Maseru to Mbabane, Eswatini (formerly Swaziland), this was a long drive, 620km and 8 hours including 2 border crossings. I decided to use a small border crossing at Peka Bridge instead of the main one at Maseru to avoid the chaos, good decision hahaha. I arrived at the border at 0810 (it only opens at 0800), parked and walked to the counter and got a stamp, only took a minute there was no one else there. Boom gate was lifted by the same woman that stamped my passport, across a narrow bridge which is the border and I was back in South Africa. Parked and once again I was the only customer, another entry stamp into SA and all done. After that 6km of dirt road with a few rough patches, meandered along at 20-30kph lots of sharp stones did not want to risk a puncture and onto the highway. Sun in my eyes not much traffic except when close to towns and not many of them, speed limit 100 to 120kph sat on 110kph most of the time, stopped at Bethlehem to fill up and the attendant, a woman cleaned all the glass and the back door which was covered in dust from the dirt road, gave her R10 for her efforts. Carried on a few big towns, grain silos, farming country and some cattle as well. The road varied from good to potholes with cars weaving all over the place to miss them, some new stretches, finally arrived at the Eswatini border. Queue of cars waiting to park and then go inside and get passport stamped by South African immigration, long queue, finished with that then the Police check to see if I have permission to enter Eswatini showed them the Rental documents. Cross over into Eswatini and I missed the immigration counter and did not get an entry stamp but I did pay the Road Tax of R100 and got a receipt for that, even there they asked if I had a Gate Pass and I had no idea what that was or where I should get it from so they made one out for me at the counter. On my way out they checked that I had my Gate Pass and paid the Tax but nobody checked my passport for the Entry stamp. At this point I had no idea what was going on and carried on hahaha a very disorganised border crossing.
Eswatini is one of the wealthier countries and the roads and traffic are organised and drivers follow the rules. There is a nice pedestrian only area in the centre of the town with shops and Malls. I stayed at a Guest House run by a Mauritian Chinese lady and enjoyed home cooked chinese meals while I was there, very nice.
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Chris's space 
It’s interesting to see just how different Estwatini is compared to the previous African countries you’ve visited and shared. Each beautiful in their own, unique, way/s 🥰
H x
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