Roadtrippin' Southern Africa

Traveling new places is a wonderful sort of experience on its own, but there is something else to say about renting a car and backpacking African countries.

 Five of us decided to spend the second half of our vacation as adventurous backpackers roadtripping across Southern Africa: three countries in ten days seemed doable to us. We picked up our rental car at the Jo’burg airport and headed east to the country of Swaziland: one of the only kingdoms left on earth, and also the country with the highest AIDS rate in the entire world. We were a little nervous about driving, considering it is on the other side of the road, the car and gears being totally reversed. It only took about 45 minutes before we got pulled over by the South African police for switching lanes, but really driving the wrong way down what was the freeway, somewhere along it had switched back to a two-way road. The cops screamed and told us we were “ALL GOING TO DIE!” After a long lecture, they insisted on taking us to the police station but we bribed our way out of that, down 1,000 R by 7:30 AM. 

We took the scenic, and sometimes unpaved, route to Mbabane, the capital of Swaziland. Miles of mountains and not a developed neighborhood in sight, we passed hundreds of people walking along the road, and we stopped for the occasional herd of cows or goats bloc

king the road. We only got lost a few times before reaching the border, which was jam packed with people pushing through one another, eager to cross. Realizing we were getting nowhere in line, I grabbed all five of our passports and made my way to the customs window. We were ecstatic, and I think Pat was so proud he drove us all the way, which is probably why he accidentally hit an immigration officer with the car. Luckily, the guy was fine and just laughed at us. On the way back to the car from the office, (in the most cheesy way) we exchanged high fives and told each other just how excited we were: I threw my long arms in the air, right into the rusty barbed wire I somehow missed, maybe an hour after telling everyone the Tetanus immunization was the only one I forgot to get before coming to Africa...We checked into our hostel and explored for a little. Because the water levels were low, we 

opted to go caving instead of white water rafting. This is where we went wrong. A few weeks prior to departure, I let them convince me to sign up for caving, even though I am extremely claustrophobic. I remembered my friends going caving while abroad last year so I asked them what they thought, but they assured me I'd be fine. Wrong.So we meet up with our man, Sipo, and he drives us to a mountain. It turned out we had to climb a mountain before we reached the cave: great. It was a hot, but beautiful climb as the sun set over the mountains. There was nothing there but plant life, the animals, and us. As we got closer to the cave and Sipo prepped us on what to expect. My heart started to race, attributed to physical exercise and nervousness. All that was running through my head was: "What the hell am I doing?" and "I'm actually paying to put myself through this?" as well as an array of obscenities. We reached the cave and crawled in: I'm fine, I thought. Sipo asked how  claustrophobic I was but I said I'd be fine. Wrong. That was before I saw the first squeeze. Oh hell no. Long story short, I freaked so Sipo told me to wait for the group outside the cave. I was so panicked and I ran as fast as  I could out of the cave. Tears streaming down my face and my heart pounding I ran so far before coming to my senses and realizing one very important thing: I was lost. 

The sun was setting and I was still panicking. Then I stopped and laughed: "What is the use in panicking? No one is here to help me..." So there I was, wondering around the middle of Swaziland trying to find that one rock, or that one tree, before the sun was completely set. I'd cry and then laugh and then thought about how I'd rather die: in a cave 1,000 feet under with my friends or alone in the wild. I'd rather take my chances with the animals. I eventually found my way back to the rock outside the cave and decided to sit there for the next two hours. It was completely dark now and hundreds of bats flew out of the cave, hitting me in the head as they passed. I saw trees move in the distance but told myself it must have just been a cow or something...

I was ecstatic to see my friends again and was so proud of them. Sure I was too scared this time, but jumping out of a plane and diving with great whites were pretty cool, too. Beside, I sort of had my own little adventure. Afterward Sipo took us for pizza and beer, which I did not pass on. We then went to the hot spring which was packed with Swazi folks. We played keep away (boys vs. girls, my team ruled) in the hot spring under the starry African sky. Life is so good to me in Africa. After saying bye to our new Swazi friends, we had a few drinks and went to bed. The next day I blew too much money at the women's market (it's so hard to say no to them!!) and we departed for Maputo, Mozambique...where we spend the next three days. They were exciting and new and terrifying all at the same time...