Later we enter in the Hlane national park, but as there is a lot of traffic we don’t see any animal. We decide to camp in the national park. In front the restaurant there is a dam with a few rinoceros and antilops, and 2 islands in the middle, which are the back of hippos. Then we see a group of tourists going walking in the park with a guide. They look coming out from a fashion adventure magazine, with the brown or military clothes, well paint and with hair dressed, and some with very big camera and walking sticks. That is funny and rather ridiculous. We get dinner in the restaurant, very good food. Before we had a look to the dam, to see in the dusk the rino move away and the hippos going out of the water. Well Martine enjoys it, me I don’t really care.
Next morning we look a while first a herd of antilops walking quietly to the dam and drink. Then rinos come walking very slowly till the dam, drink, and go to sleep in the mud close the dam. They are 11 at the end. At 10 am we move away. We get off the national park, and make some shopping in Symunie. Symunie is a new village, which looks like a garden with nice houses, all the shops, and a country lodge and sport ground. Then we continue way to Mhlume, on the road M5, by large fields with cane sugar plantation everywhere. We see other garden villages like Simunye for the workers of the sugar cane. The farms are governement farms, and the governement takes well care of his employees. We stop in the police station to camp in Tshaneni, but the boss refuses and send us in a hotel in the village, where Martine get the room at 25$.
Next day we follow the road M5 till Sihhoye. Then we continue, yet by cane sugar fields, or by bush forest or abandonned fields with bush growing. We continue and by 10 am we stop at a village with a cross, on left to Manzini, on right to the border. We lunch, and we spend all our local money in the supermarket, as we believe, from the map, we are 15 km from the border. Then we take the road and after a few km we get at a cross, on left way to piggs peaks, and in front way to the border, but the sign indicate 47 km, not 10! We get lost, and after a while we understand the last village wasn’t Hereford, but other one south near Bhalekane. Well at least the road to the border is all asfalted. Later I remember I had seen a map in Hlane park, with the main road making a big detour south. So I understand they change the main road, certainly as a bridge broke on the straight road. At the border we have a look on the map in the magazine “What new In Swaziland”, which confirms that suposition. To take the straight road we should have to turn way to Sihhoye village on the M5A, but further the road is stopped by a river. May be there is a pass, may be not. Well we follow by a barely populated and barely used land, with native bush and open forest, with scattered acacias and shrubs. The road is all with long and steep up and down, and it is hot, 35. There are a few little villages with huts or basic houses, schools, and some fields and vegetables gardens, but no more tropical fruits. We finally ask to camp in a farm at the entrance of the village. The owner accepts, but he needs the agrement of the leader of the village. So we seat and speak with the women, Martine mostly talks, I feel tired. At 4 pm I decide we have to push the decision, and so I decide we will prepare our supper on the stove and eat. I was remembering a recomandation some traveler told me. At a border if the customs makes someone waiting, it is because the police hopes some money to help moving quicker. The best way to resolve it is to cook, to show them we have time and we won’t move. Well the women look at us a bit surprised and curious. But suddenly one says there is no need to wait anymore for the leader, we would sleep in a hut neighbour his home, not let us camp outside. So we did, putting the mattress on the concrete, under the observation of the women. Well it rains all night, so it is good to have a roof.
Next day we move early and follow to the border, 20 km away. The road is still steep up and down, by a poor countryside, bush and small villages. Suddenly in the middle of nowhere, at the top of a hill, there is a mall, with all shops, supermarkets, nursery and hospital. Then the bush comes back till the border, where there are a few shops. Before, from a hill we see a long lake, and a valley with cane sugar fields, that is already South Africa. We cross the border without difficulties, and we get 90 days visa more for South Africa.
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