Next morning we had a look around Bulembu and purchased some souvenir's something we rarely do. We still have a lovely print (by Tony Hudson) of two Swazi women sitting with their pottery, hanging on our wall. While we were parked checking maps we noticed this amazingly bright flowering tree, possibly a breed of flame tree. I asked a local women walking past what type of tree it was, and she motioned she would write it down, so we handed her a pen and paper, which she promptly walked off with.

Next stop was the border of Swaziland/South Africa and some very bored border guards. They delighted in searching our vehicle, taking great care (not) in slinging everything out of our packs, in particular H's undies. While they were doing their duty I noticed the trees about were all broken and practically leafless, so with a bit of mime and words asked if there had been a storm? This was promptly answered with a mime from one guard demonstrating how they simply shot the trees to bits with their AK's!!.

So we were quite relieved to get over the border. The area here is very picturesque, the road passes through a saddle back splitting the Song Mveld Game Reserve and the Malolotja Nature Reserve. We stopped for a while to take in the view (and get over the border crossing) when we noticed a cable car with buckets rather than seats hauling something from Swaziland into South Africa. We found out later that it was asbestos, obviously they had not caught up with how dangerous the stuff is.

Our next stop was Barberton, we had both been looking forward to this with anticipation due to both enjoying Bryce Courtney's "Power of One" book immensely, which was largely set here. We were pleased and some what surprised as to how accurate the descriptions of the town were from the book. We were able to locate Doc's house on the hill with its cactus garden, the town rotunda, the Barberton prison was where described and also the shanty town where the housemaids lived. It was a great thrill. We called into the tourist centre to enquire as to anything we may have missed from the book. They informed the only book they were aware of was "Jock of the Bushveld" so it would appear that Bryce may have trodden on some toes with his literary piece.

Our next stop was Nelspruit where we stayed at Hotel Formula l. The hotel was new, but the most budget place we have stayed. The rooms were like boat cabins, you could practically sit on the toilet and have a shower!! but it suited our budget and was obviously popular with people of many different nationalities checking in.

After checking in we went down to the bus ticketing office and booked tickets to take us to Mozambique. However it transpired we required Visas for Mozambique and as it was Friday the Visa office would not be open until Monday, and as our time restraints prevented us from hanging around we put Mozambique on the back burner, so tomorrow its off to Kruger National Park.