So now it is a cool morning amid the clear cut forests of Swaisland. We have been on the tour since the 14th and are surviving. It is a small group, 15 people, of very different backgrounds and interests. That makes it very pleasant. Our tour operator is full of information. Being a little hyperactive I get exhausted just watching him.
Our tour started in the Proteo Hotel in Johannesburg. Just a little different than our usual accommodation. A very upscale traveller / business hotel.
Where in the world are we?!!
The Proteo Hotel at Kruger Gate was our next stop. Very nice right on the river with a couple of lone bull elephants calling the place home. We had a good full day drive seeing, again, the big five. Dave and Lynn did a night drive (again seeing everything they wanted) but we were just too game drived out to join them.
Spent two nights here which gave us a chance to rest, swim and get to know the other travellers.
Yesterday we hopped on the bus again and made our way to Swaisland. The weather was dismal again. Rainy and a little foggy. Much of the land covered we had seen before and Swaisland, what we've seen of it, seems to consist of mostly clearcuts anyway.
Had lunch and a cultural show at the border. Beautiful voices as they harmonized in song.... and the 'high kick' dancing to the drum beat was amazing! The tour took us through a village showing us how they lived until recently (they say they still live this way and I know they do in the outlying areas... but I don't think so here... especially when we saw the mini bus bringing in the singers for the performance!). On the tour we went to the grandmother's hut. Here the guide explained to us about how a woman must greet her husband.   If he wants sex he will bang a stick outside her hut. She will get the babies settled then come to him on her knees!! Then, satisfied, he will go back to the man's compound to sleep unless of course he wants to visit another one of his wives.
The children sleep with their mothers until 2 yrs old. Sleep with grandma until they become men and women (males at 5 yrs of age with circumcision, girls when they menstrate... both must have a period of seclusion from the tribe before they come of age as well). The girls get their own huts upon marriage and on it goes.
Very interesting ... learned a lot ... much like tribes we visited in Ethiopia four years ago.
Anyway... there is more to say but the bus is going. I'm getting looks so must get off and pay this bill.,
Today the sun is shining and we have much to see and do.
Don't know when I'll get back.... by the way, happy belated Anniversary Todd and Niki.