Brake For Animals

Our long drive towards the coast led us through a small country called Swaziland. Swaziland is a small kingdom of Kings and, as many lands beforehand, at one point was controlled by the British. Apparently in 1968 Swaziland got most of their country back from the British and have since started changing all their British street names to African ones. It makes it difficult reading maps, let me tell you.
Despite being a very small country, it took quite a while to drive through, even on the national freeway. It seems that the Swazi cows like to roam – and roam they will! They like to cross freeways at a meandering pace and if we weren’t driving slow enough or vigilant enough, we were going to hit one. Sometimes they would be sunbathing all over the road and we have to go at a crawling pace to maneuver around them. We found a place to stay at a lodge in the Ewulzini Valley, just outside the capital city of Mbabane (pronounced M-ba-bane, I know, not that helpful). The valley is nice, green and speckled with street vendors selling all sorts of gorgeous African crafts, colorful beaded jewelery, fruits, and veggies.
When the Swazi king bought back Swaziland from the British he allowed back all of the old cultural traditions to be practiced, as he felt the Swazis needed to have their identity back. In some areas of Swaziland the cows that roam the streets and freeways, it seems, are still currency for trade – so don’t run one over!! We learned that seventeen cows will buy a man a virgin wife. Most women will marry around eighteen, but the men will be closer to thirty due to the time they had to take to work and earn enough cows for marriage. So if we hit a cow, the consequences were expensive and I am not sure how that would read on an insurance claim. In the Ewulzini Valley there is actually a cultural area that allows you to enter and tour the huts of a homestead. All the huts we visited are for the family of one man, his parents, his wives, and all his children. Jason and I sort of felt like time had left some of this place alone because of the traditions and rich culture you can still find just off the main highway. But it isn’t all old traditions you find in Swaziland. They are trying to become a more modern town so across the street from the cultural village you can find the local shopping center, liquor store, and two ATMs. Just a bit further down the street you can find the 5-star country club and casino. Green manicured lawns, clean white grandiose buildings; we were actually worried that we wouldn’t make the dress code in our casual drab.
Jason and I spent the evening having dinner and drinks at our hotel bar, of course. You know how you always end up meeting interesting people at bars? Well, we met a British (or was he Scottish?) gentleman who claims his great, great, great, great something discovered the land we know as North America before Christopher Columbus even got on the boat. The area this guy apparently landed on was in the now Canadian part of North America. This guy at the bar said his and his ancestor’s last name is Meyric, and that is how he came up with “A-meyric-a.” True??? Who knows. Interesting?? You bet. Then there was another guy, old guy – the owner of the bar who was reminiscing with this other fellow about how good the days of the Apartheid were, how bad the lands have gotten since it has ended, he just went on and on. I felt bad for our black bartender, but he was gracious and just smiled and went about his job. We just sat and listened and drank our beers, figuring that there very well may be more people we encounter on our journey who feel this way. Our night didn’t end very early, but not too late either. We have sort of lost a concept of time as the sun is setting 5 hours earlier than in Europe. We want to get some rest since the next day’s drive was going to be long, but still try and stay up as late as we can.
Swaziland was an interesting place to pass through and the people we encountered were generally very very nice, helpful, and very hospitable. It was definitely worth visiting and thank goodness we made it through with all cows accounted for!


Days Traveled: 41
Distance Traveled: 30,122km/18,826mi
Countries Visited: 15