The Kingdom of the Swazi

From Malawi we went to the border to Mozambique and tried to cross over to the northern part of the country. At the first border crossing we were turned away, the second border crossing we were asked for a bribe to start the visa process, and the consulate in Blantyre we would have been bogged down with endless bureaucracy before we could get the visa.  We next went to go take the bus back to South Africa, a process which involves crossing a different chunk of Mozambique, the same country whose visa process had eaten up already several of our days. In the end we came up with Plan E and flew from Blantyre to Johannesburg and hoped a bus heading to Swaziland.

We stayed much longer in Swaziland then originally planned and had a magnificent time.  First we were several days in the Ezulwini Valley and then we stayed a bit inside the Mlilwane Game Reserve where we got to walk around and see the fauna.

On top of Sheba's Breast.

A rightfully nervous Austrian.

Traditional Swazi dancing.

Monkies on top of the Swazi hut.

What a sneaky Nyala.

Malawi

After we left Great Zimbabwe we spent some time in capital cities.  First we celebrated Eva's 36th birthday in Harare.  After we crossed over to Lusaka, Zambia.  We stayed with my friend Katongo from Howard College and his wife Amanda on their farm outside the city.  From Lusaka we went to Chipata and into Malawi.  Our capital tour ended with Lilongwe, Malawi.  I didn't take barely any pictures of these places.  Why? It was too hot to carry around my camera.  After our Tour de Capitales Internationales, we finished in Cape Maclear on Lake Malawi and landed in paradise.

Miss Powerarms herself.

Fishing for our dinner.

 

 

The future hit boy band of Cape Maclear.

After Cape Maclear we went south in Malawi to the Zomba Plateau.  The plateau has pine forests that the locals use for firewood and lumber.  The hiking is nice and people are all over to sell you berries.  

Road Fish

Loading up the bike to bring firewood down the hill to market.

Looking out from Emperor's View.

Great Zimbabwe

Great Zimbabwe, located near Masvingo in southern Zimbabwe, is the largest prehistoric ruins in Sub-Saharan Africa.  The Zimbabwean culture rose during a time in which great riches from gold, copper, and livestock as well as trade with the Swahili on coastal Mozambique allowed for the growth of a large city. 

The moon rising over the ruins.

Mr. Baboon having an evening snack.

Matobo

We arrived early in the morning in Bulawayo.  The old industrial center of Zimbabwe, Bulawayo mainly attracts tourists now because of the neighboring Matobo National Park.  It has two sides, a game park and a landscape park.  The landscape is unique and incredible.  Granite boulders we pushed up long ago with the African continent and with time and erosion they now look like as if there were placed on top of each other.  We're not talking about one or two stacks, but hundreds.  Matobo is also famous for the burial place of John Cecil Rhodes as well as a massive collection of Bushman rock paintings dating back thousands of years. 

A hunting party.

Stacks on stacks on stacks.

A lonely baboon.

Oxpeckers hanging out.

We caught the loud lover.

Vic Falls

After Botswana, we continued to travel east and on to Zimbabwe.  We crossed over from Kazungula to the town of Victoria Falls.  Named after it's neighboring cataracts, Vic Falls is a small town built around tourism and cross border trade.  The Victoria Falls are a segment of the Zambezi river that eroded the basalt to create a horizontal cavern.  The canyon is shared by Zambia and Zimbabwe, but for budget reasons we kept to the Zim side of things.

Looking down the Devil's Cataract.

The main falls.

Lady in the mist.

From Vic Falls we took the night train south to Bulawayo.  The train is a left over from the colonial days of Zimbabwe.  Before 1980 Zimbabwe was called Rhodesia; named after John Cecil Rhodes.  After the current government shook off the control of the British and rose to power the country took it's name from the ancient culture of Zimbabwe.  The train continues to be imprinted with "RR" for Rhodesia Railways.