Malolotja

This past weekend was a 3-day weekend due to the annual ‘Reed Dance’ during which all of the eligible young, Swazi women dance for the King (topless and holding a reed). Traditionally, the King uses the Reed Dance as a means of choosing additional wives (I think he currently has 9), but this year it was just a ceremony as he did not take any wives. Before our arrival in Swaziland, Doug had read about this tradition and exclaimed numerous times that we would be leaving town the weekend of the Reed Dance, just in case the King developed a desire for a midwestern umlungu. So, we booked a cabin and made the short, 40 minute journey to the Malolotja Game Reserve (one of the perks of living in a tiny kingdom is nothing is very far away!). When we arrived at the park and walked into the reception office to check-in, the woman behind the counter introduced us to the other woman in the office by saying, ‘this is my son’s doctor.’ It was a prideful moment for Doug as it was his first, ‘doctor sighting.’ Occasionally, when we were in Richmond I would see one of my students in the grocery store and experience a ‘teacher sighting’ or in L.A. I would see a corps member out-and-about in Long Beach, but Doug has never lived/worked in the same community and especially not one this small, so it was a happy moment. Anyways, after getting the key to our cabin, reviewing the park map and getting hike recommendations, and discovering coke light at the little country store we made our way to our cabin.

Malolotja is another one of the parks operated by the King and it was truly awe-inspiring. The park itself was 1800 hectares (not sure of the conversion to acres, but it was a BIG park) and we only saw two other people the entire time that we were hiking. The terrain changed frequently from lush green to desert brown and sometimes there was even a line in the brush when it changed. The thing that I liked the most was seeing the layers upon layers of mountains.

On Sunday, after we got settled, we ventured out for a hike at about 2:oopm to check out the Malolotja Waterfall, but we were stopped short due to the fact that the birds are nesting along the trail until about November. We decided to take a different route when we heard the first grumblings of thunder and decided not to wait for a third reason not to go on this particular hike. Having heard how the lightening is attracted to the granite rock and seeing exposed domes such as this one, we decided hiking in a storm on exposed mountainsides was not in our plans for the afternoon! So, we drove through the park to some of the different viewpoints and ended up checking out the mine, as well. By late afternoon, the weather had moved on, so we hiked just 45 minutes in to see a waterfall and ended up back at our cabin before nightfall.

There were a couple of new animal sightings in Malolotja including the aardwolf.

On Monday, we woke up early to hike and were surprised to encounter so many animals enroute to the trailhead. We saw the largest herd of animals that we’ve seen in one place to date and it included zebra, impala, and Blesbok (also a new one for us).

Additionally, we saw group of about 10-12 baboons (we think, but they could have been another primate creature) running across the valley. They were too quick to capture on film, but I did get one looking back at us. Look carefully, in the mid-to-right-center…