After leaving Kruger in South Africa, we set off for another mountain kingdom, Swaziland. A little about Swaziland, it's a little smaller than Lesotho. It also has a king, Mswati III, but he's more of a despot than Letsie III, as he is not accountable to the Parliament so he spends spends spends. In fact, polygamy is acceptable in Swaziland and the king leads the way with 15 wives. This does not help in encouraging people to be faithful to their partners which may be the reason that Swaziland has the highest rate of HIV in the world! We spent our first 3 nights in the Mliliwane Nature Reserve. We were treated to traditional dances and songs by the park staff the first night we were there. They were absolutely fantastic. Every day at 3 pm, the staff summon the hippos to eat. They haul in what looks like bird food in a wheelbarrow to the site, and clang the side of the barrow upon hearing this come the hippos running for their afternoon snack. It was adorable but hippos are absolutely ferocious animals. The parks staff would cautiously approach the hippo and toss the food over the wall when she was not looking. Our second day was more ambitious as we hiked for 6 hours up to Execution Rock. Before Swaziland had prisons, they would bring the convicts up to the top of this steep mountain (about 1.65 km tall) and nudge them off the top. Justice, Swazi style. It was a beautiful hike where we got to walk through forests and savannah. The rest of our time in Swaziland was disappointing. We left that hostel in the park to stay in the cities. Just outside Manzini, we stayed at 'Myxo's' owned and run by a Swazi. Without telling us, it was a shack without electricity, running water or even a phone. Needless to say, we spent just a night there. Manzini is the commercial hub of the city and fortunately its market would in full operation when we arrived. We bought many batiks, paintings and jewelry for embarrassingly cheap. We even attempted to haggle which is definitely not a great skill we possess. We went to Mbabane, the capital of Swaziland, where to be honest, I don't think we did anything as there was literally nothing to do there. We ventured up to Waterford UWC; one of the sister colleges to Pearson College in Victoria that Michaela went to. Our last night, we swam in the 'Cuddle Puddle', a hot spring pool at a spa. It was delightfully warm and we could watch the stars while we floated on our backs. The experience was made interesting as the Swazis have low inhibitions and many of them swam naked (despite the sign telling them not too). The place gets its namesake because it appears to be a big makeout spot for couples. We were with a friend, so we didn't take advantage of it, although that could have been interesting. We are now in St. Lucia along the Indian Ocean in North East South Africa. It's a beautiful resort town. Very warm! St. Lucia is a UNESCO world nature site. Yesterday, we stood within 2m of a hungry croc-what a rush! We also woke up 20+ hippos and scared them into the water (as long as you don't get between a hippo and the water, they aren't too brave). Today we will go to the beach and tomorrow we will go snorkeling. It's quite nice on the coast. It always reminds Michaela of home, although the Indian Ocean is actually warm. I am happy because we can finally relax a little as we've been running around being too ambitious in our site seeing. Sala khale (take care in Siswati) J&M