Day 2 - Lobamba and Nsangwini Rock Paintings

Where to start with what we've done today! We've done so much, really making the most of our day. We started with a lovely breakfast of omelette, fruit, vanilla muffin and orange juice on our balcony, with a stunning view over the waterfall. The lovely receptionist from the Netherlands then drove us to the village of Lobamba, about 20 minutes from our gorgeous lodge. Here, we met Scoo our guide who was born and raised in Lobamba. He was very chatty and knew a lot about the village. We started in the National Museum, along with a while school of smiling students eager to say hi to us. The museum was full of traditional clothing, instruments, household pottery and dioramas depicting the different terrains of Swaziland. There are mountains, lowlands, plateaus and flatlands. Its actually amazing how green and beautiful the land is. The mountains are a stunning backdrop everywhere you go.

Next we headed across the road to the Memorial Park for King Sobhozs  ii. His son is currently king. The park was still and peaceful and had a nice statue of the former king with his famous quote, I have no enemies. He was the one who helped gain Swaziland's independence from England. He had 70 wives and over 200 children! There were lots of photos depicting his life and three cars, a Cadillac and 2 Buicks - his passion, which his son seems to have inherited!

We then wandered to the village of Lobamba itself, where the former King's residence is. Its just a few small buildings on the edge of the village, but is huge compared to the other very modest dwellings. It is in complete disrepair and is crumbling out of respect to the former king. In past years, it would have been round houses made of mud and sticks and so would have crumbled easily, but now the remains will be there for many years.

The red, dusty soil gets everywhere in the village and there are dogs, cats, goats, chickens, chicks and cows wandering about all over the place. Our guide seemed to know everyone. He showed us his house and we met his sister in law. We also met some friendly locals for a taste of the local home brew, alcohol content unknown! It was very smokey and not nice at all, but we had to sip some out of politeness! One of the men there had the title Prince. He is a member of the royal family. Another man wanted Matt to offer him a sister or cousin to marry, so that Matt would always have family in the village!

We went to the place were the royal guards or warriors train and said hello to them. Everyone is so friendly and welcoming. Then we went to the butchers to buy some meat which our guide then bbq'd (braai) outside the shop! We had chicken, beef, delicious sausage that Scoo wouldn't tell me what meat it was! And some sort of maize, rice thing. It was all delicious. We ate with our hands. While we waited for Scoo to cook our lunch we were bothered by a drunk local, trying to get money out of us and complaining about the king, and saying how he wanted to move to England. Scoo told him off though.

After lunch we met Mpho, who is one of the owners of Silverstone lodge. He is a local of the village too, and is very friendly, charming and chatty. He drove us to our next spot, through the beautiful mountains, via a great craft shop selling glass.  Our final stop of the day was truely remarkable and really one to tick off the archaeological bucket list.

We drove along red dusty roads, past an incredible dam and hiked up and down a mountain until we reached an open alcove of rock. Here there were cave paintings made by the hunter gatherer San people roughly 4000 years ago. These are the Nsangwini rock paintings and they depict elephants, various large animals and people hunting. They are in red or black 'paint' probably from the soil and have stood up to the elements remarkably well. They are simply amazing. We were the only people there to see them. It's just incredible that people stood on that spot 4000 years ago to record parts of their lives that they considered important enough to write down. And there we were on that same spot 4000 years later. Amazing!

We were treated to a beautiful sunset over the mountains on our drive back, before having a light dinner of pizza/toasted cheese sandwich. Its now 8.30 pm and I'm ready for bed! We're off to Hlane national park tomorrow for 2 nights, where we will be internet and electricity free, so I'll catch you up on our safaris in a few days.