Day 13 and 14 - Last moments with family and flying home

We arrived back "home" to the Gunter's little guest cottage very late that night after our busy day of veiwing the natural wonders of the North Eastern part of South Africa. We knew the next day would be our last and we had a mixture of sadness to leave and a feeling of excitement to get back to familiar surroundings in America. Our last day was spent trying to squeeze in as much time with family as we could. I didn't get any good pictures that day, unfortunately (they all turned out blury :( So I'll just have to write about it instead.
We spent the morning visiting with the Gunters, the afternoon hanging out at Aunt Allison and Jessica's house, and that evening we had dinner with Uncle Warwick (Dad's brother), his new wife, Emmelyn, his two sons, Richard John and Ryan, and Richard's girlfriend, Taryn. It was a full house with the 5 of us and the 5 of them, but they had grilled up enough food to feed an army. We all ate to our heart's content, and there was even food left over! It was a delicious meal and good company. It's too bad we didn't have more time to spend with them.
By the time we got back to the cottage, it was another late night, and we knew we would have to spend the next day packing to fly back. Our flight wasn't until later that afternoon, so we didn't have to rush, which was nice. Most of Mom's side of the family made it to the airport with us to see us off. We said our last goodbyes and we were off to get on the plane for about 18 hours this time. The flight home is always longer than the flight there, and we have to stop to refuel. This time we stopped in the middle of the night in Dakar. Of course they don't let you off the plane, and it's dark outside, so we didn't really see much.
The trip back was not quite as pleasant as the trip there because there was something wrong with the circulation on the plane and it was so hot and stuffy where we were sitting. Also, I don't know what happened this time, but the food was much worse than our first flight. So the combination of all that left me feeling a little air sick this time. The temperature had been a balmy 84 degrees F when we boarded the plane in South Africa, and was a chilling 4 degrees F when we disembarked in Washington DC - a whopping 80 degree difference! But to me it felt wonderful after feeling sick and stuffy on the plane for so long. The cold, crisp air helped me feel much better and I was so glad to get off that plane. Our layover wasn't too long, and soon were were homeward bound. We arrived back just after 10 am on Saturday January 17th, apparently the first coldest day of the year in NC. It was so nice to get back home to our little place even though David had accidentally turned the heat off instead of down, so it was close to 40 degrees inside our house! We immediately put the heat on, climbed into bed and pulled all the covers we could find onto us to stay warm. And that is exactly where I stayed until 4pm that day.
After catching up on some sleep, David and I sorted through our pictures and reminisced about the best trip we have taken together so far. We can't wait to go back again and also take more exciting trips like this one soon.

Day 12 part 2 - The Panorama Route

Our first stop on the Panorama Route was The Pinnacle and God's Window. In the case of these stops, I believe a picture is worth a thousand words, so here you go.

This is Michael contemplating the large chimney-like rock, known as the Pinnacle.

Here's a great panoramic view from God's Window. They say on a clear day you can see all the way to Mozambique.

This is a great picture of Dad at the top of God's Window.

In this picture, we are all climbing down, heading back to the car where the peaks of the craft huts can be seen in the distance.

From God's Window we drove on to see the unique Bourke's Luck Potholes. The rushing water from the Blyde River created whirlpools that over time formed what is called the Potholes.

Here I am at the source before the potholes are formed below.

In this one you can see the guys on the bridge and the potholes in the right hand corner.

Here's a close up of the potholes.

And this is just a great picture of me and David at the Potholes.

Our last stop on the Panorama Route before heading home was the Blyde River Canyon, the largest green canyon in the world.

This is a great panoramic view of the canyon to be able to get an idea of it's granduer. Of course it is not even a fraction of the size of the Grand Canyon, but does still seem pretty large.
The hut-looking figures on the left are called the Three Rondavals.

Here we are with the Three Rondavals in the background. You can also see the Blyde River far below.

That river runs into this lake on the other side of canyon.
And here are us 2 beauties with the beautiful scenery as our backdrop.
We were able to capture all these pictures just in time before the fog rolled in again. What a blessing to be able to see everything we wanted to see all in one day.

Day 12 part 1 - The Accidental Bribe

We left Swaziland early the next morning in a thick fog. It didn't help that we were going to have to go up over the mountains to get to the North Eastern part of South Africa. In some places the fog was so thick, we couldn't even see a foot in front of the car, so it was pretty slow going at first.
Once we came out of the fog and neared the border, we were ready to make up some time. We started picking up speed on the South African side of the border, when all of a sudden we noticed blue lights in the rear view mirror. Oh, no! Not again. This time it was a police woman. She nicely explained that we were speeding and with a smile on her face said she was going to have to give us a ticket. We tried to talk our way out of it, but it was obvious that that wasn't going to work this time. She told us that we would have to take the ticket to the police station in the tiny town we were in and pay the fine there. But we were on a time schedule and already behind, so we asked if we could just pay it in Johannesburg. The police woman told us that it had to be paid there in the town where the ticket was written, and either we could take it up there or she could take it for us. At this point all of us realized, from previous stories about the corruption with law enforcement in this country, that this police woman was asking for a bribe - All of us except Mom, that is. So without knowing it, Mom asked the cop if we could just pay her (a clear bribe). The police woman of course obliged and made up some story about how she will write 2 copies of the ticket and staple the money to the copy she will take to the police station, and she will keep the other copy. It was all a lie of course, because she never gave us a copy! But Mom didn't see it that way at the time. She had just taken over the negotiation to help us get back on the road faster. Once we were back on the road, we explained to her what she had just done and she was horrified. She had just been saying earlier how terrible it was that people gave bribes to policemen and here she was doing it herself! It was actually quite a hilarious situation and we laughed about it for a while on the way to our first stop on the Panorama Route.

Day 11 - The Near Kidnapping on our last day in Swaziland

On our last day in Swaziland, there was one more nearby place we wanted to see - the Mantenga Falls. Now these falls weren't really anything spectacular, but we did want a little bit of a hike before the long car ride we knew we would have the following day, so we thought a hike to a waterfall would be nice. Little did we know that we had to check into the visitors center and then PAY to see the little waterfall. But we really wanted the exercise and view of the falls, so we paid and drove to where they told us to park. We got out and followed the signs down a little gravel hill. But as soon as we turned the corner, we saw the falls right there in front of us. Here are some of the pictures we took of the falls from that view.It was pretty, but we were a little disappointed that we didn't have more of a hike to get there. So we decided we would find our own way to the top of the waterfall for a longer hike and a better viewing angle. There wasn't anywhere to go from the base of the falls, so we walked back up to the car to see if there was maybe a different path. The only other path we saw was a dirt road with a stick across the entrance saying "Do Not Enter". We knew that the sign probably meant what it said for cars and pedestrians. However, we rationalized that it was really only for cars, and if we happened to see anyone who questioned us about what we were doing there, that's what we would tell them. We walked up the road for a couple of minutes seeing no sign of anyone for a while. Then all of a sudden a truck with a few men in it slowly drove up to us and a uniformed guard with a huge machete walked behind it. The truck stopped and the men asked us what we were doing. We innocently said we were trying to find the top of the waterfall and thought it was up this way. The men said it was not up this road and told us that they had been harvesting gum trees up there. They then proceeded to talk to the guard in some African language, and then back to us in English. Pointing to the guard, they said, "We will give this man to you. He will take you to the falls." And they drove off, leaving us with this old African man in uniform with a large machete who spoke no English.
He marched off into the woods and motioned for us to follow him. We all followed silently in a single file line with all kinds of scenes out of movies racing through our heads. My thoughts were, "Oh, great! This man leads us into the woods in the middle of nowhere, Africa, then begins to speak broken English to say, 'We kill you now'. And proceeds to slaughter us with the machete!" I know, sometimes I have too vivid an imagination. Luckily none of the nightmare scenes came to pass, and the guard simply did take us to the top of the falls. We learned then why the road had been closed to this view point. Apparently with the rain they had had, and the very poorly constructed guard rail, there had been accidents of people slipping under the guard rail and getting hurt, so they just closed the access. We definitely took advantage of this forbidden view, taking lots of pictures.



Once we were satisfied, the guard practically took off back through the woods leaving us trailing far behind. But we knew the way back at that point, so we were fine to get back to our car. However, on the way back, we saw this eerie view of Execution Rock to add to the experience. A quick aside, we were told that this is the mountain that was used as punishment for those convicted of a terrible crime. The convict was made to march up to the top of the rock and jump off to their death. So that is how the mountain got it's name.
On the way back to the house for the last time, we all reflected on and talked about the near possible kidnapping experience we had just had. What a way to end our time in Swaziland!

Day 10 - The glass factory and oldest mine in the world

Another craft, besides the candles, batiks, and woven mats that Swaziland is famous for is it's hand blown glassware made from recycled glass. We got to see first hand the people heating, blowing, and shaping the glass as well as the finished product at the Ngwenya Glass Factory.

Here is just a sampling of some of the beautiful glassware we saw there.
















After touring the glass factory, we went on up the road to the top of what they say is the oldest registered mine in the world, the Ngwenya Mine, meaning crocodile because the ridges in the side of the mountain look like those of a crocodile. You can really see that in this picture on the right.





We didn't take the time or spend the money to take a full tour through the mine, we just wanted to see it from the top to be able to say we stood on top of the oldest mine in the world :)




And here we all are on top of the mine.


By the time we left the mine, we were getting really hungry, and couldn't think of anywhere to eat. But David remembered a restaurant recommendation from his golfing partner for what he said was the best pizza in Swaziland. At this point in our trip, pizza sounded like a wonderful choice, so we went to this restaurant for brick oven pizza!Doesn't it look fancy? It was so pretty, and was actually some of the best pizza I've had!
Later that evening we took a tally of all the souvenirs we had purchased so that the next day, our last day in Swaziland, we could plan to go back to some of the craft areas to pick up some last minute curious.

Day 9 - The mini "Car Safari"

After relaxing all the day before, the rest of us were ready to get out and do something. But since it had been raining and was still a little misty, we couldn't really do too much outside. So Grandpa and Ann suggested we go up the road to Mlilwane, a smaller game park, and drive around in our car for a couple of hours to see if we could see anything different there than we saw at Mkhaya. Several of the animals we saw were the same, but we did actually get to see a few different animals that we hadn't seen on the previous safari. For instance, we didn't see warthogs at Mlilwane like we had seen at Mkhaya, but we saw bush pigs instead. Here are some pictures to show the difference. The warthogs are on the left and the bush pigs on the right.












Also this time we saw monkeys and even a mangy looking ostrich. It was pretty funny seeing the ostrich, since I had the camera, but David was sitting by the window that the ugly bird was walking towards. David kept trying to put up the window, but with the drops of water on the glass, I couldn't get a good picture of the ostrich. So I was yelling to David to roll the window down and he was yelling back that I was not the one that was sitting by the window and going to get pecked. I retorted that it's not going to peck him and that I needed it down for a good picture. Well that big bird walked right up to the window in the mist of our friendly little argument and instead of sticking it's head through the window to peck anyone, it just opened up it's nasty-looking wing, bent it's neck all the way around, and began pulling at the mangy feathers with it's beak. Gross! I don't think I've ever seen a nastier-looking ostrich. View these next pictures at your own discretion.









Ok so I can't end this post with that! So here are a few more nicer looking pictures of the Mlilwane safari to end on a better note :)

Day 8 - Back in the Valley

After two full safari days, we were glad to be back in the much cooler Ezulwini Valley in a fully enclosed house with fans! The only thing on the agenda for all of us that day was dinner at a little hotel called, Mountain Inn, on top of the mountain where we could enjoy gorgeous panoramic views of the valley. (Pictures from there at the end of this post).

Most of us welcomed a day to relax and do nothing. David, however, had plans of his own. When the guys had gone to book our safari a few days earlier, David had made plans with the booking guide to meet up for golf when we got back. Before we left for the trip he had told me that he just couldn't go to another country and NOT play golf, so this Saturday just happened to be the best day for him to do that. Now, I won't go into all the details of David's Swazi golfing experience since he has already done such a fine job of recounting it himself of his golf blog.

So I'll let you read his blog to hear about golf, and I'll just leave you with some pictures from the Mountain Inn. I would also encourage you to take a look at their website for even more great pictures.