Doing it on foot: a modern tale of two middle-aging guys not wanting to feel old, er, keeping the spirit of adventure alive!

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On 11 August 2009, Darron Raw, the whl.travel local partner in Swaziland, along with his friend Johan Radcliffe of Dirty Boots, took the first steps on Circum-Swazi, a human-powered anti-clockwise circumnavigation of Swaziland in search of hassle-free Africa.

As the blog of their unfolding undertaking tells:

“The mission is to do the entire 550km boundary without motorised transport – just walking and MTB’ing.”

They figure they can cover the distance in 12 days. As “two guys who are far from fit… and still struggling to shake off the effects of winter sniffs and snivels,” they’ve probably got fair few challenges in the days ahead.

As they advance, if the details of their first day of travel are any hint of reports to come, they will share an incredible amount of information about a country too few can even place on a map – a big bonus to armchair travellers.

Read summaries of their adventures on:

• Day 1 – Summits as Country Boundaries
• Day 2 – So Much More than a Dog and Pony Show
• Day 3 – Facing Rural Realities
• Day 4 – Up and Down and Round and Round

Day 1: Summits as Country Boundaries

“We found a few mountain peaks today. Seems cartographers use mountain summits to define country boundaries,” wrote Darron through Facebook at the end of a first day that covered the 29km from the Ngwenya/Oshoek border post to Sigangeni.

Along the way they took in Swaziland’s Ngwenya Glass factory, source of one of the country’s most successful handmade arts and crafts exports, particularly notable for its reliance on local Swazi artisans, 100% recycled glass and furnaces recently adapted to use old engine oil; kept packs of mad dogs at bay; and just enjoyed the rivers and mountain peaks punctuating their progress.

At the end of 7 hours and 37 minutes on the trail, “Johan and I quickly got a roaring fire going to keep warm,” reported Darron. “Wattle is a major invasive species in this area, so we felt no shame in ridding the area of some chunky pieces. Later we sat down to an awesome dinner [butter chicken and basmati rice] under a starry sky, just 500m from Shiya Summit at 1448m. We camped in the middle of the dirt track we were following, hoping that no traffic would come. None did – our first night was definitely a night in hassle-free Africa.”

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Day 2: So Much More than a Dog and Pony Show

Starting early, Darron and Johan spent most of their second day moving through Usutu Forest, over a high plateau and across the Great Usutu River to Dwalile, a few kilometres beyond the Sandlane/Nerston border post, for a total of 36.5km.

Sappi‘s Usutu Forest (one of the world’s largest planted forests) was an eye-opener, not just because of the efficient traditional means of haulage (ponies) they watched. “There were immediate signs of the devastating fires that have caused Sappi to advise of the likely closing of their pulp mill shortly,” wrote Darron. “Over the past two years, thousands of hectares of pine plantation have gone up in runaway winter fires. For some time now the mill has been running on salvaged burnt timber, but it seems now that this is coming to an end. This is really bad news, not only for the 600-odd mill workers who are likely to lose their jobs, but also for the Swaziland economy as a whole. It can ill afford knocks like this right now.”

After emerging on a high plateau and leaving the forest behind, “we were greeted with an incredible spectacle,” continued Darron. “Across the entire rim of a steep funnel-shaped valley, hunters with dogs waited patiently, spread out 50 meters apart. Each person had two or three dogs of distinct lean greyhound ancestry. The individual dogs were decorated with bright fluffy collars made from shredded plastic.”

This was a traditional duiker hunting party, the duiker being the only species of antelope occurring in the wild outside of parks and reserves. The hunt was temporarily suspended while Darron and Johan crossed the valley, but “No sooner had we reached the far edge of the valley when a cry rang out and the sound of dogs on the chase echoed upwards. We spun around to watch the drama… [but] never saw the final result.”

The final few kilometres, enlivened by a conversation with a young woman named Ntombikayise, left them at Make Mgabhi’s homestead. “She had warmly offered us the use of her kitchen, as there was no place to safely build a fire in the grassy field where we were, but the day’s walk meant that the two or three metres between the tent and the Toyota double-cab were about as much as we could manage. I hope she didn’t think we were just unfriendly.”

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Day 3: Facing Rural Realities

“The roads that set out from Sandlane border post and ran parallel to the border looked perfect for cycling, but plans to do this leg on the mountain bikes fell through,” began Darron. “However, Johan and I have a motto: ‘Never let planning get in the way of a good adventure’.”

So on their third day, despite a tough round of muscle cramps and seizures for Darron, they continued on foot into and through the Ngwempisi River valley and then up and over Lushikishini Mountain to the Sicunusa border post, 35km away.

“The Ngwempisi River is one of the major tributaries of the Great Usutu and it passes through an incredible gorge which is the site of the Ngwempisi Trails hiking network (see a trail map), a community-run tourism project,” wrote Darron.

It was also an obstacle to their progress, as they discovered when a local schoolgirl gave them directions to cross it. This they did at a rough community crossing point (a series of stepping stones), following the example of a woman travelling with both a three-year-old and some bags.

And then they commenced the slow climb of Lushikishini Mountain. But they didn’t get far before they heard shouting behind them from the same schoolgirl from whom they had initially asked direction. She had watched them take a wrong turn and was determined not to let them go too far astray.

“Busisiwe Mdluli, as we learnt her name was, was doing Form 2 at the nearby school,” reported Darron. “She had kind-heartedly run all this way to help us and indeed she did, leading us right to the bottom of the track which climbed the side of the Lushikishini Mountain. We were very grateful for this effort on her part and asked if her school had internet. She wasn’t too sure what internet was but said in Form 4 they started to use computers. We told her to google her name one day and that she would find the story of her helping us available for the whole world to read. She was confused and amazed at the same time.”

This then prompted deep thought about computers in rural schools. “The information age is not helping these rural people. In fact the gap between the have’s and have-not’s in Africa is just widening. I see it in my own business, www.swazi.travel, which is entirely Internet-based. Most school-leavers that come knocking on our door are almost unemployable, their skills totally inappropriate for the managing the demands of online marketing. That said, the likelihood of getting a rural school hooked to the internet anytime soon, is as likely as running car engines on water. At present the Swaziland government is still struggling to implement the recent constitutional obligation to provide free primary education. There are currently not enough schools, chairs or desks in the country and rectifying that first will take some time.”

Beyond the top of the mountain (where they were baffled and amazed to discover the woman who had crossed the river ahead of them), they asked for more directions from a woman collecting water at a stream crossing.

“We watched as she climbed out of the steep-sided donga (gulley in English) balancing the [25-litre] drum effortlessly, her neck moving left and right to keep her head perfectly poised. Getting water for household use is a daily chore in most areas outside of the urban water supply networks. We doubted that there was much that these rural folk could be taught about water conservation. In fact, a good way to ensure consciousness in urban areas where water resources are under pressure, would be to insist on a mandatory requirement to carry your water from the municipal supply into your home. Just a 50m walk would bring about a whole new mindset.”

At Sincanusa, Darron and Johan discovered a welcoming party. Karen, who was helping them tote gear in her car and find a place to set up camp, “had been befriended by Emmanuel Dlamini, a policeman on duty there. He was so concerned about where we were going to sleep for the night that he had called around and got permission from the school headmaster and the local pastor for us to camp on the mission premises. He even organized for firewood for us in advance.”

With such powerful proof of why they love Swaziland, both Darron and Johan went to bed happy, especially after sitting around the fire with Karen, who the next day needed to return to her work in Kruger National Park, and Emmanuel.

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Day 4: Up and Down and Round and Round

“We were glad to get off our feet on Day 4,” wrote Darron. “We had wanted to use the first three days to toughen our feet and generally get fit, having had no time to train at all beforehand. Whether we’d achieved that or just done damage was yet to be seen. My feet in particular were a sorry sight.”

Despite serious swellings and bad blisters, Darron and Johan still clicked off the kilometres more rapidly than they had on foot. Covering a total of 66km by bike, they pedalled from Sincunusa up to the Gege border post, back down through Dudusini to the Mkhondo River near the Mahamba Gorge and then past the Mahamba border gate to the Matimatima Police Post at Mahlandle RDA (Rural Development).

“The Mkhondo River is another tributary of the Great Usutu River passing through the scenic Grand Valley before its meeting of the Usutu near Sidvokodvo,” explained Darron. “Just east of us we we were looking at Mahamba Gorge, one of Swaziland’s well-known geographic features, from the upstream side. The river disappears into a gorge with 300m high cliffs on either side. Although hardly a kilometre long, the gorge is so narrow that at points the only way to pass through is to swim.

“On the opposite side of the gorge only a hearty echo away stands Mahamba Gorge Lodge, another community owned tourism development funded by the European Union. Mahamba is named after the fact that some people fled this way after falling out with the local chief or Indvuna. I think it was a group of early Christian converts. Mahamba is still the site of the oldest church in Swaziland.”

All in all, the day seems to have been a bit of a blur, perhaps because of the wheeled speed and that it was mostly downhill.

“The only downside of now being on bicycles was the size the packs we had. Not having panniers on our bikes, we had everything on our backs…. I could feel the weight forcing me down onto the saddle.”

At the end of the day, “whilst preparing to bunk down on the cold concrete floor [of a derelict RDA building], I wished we had something to put underneath or thin hiking mattrasses. Bingo! Standing behind the door was a roll of emacansi, traditional swazi sleeping mats. Talk about luck. We had a comfortable night.”

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Stay with Darron’s blog to follow the ups and downs (literally and figuratively) of the rest of their adventure, to be summarised here as updates come through.

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This entry was posted on Wednesday, August 12th, 2009 at 1:26 am and is filed under the following categories: