If you don’t already know this about me, I was apparently “an African Queen in my last life. Who was brutally murdered at a young age. It was a devastating blow to the community”. You can’t make this stuff up. The only psychic I have ever been to told me this. I have witnesses. After she gave my other friends very normal readings “you’ll be married in Tahoe, you’ll have 3 kids, etc, etc”, this is the reading she dropped on me. And I like to believe it’s true. Well maybe not the brutal part but the African Queen part. And after this trip, I’d like to also believe that I was the Queen of the Kingdom of Swaziland.
We may have asked our Swaziland sunrise safari guide if there was a history of them losing a queen at a young age. He said there was. Of course I have to take this info with “a grain assault” (I have a friend that thought that was saying instead of “a grain of salt”) because he also told us that right now they had a “pretty good king.” And a google search upon returning home tells a much different story. But they hide it well and this pretty good king rules over one of the most beautiful places I have ever been to.
We stayed inside the Miliwane Reserve. The no longer camping Americans upgraded to stay in an adorable beehive complete with hot showers. There were no fences here so the animals wandered around the reserve with the people. We were told we really only had to worry about hippos. We got some great advice from our tour guide about what to do if we encountered a hippo. I think his exact words were “You’re dead.” Helpful..thanks. And while hippos do kill more Africans each year than any other animal, I was assured by Kerry that it was far too early for hippos to be out (bold statement based on nothing).
On the first night we stepped out of our beehive to head to the campsite with our head lamps on. It was unsettling to see nothing but reflections of eyes staring back at us. But alas we didn’t bother the animals and they didn’t bother us.
Everything in Swaziland was absolutely incredible. But the highlight for me was definitely the sunrise safari. We met our guide at 3:30 a.m. and headed out in a jeep up a mountain in the reserve. Still dark, we climbed the last leg on foot and were welcomed to the top with the most stunning views. Over the next two hours, the sky kept changing as the sun rose and the fog lifted. It is easily the top five best things I have ever done. When we climbed back down, we were then treated to a safari of zebras, impalas, warthogs, monkeys, hippos and even two crocodiles.
I realize this is kind of a ridiculous statement but if you are ever in the area, make sure Swaziland is on your itinerary. And tell them the old Queen sent you.
