Ezulwini Valley, Swaziland

I skipped the morning game drive at Inyati because we had a five hour drive today and I didn't want to be tired.

We were on the road by 10:30, Marissa navigating with Garmin, Google maps offlined on my iPhone, and the directions that Marissa had printed off before the trip. We decided to take a shortcut through a nature reserve on the border. The South African side had great views as we climbed to the pass. We stopped at a little interpretive site roadside for pics.

Exiting South Africa was easy, although the border officials seemed surprised to see us. Entering Swaziland was also easy - no fees for Canadians, and just a $5 fee for the car. They didn't ask to see the document from Avis allowing us to take the car into Swaziland.

A few hundred metres down the road there was a police check, all they did was note our license plate number. We were only the 6th car through.

Then we found out why. The next 18km was a pretty rough gravel road. There were other little cars like Citroëns meeting us the other way so we figured it was possible in our little Toyota Corolla. It was slow going though, it took about 45 minutes to get to pavement. So much for our shortcut! It did have nice views though.

The rest of the drive in Swaziland was on good roads. They even have a short stretch of highway where the limit is 120km, it's the road between the main city and the Royal Residence.

It's a very hilly country. I was trying to use the engine to brake on downhills but the little engine couldn't handle the weight. Hopefully the brakes will last our trip!

We reached Mogi Boutique Hotel around 5pm, well before sunset. It's a nice location on the side of Ezulwini Valley. The views would be nice if it wasn't rainy :)

The Mogi doesn't have an onsite restaurant but they recommended a place just down the road. We were told it's dangerous to walk so we piled into the car and drove.

The restaurant had wifi so we all checked our email. (Lightning the previous night had knocked out the router at Mogi). The food was okay, a little touristy, but it was reasonably priced and had vegetarian options for Marissa.