A beautiful and small kingdom - Swaziland

I’m sitting at a lovely guesthouse at the foot of the Drakensborg mountains in the stunning region of Kawazulu Natal one of the most mountainous regions in the northeast of South Africa. Apologies to all for my delays in posting. I won’t make excuses , As the trip has progressed it’s been more challenging to keep focused on the blog. But there has also been a dramatic change in internet access during my time in Africa . While I’ve continued to get daily access to my blackberry – there are seemingly random moments when the little red light starts to flash. It doesn’t appear to have any rhythm I can detect. But that’s not important right now…
My friends Anthony and Shaul joined me on July 2 in Swaziland where I got to tick country number 88 off my list but I couldn’t drag them up there merely for that occasion. We stayed 5 nights total in Swaziland which is about 4 nights more than most people who come to gamble at one of their casinos and leave. What a mistake they make!
We spent the first three nights at Reilly’s Lodge in the Milwane Game Reserve. The Reilly family has been working to preserve wildlife in Swaziland for decades and one of the Reilly sons, now in his 80’s, is still leading the efforts both at the lodge and for the conservation efforts of the country as a whole. We had the good fortune of eating dinner around the fire with Mr. Reilly and to listen to his stories about wildlife preservations, the threats from poaching over the years and the efforts – fully supported by the King – to maintain a focus on wildlife preservation that enables the survival of the nation’s wild animals, preserves the eco-system for future animal and plant life, and enables eco-tourism – of which we were a part. Our lunch overlooking the hippo pond and our walk through the preserve that brought us within site of crocodiles, zebra, kudo, daiku and other animals too numerous to mention was a real gift from the people of Swaziland.
Speaking of the people, we were really pleased to have gotten to the know people just a little bit. Swaziland has been a peaceful country for many decades (aided by the British they fought off Dutch colonialists a century or so ago (one good thing the Brits seem to have done) and have maintained their independence every since – a landlocked nation within South Africa where they preserve their monarchical and polygamous system even today. While the country is poor by western standards, the living conditions don’t appear as desperate as what I’ve seen more recently in South Africa.
There is a certain calm, peaceful and inviting dimension to Swaziland which is very endearing. We were particularly lucky to have had the same guide and driver for the entire time we were there so by getting to know him a bit, we got to appreciate the warmth of the people. (of course we’re tourists and we understood that) but I can attest to other destinations where the people have been less open and gracious and open. We also noticed that the country had quite a few other non –Swazi citizens. In particular we met quite a few people from Mozambique and Zimbabwe who told us they were there because it was a calm, accepting and peaceful society.