August 12 to 14, 2018
After our flight to Johannesburg we spent the night at a hotel near the airport. An Afrikaner family was also staying, and they seemed surprised we were from America (1). They asked us: "Do you really do your own cleaning and gardening in America? We just hire the blacks here." They were somewhat surprised when we told them we did our own cleaning and gardening.
We drove east toward Barberton in Mpumulunga province where the road through the hills to Bulembu, Swaziland begins. We were pleasantly surprised to find the road was officially a "geotrail" with many well-kept rest areas explaining the history (both human and geological) of the region, with many of them offering scenic vistas and picnic sites. The area has abundant Black Chert rock which holds microscopic fossil evidence of life from over 3 billion years ago.
At one rest area, there was a man cleaning who asked in Afrikans if I had any water. While I know nothing of the language, he indicated drinking and he was delighted I had a full water bottle to give him and he said what sounded like "Dainkey," which I presumed to be Afrikans for thanks.
Later, we stopped to chat with two people on the side of the road who had prospector hammers and field note books. They were geologists from Europe studying the iron-bearing rocks in the region.
While we were at the South African exit border post (which closes at 4:00 p.m., as does the Swaziland entry station) a Swazi woman looked at our car (a small VW) and asked "Do you plan to go into Swaziland with that car?" We assured her we were only going to Bulembu (less than 2 miles from the border) and she seemed satisfied that we were not too foolhardy (2). At the Swaziland entry control station, the customs official seemed pleased to hear me greet her in siSwati and to discover that I had visited the country before.
Bulembu hosted a large asbestos mine from the late 1930s to 2001. The asbestos was transported out of the remote valley via a 20km cableway to Barberton, South Africa, the nearest railhead for shipment around the world. We visited a small museum at the site of the cable way station.
When the mine closed in 2001 (due to asbestos safety concerns) the remote town (known as Havelock) which had had a population of over 10,000 was abandoned and the population fell to about 100. An organization called Bulembu ministries purchased the town and established an orphanage to care for some of the many Swazi children whose parent had both died of AIDS (3). The organization runs the lodge where we stayed plus a dairy and a water bottling facility, and produces honey to support their activities.
The lodge had a lovely lawn where we watched the sunset behind the mountains, followed by the setting of the crescent moon and Venus. There were a number of small brush fires visible on the nearby hills, which were purposely set to burn off the dry tinder. The locals call the winter/dry season here "fire season."
When Seevee, our waiter, discovered we were from America, he asked if Texas were the largest state in the U.S. He seemed surprised when we told him it was not. Bulembu had recently hosted a group of students from Texas A&M who told Seevee that, while the food, mountains, cows, etc. in Swaziland were nice, they were all bigger in Texas.
(1) We have encountered a number of people who were surprised to see Americans driving in southern Africa. I'm not sure why. There are at least two direct flights daily to Johannesburg from American east coast cities.
(2) The road past Bulembu covering the 20 kms to Piggs Peak is unpaved and can be difficult to drive, sometimes even with a 4×4 (a).
(a) 4×4 pickups are known in southern African English as "bakkies."
(3) AIDS is a serious health issue in Swaziland. Free condoms are widely available, including at some border posts.
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