Roag Eswatini 25'

[Asjas]

Took a group out over easter weekend and into Eswatini. We did about 450km's inside and 5 nights camping. What a blast. Will update full trip report soon but here's some teasers.

[Asjas]

So we left for Nerston BP early Friday morning via the N17 to Ermelo, filled up and bought some extra fire wood and hid it in the rtt bag. On the N17 we met up with Christo and his fam. Nerston was dead still and took us all of 15min to get our passport's stamped before hitting the curvy mountain roads down to Malkerns. Johan and Pieter didn't want any hassles at the border and left a day early and waited at Miliwane Game Sanctuary for us.
We arrived at Miliwane around 2pm, set up camp and got to know the group a bit. all went lekker and we kuiered till around 10pm before hitting the sack.

Day2:
After a leisurely breakfast we packed up and headed towards Hlane game reserve via the Mr3, as we approached Manzini we hit dead still traffic, lucky we were close to a offramp and slipped of the mr3. Rerouting the group, we headed about 10km north up and around a nearby hillside and back Southeast towards Manzini. We much rather drive a 30min loop than sit in traffic for potential hours, and on the plus side you get to see something different. The detour jointed us into the Mr3 again at the @ss end of Manzini which had no traffic. from here it was a smooth cruise up to Hlane.

Arriving at Hlane we booked in the group, then picked out our camp spots after snaping a few pics of the rhinos chilling less that 15m from the "electrified 2 wire fence". We rounded the afternoon off with a quick game drive, arrived at camp for sundowners and kuiered into the night.

Day3:

Hlane to Malolotja
At last night's fire we discussed to skip breakfast and do a roadside brunch as we had a long day and slow driving conditions waiting for us. leaving Hlane around 8:20Am we headed North towards the sugar factory sitting just outside of the parks northern parameter fence. Here the adventure really kicked off. Hlane NR to the left and sugarcane plantations to the right.
We took some 'corporation" and local semi washed out tracks all the way around Hlane and back west towards Mnjoli dam. Arriving on the dam wall we had a quick stop for some drone and camera shots as well as a nice chance to see the dam overflowing down the causeway. It was still around 9-10Am ish and not Quite yet time for brunch, so we tracked across the dam and headed north thru some homesteads. These roads are not used a lot and washed out after the rainy season. Slow but relaxed we made our way north.
Here I had planned to take the group to see the Komati irrigation feed canal that fed all the 1000s of hectares of sugar cane we drove past earlier, followed by brunch on a low water bridge crossing the Komati a few Km's later.

Yeah, that didn't go as planned. our old route soon came to an abrupt halt as we climbed our way out of a small creek and up between two sugarcane plantations. A Dead End our route was completely overgrown and washed out. THIS IS AFRICA... Nothing ever stays the same, especially in areas that get frequent rain. F it, we will have Brunch right here. And we did in the middle of the sugar cane fields in that humidity we setup our stations and build a brunch that can feed a small army... Two local bravo's came down from the track through the right-hand side of the Sugar cane field with a small John deer and a load Bin trailer in tow. You see they needed to head down to the creek to go mine some river sand. We blocked their access to the creek, so naturally we invited them for brunch. They got fed while patiently waiting for us and we got directions to bypass the overgrown and washed away section in front of us. WIN-WIN.

In no time Brunch was over and we were routed around the right-hand side Sugarcane fields back to the Komati Irrigation canal/weir. Here I just had a quick chat with the local security gaurd and managed to get his blessing to go check out the infrastructure if the irrigation canal. Cool sight and quite a view.

Back in our rigs we soon crossed the low water bridge over the Komati and headed east towards Piggs Peak. NOW the Mr2, you know the one that's not paved and cuts straight over the mountains to Piggs peak 44kms away. Yeah that Mr2, steep climbs, heavily rutted and washed out, especially on the western part of the pass. A Hard 1st and 2nd gear adventure taking you the better part of 2hours to drive in a convoy to cross over the mountains to Pigs' peak, BUT the Views from this pass make it more that worthwhile to get you liver and kidneys miss aligned. Truely EPIC vistas from this pass, and then it slightly dips into Forestry roads towards Piggs peak, a jarring ride but a must drive in Eswatini.

Anyhow, we arrived in Piggs Peak, the Toyotas filled up and we headed South towards Maguga Dan on the bypass road. It's an easy drive and worthwhile as the views from the pass as you approach the colossal dam wall is unmatched and one of our top moments whenever we take a group down to Eswatini.

We stopped at the viewpoint/restaurant for some refreshments as the day was quite stretched out by now (4pm somewhere), the late afternoon sun mixed with the water waves running down the dam's spillway made was incredible and just took the whole experience up a few notches.

From there you drive over the dam wall up a long climb and the head towards Malolotja NR. We arrived around 5Pm and checked in, if you haven't been here before, Malolotja sits quite high at approx. 1500m and its always windy and way cooler up there. We picked out the camping spot that had the minimum amount of wind, domino-ed the rigs into campsite leveling them with firewood and stones from around camp and dug in for the cold. As per the ZA way, we lit a lekker big fire, had a few shots Tequella and OLD Brown and soon the cold faded away...

[Asjas]

Day 4:
Day 4 we all slept in late, eventually came around to having a breakfast/brunch of sorts and headed towards Malolotja Falls in the park, Ariving at the Falls parking point we all felt brave and willing to hike the 2kms down to the falls, well almost all of us. Anyway, we soon got lost, injured ourselves mildly, gave up hope and headed back to the parking/viewpoint then slapped some toebroodtjies together for lunch and sat for 30min regaining our breath. Feeling quite defeated we all headed back to camp and relaxed the rest of the day.

Day5:
Malolotja to Off Track Eswatini.
40kilos for the day, we were in no rush. the usual, breaky, pack up and drive to the next camp. We stopped in Mbabane to replenish our ice and get some extra ingredients for tonight's pizzas. After a rather excessive shopping spree we headed down int pine valley, past Sibebe Rock one Huge @ss granite rock and tracked our way up this steep potholed little one-way pass at the back of Sibebe rock. the nissan suffered, and so did the hilux. A few places due to the potholes and steep inclines I had to shift int low range. Non the less we made it up the steepest parts and the bad tarred one-way turned into another washed out rooi-grond mountain road. In all fairness it was quite a fun drive. But more fun laid ahead. steep climbs, off camber tracks and Maby 4 or 5 stream crossing laid between us and Off Track Eswatini campsite. All I'm going to say is that it was a fun little track up and down to camp with a few butt tuckering moments.

10 outa 10 Campsite with a 300 deg view over the whole Swaziland!!!! Go check it out. Deffffffffffffenitly a MUST for any offroad enthusiast that visits or passed through Eswatini!. PIzza booze and good time that night on top of the Kingdom

Day 6:
Back to oshoek border post.

Driving up and down these roads in the dry is fun, going down them in rain with 3ton overlanders.... mmmmm... not so much.
You see the next morning we had intense Mist and fine rain. our convoy vehicle was as followed. Our Nissan Terrano, Pieties GD6 Tuna and kitchen trailer, A 4,2 single cab overlanding cruiser, a hilux Sfa that probably weights more the said cruiser and finally a 2x4 ranger...

Wet mist, un-ideal vehicles for this kind of situation and unknown weather, yeah bad. So I took the nissan down the shortest track to the "main dirt road" it had proper steep sections but no grassy off camber hills (bad for top-heavy overlanders in the rain). It was steep and I purposefully drove outside the track to not take off the top layer of dirt, the priority was to get the 2x4 ranger down on fresh dirt and the gradually worsen the road with each 4x4 vehicle. I called the group over the radio and told them to wait up as I'm hiking up and leaving the nissan at the bottom. That 800 or so meters up to camp took me and swambo about 20min. As we rejoined the group at camp it started, The torrential downpour. So swambo jumped in with the ranger leading the pack and me following in the tuna as passenger.

Slip and slide and a tow here and there we got everyone back on the main dirt road, took us another hour to get back down into pine valley on the 6km stretch of one-way pothole track. Hungry and wet we headed to the neares resturant, had a warm chow and headed to OShoek border post...

[Paul#25]

Thanks for the photos and report. Hopefully we'll get to doing a trip in that area soon. Reports like this are filled with good information for future travelers.

[Asjas]