It was drizzling as we arrived at Mlilwane. The hour and a half drive across eSwatini had gone quickly, especially as I slept through most of it. I was only interrupted for a stop for lunch at a fish and chip shop in a mall. It seems eSwatini are good at fish and chips. I also was asked to pose with someone for a selfie in the mall. I felt like a local celebrity. Although I think it had more to do with the colour of my skin than any celebrity status.
At Milwane I headed into the wooden reception where the women behind the counter checked us in. I even remembered to speak to her in English and not Portuguese. It’s easy once you’ve been in Mozambique for a while to speak to anyone you meet in Portuguese. Once we were checked in she took us to our beehive huts, traditional eSwatini huts made of woven saplings and grass. Although I’m not sure the traditional ones come with 240 volt power, a kettle and an en-suite connected at the back.
We headed out of our beehive village (a fenced circle of around twenty beehive huts. This led us through the central area of the basecamp, which is a large grassy are with the beehive villages and other accommodation around the side and the reception, shop and restaurant / bar at the other end. The grass had several families of Warthogs happily munching away on it. They clearly did not need a lawn mower here. As we got towards the buildings we could see several Impala’s hiding under the eaves of buildings trying to keep out of the rain. This was a national park like none we had been to before.
The next morning after breakfast in the hippo restaurant with a view of the Terrapins and Cat fish in the lake (but no hippos) we got on our bikes and headed out. After the dry plains of Mozambique, it was nice to have the change of scenery and be out in the green lush vegetation, surrounded by mountains. The track was not really made for bikes, but we had fun all the same biking, pushing and getting over streams. After the cold and wet of yesterday, today was reminding us even at altitude we were still in the African summer. Biking on the track through the dense bush was fun. But it was when we got out on to the wider roads that we saw more of the wildlife. We biked slowly past a group of Impala’s and then past a group of Zebra. There were also some amazing birds but the girl’s weren’t very keen on us stopping and identifying them. In fact Harriett eventually biked back alone as she got bord of us stopping for Zebra and antelope.
We got a takeaway lunch and drove down to one of the pools to sit near the water and enjoy the wildlife. We decided we would stay a good way from the waters edge with our food as there, at the edge of the water, a few meters down and across from us was a six foot long Nile Crocodile. He was in the shallows, and we could see most of his huge body as he lay in the sun, while we prayed that he wouldn’t be too tempted by the smell of a cheese and ham toastie. Luckily he seemed to be enjoying the sunshine where he was too much. He eventually headed off for a swim across the water but came back and we eventually realized he was heading to the edge of the water, right near the group of Impala’s who were happily grazing just twenty of so meters away from us. We thought maybe we were going to see one of those David Attenborough moments with the crocodile waiting stealthily for the Impala’s by the edge of the water. But although the Impala were wandering down towards the edge of the water they seemed more to be just following the good grass (and some nice red flowers which they seemed particularly partial to). They never quite got to the edge and taking a drink. Perhaps they weren’t thirsty, or perhaps they had spotted the croc. For although he looked like a log in the water, with his size, he was hard to miss.
Behind us was a meadow full of white butterflies dancing around the wild flowers. And chasing the butterflies were White Fronted Bee Eaters. The brightly coloured birds could be see flying along and then darting to catch a butterfly on the wing, before landing on a branch to enjoy their snack.
The next day was warm again, but with cloud cover and the threat of thunder later. As eSwatini’s kills from lightening seemed to be head and shoulders above any other country in the world, we thought we should be cautious. Some friends joined us at the reserve and we drove the short distance to the start of the summit trail. This was a marked trail up to the top of executioner’s rock, where legend has it people were pushed off as punishment for serious misdemeanors.
It was nice to be in the green countryside heading up a mountain. It’s certainly not an everyday activity in flat and sandy Mozambique. The weather wasn’t stunning but the route was pleasant. The children (four of them now) headed on ahead and we met them once we reached the top. The top was shrouded in cloud and it was raining a little by now. But it was still warm, and the children (and Zoe) enjoyed scrambling around the rocks at the top.
We headed down and again the children ran off ahead. The odd rumble of thunder could be heard periodically in the far distance. But I took this as a sign that we should be off the mountain sooner rather than later. Once we got to the bottom two children were waiting for us.
“Have you not got Maya and Imogen with you?” asked Harriett
“Very funny Harriett, where are they hiding?” was my reply. But it seemed the children had split into two groups, and one of them hadn’t made it to the bottom, and we hadn’t passed them.
Zoe headed back up to look for them and I stayed at the end with Harriett in case they re-appeared here. After a glance at the map I realised where they could have gone wrong and found I could drive over in that direction. So, with strict instructions to Harriett to stay put, I got in the car and headed to see if they had taken the wrong turn I had predicted. I returned a while later having not seen any children and with none of them having returned to where Harriett was. I wondered what to do next and realised that a lot of the mountain track we had been walking on was in fact a rough dirt road and I could go up it in our 4×4 and cover ground much more quickly than they could walking. The only issue was the area of rather soft ground in front of the car. I decided that heading through it was probably the best approach and headed off. The ground was a lot softer than I had anticipated and it quickly became clear that the car was badly stuck in some quite deep mud.
By the time I had established that the car wasn’t going anywhere quickly I could hear Zoe shouting and she had found the missing children. It seemed they had taken the wrong turn I anticipated, but I had not managed to bump into them. There was then a long period of trying various tricks to get the car out, digging, adding branches and stones under the wheels for traction and pushing. But the car wasn’t moving.
So, with the other family and their car some of us headed back to the rest camp to ask if they could help us. Half an hour later I was heading back out in the front seat of an old land rover, with pretty smooth tyres. He knew where we would be stuck. Pulling us out backwards wasn’t working, he just couldn’t get the traction on the wet track, so he drove past us and tried to get us out forwards. That was a little more successful and the car did move a little forwards. But then the clutch of the Land Rover broke. It then couldn’t move and we had two vehicles stuck.
So, the driver walked the 3km or so back to the rest camp (while Zoe and I sheltered from the rain in the back of our pick up) to bring the tractor. Zoe and I quickly found we had no games on our phones but I did have one podcast. Not very far into the Dead Ringers Christmas special podcast a tractor and trailer appeared backing down the hill. Why the tractor came with the trailer we never did work out, I’m not sure it helped.
A chain was then attached from our car to the tractor. It was then I saw we were still connected to the land rover with the broken clutch. And the metal two cable between the vehicles was tight so could not be disconnected and neither vehicle could move without help. So, we now had a tractor connected to a trailer. A chain going from the trailer to the back of our car. Then a metal tow cable going from the front of our car to a Land Rover with no way of moving. There was nothing for it but the tractor to try and pull both vehicles together. It couldn’t do it for long, but it pulled them both far enough that I could then drive our car slightly forwards again and the front cables slackened enough to detach us from the Land Rover.
The tractor did then manage to pull us out, pull the Land Rover across the bog and with much slipping and sliding drag the Land Rover back up the hill and slowly back to the rest camp.
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