Zola Budd to Mbabane
The journey into the Kingdom of Swaziland begins on a taxi from Johannesburg, commonly known as 'Zola Budd' - nicknamed after that famous South African cross-country athlete of the 80s. I am with Guardian/Sun photojournalist Pako Lesejane. Fellow traveller Sonny Serite, columnist from The Telegragh promises to catch up on the way. At the Kopfontein border into South Africa, two passengers, one from Nigeria and the other from Zimbabwe, are refused entry. We arrive in Johannesburg before lunchtime and quickly board another taxi to Mbabane. Joburg-Mbabane taxi is frail and slower than the Zola Budd from Gaborone. Five minutes into Swaziland border and only 10 minutes remaining to reach Mbabane our taxi gets stuck on the highway. Another taxi is called to rescue us.
Myxo's lousy Backpackers
The taxi drops us at Manzini bus station and our host, Myxo Dlamini is already waiting at the agreed stop. His backpackers' lodge, though, turns out to be too miserable than we anticipated. It does not even have cold local beer and worse they are located about 10km away from the nearest pub. Quizzed on Swaziland's hot spots, Dlamini tells us that everything happens between Manzini and Mbabane, yet his lousy lodge is deep on the hills behind Manzini. We decide to cut our stay to one night instead of five. We spend most of the night planning our escape and phoning in search of better accommodation. Most of the hotels and lodges are fully booked due to the ongoing COMESA summit and visitors for the Umhlanga (Reed dance) ceremony. In the morning after a night of fruitless search we decide to checkout regardless.
