Swaziland Day One

We got up at 6:20am and we’d had a good nights sleep. Our Scottish neighbours were already up having breakfast and another couple that were camping further away we’re just leaving for a day out. Everyone was keen this morning.
We managed to pack everything away and get on the road for 8:30am. Our original plan for today was to head to sudwala caves but now we needed a new battery we were going to head back to Neilspruit.
We reached the battery centre at Neilspruit at 10am. Unfortunately a 100ah batttery wouldn’t fit but we did manage to get a 90ah one. Luckily the guy in the shop fitted it for us and out here they even give you money back for trading in your old battery.
Two doors down on the retail park was Sonpark Camping and Leisure, I suggested we just take a look in there. We are missing 2 poles for the awning, it doesn’t prevent us from putting it up but it just sags a little and the rain collects there.
We entered the showroom and started looking around and they had loads of awning poles so we mentioned our dilemma and they guy in the shop unhooked our trailer spun it around and opened the awning and then went to get an older guy from out the back. The older guy came out with a tape measure and looked at the awning and said he didn’t have a pole to fit but he would make us one.
Okay, how long is that going to take? Obviously we were expecting days.
No, 30 minutes later the old guy came back and fitted it to the awning. It looks like a brand new awning, no sagging and it only cost us £60 and £25 of that was labour. South Africans just get stuff done.
At 12pm we left Neilspruit and we could hardly believe our luck getting the pole for the awning. Our next stop was Swaziland and we had to do our first border crossing on our own. The lady at the South African exit was the bitch from hell and she stamped our passports and told us to just drive. But the people entering Eswatini were lovely and the guy at border control new of Norwich from the football.
This was going to be our first off grid campsite and we arrived at Mbolozi Camp at 3pm. We were greeted by a lovely gentleman in reception and we paid for 2 nights and then he gave us a map and we drove to the camp.
To say it is rustic is an understatement, the animals are wild, the grass is 4ft tall around camp, there is a wash house for washing up that has 2 toilets attached but the flies have moved in but there are other toilets and showers but they are open air. Luckily for us we’re the only ones here.
We pitched up by 4pm and then decided to go for a walk. There’s no real predators here except crocodiles so the entire park is walkable and even rideable. Something I’ll be doing tomorrow.
First we walked down to the river and waterfalls but after encountering hippo footprints we turned around and started walking back the way we had driven in. It felt weird walking along spotting Giraffe, Zebra and Impala.
At 8pm we set the trap camera on a tree by camp and then went to bed, and that’s when all the fun started. Czytaj więcej