Mike's Moz Blog: Trip to Swaziland - Umdoni

Christmas pressie

We had a quick weekend visit to Swaziland driving down on Friday afternoon. We stayed Friday and Saturday night at a very nice bed and breakfast cottage called Umdoni on a pineapple plantation in the Malkerns valley, only 4 hours drive from Maputo. At the B and B we were looked after by a lovely Swazi lady called Buhle who cooked us breakfast on the Saturday and Sunday. On the Saturday morning we did a little Christmas shopping at the local craft markets. We managed to get a very tasteful carved wooden garden snail for one of my sisters and a life size metal crocodile and giraffe for my other sister and brother. I am not quite sure how we are going to get them home on the plane.

Even President's need to pee

Both nights we ate a a local restaurant called Malandela's. It was a nice friendly place with simple but well cooked food. I had one of the best Irish stews I have ever had which came to the table in the pot in which it was cooked in with big chunks of lamb chump chops. All very authentic and traditional apart from it was served with rice. The restaurant was in a large gardens with some craft shops and an entertainment venue/pub called "House on Fire". It would be a really good party venue with exotic jokey architecture, several rooms and an amphitheatre. According to a plaque on the toilet wall next to the urinal "Jimmy Carter President of the United States stood here". The drive to the restaurant on the second night was a bit hairy with a spectacular thunder and lightning storm.

On the Saturday afternoon we went for a unguided trail walk in the nearby Milwane wildlife sanctuary. The map we were given said trail walking is safe but stay away from crocodiles and hippos! On the walk and drive through the park we saw our first zebras and several exotic birds. The weather was hot and muggy so we needed to recover by drinking one of the local beers in the bar at the reserve rest camp.

Execution Rock

One of the local landmarks visible from the reserve was "execution rock", A striking granite peak that, according to ancient stories got its name because Swazis suspected of witchcraft or criminals were forced, at spear-point, to jump off the mountain.