My winter holidays (summer for you lot up there on the northern hemisphere) saw myself and a small group of fellow PT volunteers take a well-earned holiday which took us from Kruger through Swaziland and up to Mozambique!
Kruger saw us staying in a camp out in the bush with animals clawing around our tents all night! We were lucky enough to see the BIG 5 in one day on a safari trip - our best sighting being the leopard which our guide spotted lazing high up in a tree about 30metres away. I have no idea how he managed to spot it, especially whilst driving, but the vehicle behind us nearly drove into the back of us when our driver slammed on the brakes!
We also visited Blyde River Canyon, and spent 5 hours walking down and back up again. The waterfalls at the bottom were well worth it though!
Swaziland saw us visiting a small homestead in a very rural countryside where we were greeted by a family who showed us around their rondavels and home-made contraptions used to cure a cold. This involved sitting under a canopy made of bent twigs with rugs thrown over the top. The device acted in the same way as a bowl of hot water with a towel over your head would in order to unblock your nose, but instead chunks of metal heated in the sun were used to create steam when water was splashed on them! Ingenious! We also had a go at curing our sore backs from picking up little rascals at work and sitting on long combi rides whilst travelling with the horn of a mammal which was prodded around in the painful region…not sure if it worked or just made it worse!!!
Swaziland saw us visiting a small homestead in a very rural countryside where we were greeted by a family who showed us around their rondavels and home-made contraptions used to cure a cold. This involved sitting under a canopy made of bent twigs with rugs thrown over the top. The device acted in the same way as a bowl of hot water with a towel over your head would in order to unblock your nose, but instead chunks of metal heated in the sun were used to create steam when water was splashed on them! Ingenious! We also had a go at curing our sore backs from picking up little rascals at work and sitting on long combi rides whilst travelling with the horn of a mammal which was prodded around in the painful region…not sure if it worked or just made it worse!!!
We then headed across to the border of Mozambique where all our troubles started and every traveller’s worry of money, passport’s, visa’s etc kicked in! We eventually managed to cross the border after I run across no-man’s-land and into Mozambique without my visa in order to borrow money from our combi-taxi driver to purchase our visa’s – it seems our plan to travel the width of Swaziland to get one cheaper at the other side didn’t work and we ended up running out of money!
Once in Mozambique, we managed to reach our backpackers and pay our driver back…we accidentally gave him a huge tip as we weren’t familiar with the new currency! Mozambique is a fantastic country and one which I hope to visit again one day! The fish market in Maputo, the people, the trees, the beach in Tofo, and the general vibe of everyday life!
Once in Mozambique, we managed to reach our backpackers and pay our driver back…we accidentally gave him a huge tip as we weren’t familiar with the new currency! Mozambique is a fantastic country and one which I hope to visit again one day! The fish market in Maputo, the people, the trees, the beach in Tofo, and the general vibe of everyday life!
I think after spending days travelling on dangerous buses with crazy drivers and scary combi’s through 3 countries on the continent, working with exchange rates and different currencies, seeing varying landscapes and meeting people from diverse cultures, I can now see what the lady meant with the ‘island’ theory…just!
No comments:
Post a Comment