Anna and I went to the Kingdom of Swaziland for the Remembrance Day weekend, which was absolutely amazing. Swaziland is the last Kingdom left in Africa and unlike the constitutional monarchies that we are used to in the West, the King is both head of state and head of the government. What he says, goes! The kingdom is absolutely beautiful, and the people are just amazing, with a very laid back lifestyle. As an independent country, Swaziland was not subjected to Apartheid and became a haven for many people from South Africa fleeing the racial segregation. As such, there are none of the racial divides which are still quite evident as a legacy of Apartheid in modern South Africa. We went out to dinner on Friday night and almost every group in the restaurant was of a mixed background with no one paying any attention to skin colour.
The trip was to visit some university friends of Anna’s but also to have a bit of a reconnaissance for future trips. As it was we spent most of the days cruising around the various craft markets located in the Ezulwini Valley. I managed to finish all of my Christmas shopping there, as well as buy some nice things for myself. I will definitely go back at some stage in the future to explore the Kingdom further, especially some of the National Parks. Here a few photos to give you a bit of an idea of the place.
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| Execution Rock (didn't get to ask about how it got its name) from the Yebo Gallery. |
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| A close up of execution rock. Basically this was the view from Stacey and George's house where we stayed for the first two nights. |
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| Anna at the coffee shop at the Yebo Gallery. Swaziland is known for these humerous 'angel' carvings. In this case the angel is using a brush cutter? |
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| A Swazi cow! |
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| The show room at Swazi candles (some of you will get Christmas presents from here!). |
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| One of the Swazi Candle makers. |
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| A Swazi craft market (saw a few of these). |
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| The view from the verandah of Kathy and Mark's place where we spent the last night. |
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| More of the view from Kathy and Mark's place. |
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