The Kingdom of Swaziland is small and you can easily see the major attractions within 4-5 days or longer if you prefer spreading the driving out over a longer period of time. The oldest mine in the world is here and dates back 43,000 years!! Its an iron ore mine and ancient people’s use to get hematite and other iron ore for making tools, and coloring for painting in caves. We drove in just after the the visitor center had closed for the day but the guard was super cool and let us through. We made a video to satisfy our friend Nick of MyVideoVisa.com ‘s craving for Africa videos while overlooking the vast pit that was carved out over the years.
Some of the oldest humans have been found in a “border cave” with Mozambique. Blue green algae, the worlds oldest record of a living thing has been found in Eastern Swaziland. It dates to 3.5 billion years old – a mere cool 1 billion years after the planet has been formed. Africa is OLD. Eastern Africa is where everything started. Its an incredible.
We found the Ezulwini Valley too crowded and somewhat touristy – the best parts of Swaziland have been the most remote parts of the country. It was a welcome relief to drive into the mountains on the way to the small town of Piggs Peak because the temperature dropped noticeably (pity the poor man whose last name is Pigg – the namesake of the town). We were also surprised to find few communities – on the drive we saw a number of stone carvers selling their carvings on the side of the road. Several roadside shops had beautiful statues on display but no one around!
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