Wednesday, January 09, 2008
Swaziland
The next day we went over to Swaziland. Jac has a friend there who has a backpacker's in Manzini. Unreal how different Swazi is to South Africa. This is probably what people imagine when they think of Africa, this is the immigration office at the border between South Africa and Swaziland and the second picture is the actual border...basically a boom arm and a guy there to move it up for you. Seriously secure...not. Crazy, especially compared to the US-Canada border.
It is very lush, and in the countryside, everyone seems to be very self sufficient, tending to gardens etc. It is a very very stunning country. They get more rain than South Africa and have plantations of suger cane, tea, etc. Really unbelievably beautiful. This is the view from the little place we ate lunch at. It might be one of the only restaurants to eat at in the area.
It is probably even more rural than Drakensburg, and it is very important not to drive too fast on the road, even though the speed is 80km, because there are farms everywhere, and fences are rare. It is very likely you will encounter at least one cow on the road in your travels.
One of the big things from Swaziland are the candles. A lot of the animal candles one sees in South Africa come from Swaziland and there is a place called Swazi Candles that is a must stop visit for every tourist. In the picture below, the guy is making a giraffe candle.
There is also another very large export business in Swazi...glass. Below, the artisans are making giraffes. There are four in a row and after the runner brings the raw blob, each one does a little bit of the overall finished product. It takes 8 of them to make one piece.
It is very lush, and in the countryside, everyone seems to be very self sufficient, tending to gardens etc. It is a very very stunning country. They get more rain than South Africa and have plantations of suger cane, tea, etc. Really unbelievably beautiful. This is the view from the little place we ate lunch at. It might be one of the only restaurants to eat at in the area.
It is probably even more rural than Drakensburg, and it is very important not to drive too fast on the road, even though the speed is 80km, because there are farms everywhere, and fences are rare. It is very likely you will encounter at least one cow on the road in your travels.
One of the big things from Swaziland are the candles. A lot of the animal candles one sees in South Africa come from Swaziland and there is a place called Swazi Candles that is a must stop visit for every tourist. In the picture below, the guy is making a giraffe candle.
There is also another very large export business in Swazi...glass. Below, the artisans are making giraffes. There are four in a row and after the runner brings the raw blob, each one does a little bit of the overall finished product. It takes 8 of them to make one piece.
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