by Stephen Chapman

On our way out of Swaziland we stopped at Ngwenya Glass, a fantastic glassworks using recycled glass to produce fantastic products. We purchased a few wine glasses and tumblers to take home. The drive back towards Johannesburg went quite quickly. We stopped for lunch at a mall we discovered with the help our GPS and then hit the outskirts of Johannesburg.  I was staying at an the A1 Airport lodge whilst my fiance was leaving that night on a flight back to the UK. We got organised at the hotel and then said a sad goodbye at the airport. I would be back there the next morning to collect Jan Vrsinsky from 360 Cities.

Dance at Mantenga Swazi Cultural Village / Photo by Stephen Chapman

Following the performance we toured the village, learning about how men and women have separate areas and the wives have three kitchens, one of which is used solely for the preparation of beer!  We also watched the grandmother weaving a grass mat and making an innovative use of old batteries.

Grandmother weaves grass mat in Mantenga Swazi Cultural Village / Photo by Stephen Chapman

From here we visited the Swazi candles workshop and Gone Rural, two great Swaziland products. The journey took us past Swazican, a canning factory that’s home to many of the Tesco tinned fruit products sold in the UK.

A drive out through Manzini took us into Game country. Hlane Royal National Park is one of three in Swaziland. We saw plenty of Gazelle and Impala on our way in to the camp.

Our accommodation for the night was in Bhubesi Camp about 20kms in along the dirt tracks which we booked through Swazi.Travel. These self catering lodges are located on the edge of a river and offer great opportunities for spotting/listening to the surrounding wildlife. We certainly heard the roar of a lion or two after darkness had fallen. Much of the evening was spent trying to light a fire outside in the fire pit using some damp wood, we had little success.

Quad biking Devil's Cauldron in Swaziland / Photo by Darron Raw - Swazi Trails

The two full days that we had in Swaziland were largely spent in front of the computer or around the kitchen table at Darron and Anita Raw’s house – our whl.travel local connection for Swaziland and a few parts of South Africa.  Much of the work was in finalising pricing, organising appointments, refining some of the paperwork and feeding back on the whole Project: Exposure program so far.

Darron and Anita also own Swazi Trails so we managed to spend one afternoon quad biking on one of the trails that they’ve cut through the trees near the Royal Swazi Spa.  Swazi trails run this activity regularly and I would certainly recommend it, the track has three levels of difficulty and can be challenging for even the most competent rider.

One evening was spent having dinner at Malandela’s, adjacent to house-on-fire which has an ongoing performance program throughout the year and is the venue for the Bush Fire Festival in May.  The festival will have music, a global food fair, a fair Trade Market, story-telling, poetry, theatre and fun for all ages.

This complex is also home to the fantastic Gone Rural workshop.

This trip is set to involve a good deal of driving over long distances, and my geographic knowledge of South Africa is limited.  I enjoy looking at maps and plotting a route but for this trip using a GPS sounded like a great idea.

On the road from Johannesburg to Swaziland

Why use a GPS?

It’s not just the navigational assistance that comes with a GPS but a greater predictability of time and distance, which leads to a far more relaxed and enjoyable drive.  You know exactly how long you have left until you reach your destination, how far it is until you have to make a turn and where there’s a petrol station along your route.

Pre-trip planning

My method was to download the South Africa map onto my TomTom device before leaving home and spend an hour using Google Earth to find the coordinates of all my planned destinations.  I input these into the Favourites section of my GPS so that it would be easy to set the device to navigate me to them once I’m on the road in South Africa.

It is possible to hire a TomTom from car rental or phone companies for about ZAR 50-100/day, but if you have your own it makes it much easier to get organized before leaving home.

Driving Johannesburg to Swaziland

It wasn’t long after arriving that I was sat at the exit of the airport carpark in a rental car waiting for the GPS to get a signal and show us the way to Swaziland.

It’s about a 4 hour drive from Johannesburg, and it’s only when you start to get close to Swaziland that the scenery becomes slightly more interesting than the flat farming land around Johannesburg.  Rolling hills with rocky escarpments and boulder strewn slopes guide you into the kingdom.

At the border a modest set of immigration buildings on the South Africa side and officials behind glass are followed by a vastly more colourful and relaxed face-to-face affair on the Swaziland side.

The GPS got a bit confused by a new bypass at one point after leaving the border at but generally it was a huge help to the journey.

Evening in Swaziland

We spent that evening eating and drinking at Quartermains in the Ezulwini valley with Swazi Trails as they carried out the timekeeping for their weekly 20km mountain bike race.