Nelspruit. Nelspruit is a city also, much smaller than Josey, but still a real city. The feel is much better, though. It feels safer and nicer? Why? The people seem more relaxed, but how can you perceive that when you're just driving through the city, before you even stop? Then we realize: Buildings in Josey all have electric fences, gates, razor wire, guards. There is none of that here. Here in Nelspruit the businesses have advertisements on the windows to get more people to come in. In Josey they're trying to keep people out.
The King of Swaziland is "the Great Lion Mswati the 2nd", and his mother is "the Great She-Elephant". He is the king, but his mother is the head of state; She can overrule any of his decisions. (Liberal friends take note: It would require a constitutional change in the US to allow Barbara Bush to override George W Bush's decisions.)
Chris: "Places like Swaziland make me optimistic about the future of Africa. In 20 years they've pulled themselves up from grinding poverty, closer to the level of SA."You see farming, agriculture, timber development (logging yes, but also many, many areas with tree farms that were replanted many years ago to maintain the forests).
Red ocher cliffs, with naturally red soil from iron in the soil. They grind it up and use it as a natural pigment in traditional ceremonies.The Mountain Kingdom. Swaziland, not Switzerland. Mountain lakes, steep, lush green hills, significant forest cover interspersed with farming, communities, rocky areas, grassy areas. Swaziland, the Jamaica of southern Africa.
Chris: "Wow, this is even cooler than I remember."
Swaziland Backpackers was very hippy. Everyone there was hippy, even the people that ran it, with fire dancing, reggae music, Indian clothing, dreadlocks, and the other things that hippies do. The backpacker itself was very hippy, but you get the impression that the rest of Swaziland is hippy also. You can smell it in the air.We go on a game drive at Hlane, the King's Royal Game Park. For lunch I have an "Hlane Burger". What's an hlane burger? It's game meat. It depends on the day, but it's usually impala. On the drive we see the usual assortment of elephants, rhinos, lions, a group of 30 impalas. One of the elephants gets angry at the truck and charges at us, forcing the driver to speed away. When he spots a few lions resting in the shade of some bushes, he pulls the truck
to within 2 or 3 feet of them. A little disconcerting since this is an open air truck, with just rope netting between humans and lions. The lions look mildly annoyed that we've disturbed their nap. In the Lion Park near Josey they fed the animals with store meat. Here in Hlane, and in Chobe too, the animals hunt for their food.Driving east from Swaziland you go into Mozambique. Why did we go to Mozambique? Because we were on a road trip and it was there. We only had enough time to get to Maputo, the capitol. The northern beach areas are supposedly much nicer, but we didn't have time to go that far. Maputo was dirty and gritty. It was ghetto. The backpackers hotel in Maputo was not worth staying in. Mozambique, or at least Maputo, is the Mexico of southern Africa.
The waterfront area is the "Beverly Hills" of Maputo. Many nice haciendas with gates and private guards 24 hours per day. Along the waterfront they had a few nice looking restaurants and bars, and then we saw the nicest looking building in Maputo: A Casino.Why are casinos always the nicest looking buildings around? Please don't answer that, I do understand the answer. It's because they generate the the money to pay for a fancy-looking building. But it seems a sad statement that in rich and poor countries alike, people are so drawn to gambling, will spend so much money on it, that casinos have some of the nicest, most interesting architecture of any modern buildings.
We pass a minor traffic accident along the waterfront in Maputo. The police come and 4 guys get out, each carrying an automatic weapon. I hope they have their insurance card.
From what I hear Mozambique went through civil war between a western-backed side and a communist-backed side for about 20 years. It's unclear to me who won. The streets in Maputo bear odd testament to their ideological past: Mao Tse Tung Ave, Av Karl Marx, Av Vladimer Lenine, Av Guerra Populari ("the people's war"), but also Mohamed Siad Barre (I think he was the top warlord in Somalia for a while) and Av Robert Mugabe (the head guy in Zimbabwe). Ideologically, it seems an odd mixture. The only common thread I can find is that they are all leaders that caused or justified the mass killings of people.
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