Eswatini is one of those destinations that seem to often be overlooked by overland travellers and South African holidaymakers alike, for no good reason. We decided it’s time to find out more for ourselves and after meandering through the beautiful mountainous countryside around the town of Barberton, we entered Eswatini at the quiet Josefsdal border post.

For the second smallest nation in Africa, Eswatini has quite a few fascinating facts. It is Africa’s last remaining absolute monarchy, has the world’s oldest recognised mining works, the world’s second largest monolith rock, and one of its previous kings, King Sobhuza II, reigned for 82 years – longer than any other monarch in the world!

Our first stop was the enchanting Phophonyane Falls Eco Lodge. In the lush forested valleys we hiked some of the many trails and enjoyed the beautiful views over the river below and the series of cascading falls. At Phophonyane there is also no lack of spoils and luxuries, with amazing food and drinks pairing well with the large tropical gardens.

We drove down the escarpment to the low-lying eastern areas of the country, stopping at the Hlane Royal National Park, the crown jewel of reserves in Eswatini. Here we enjoyed game driving and the excellent birding. Eswatini is a birding paradise where many species found further north in the bushveld overlap with those found further south in KwaZulu Natal. Interestingly, the southernmost communal breeding site of Marabou storks in Africa can be found here.  One of Hlane’s main drawcards is the popular waterhole at the main camp where we spent many hours just relaxing and watching hippos and rhinos.

Our last stop was the private game reserve of Mbuluzi, only a short drive from Hlane. Tucked into the northeastern corner of the country, the conservancy sits at the point where the Lebombo mountains rise, with the Mbuluzi river flowing in the valley below and lowveld savannah along its banks. It is therefore very biodiverse. Low impact tourism means that the wilderness experience is fantastic, and their conservation efforts in terms of research and reserve management are encouraging to see.

We loved hiking and birding on the reserve, visiting the hides at various dams, seeing plains game, and of course spending much time exploring the beautiful river valley as well. The campsite is private, and while relaxing under the beautiful Natal Mahogony trees and listening to the soft murmur of the river and crickets nearby we agreed that so far it was certainly one of our favourite campsite locations in all of Africa. 

We were excited to add Eswatini to Baloo’s own hall of fame. With its good infrastructure, beautiful landscapes, great birding and diverse range of adventures to be had it certainly deserves to be much higher up on the list of places to experience, and we will definitely be back to this Kingdom of Canyons soon.

Trip tips:

Eswatini is small but has amazing destinations for adventurers! We did a route from the west to the northeast and enjoyed the following places: 

• Phophonyane Falls Eco Lodge (https://phophonyanelodge.squarespace.com/)
• Hlane Royal National Park (https://biggameparks.org)
• Mbuluzi Game Reserve (https://www.mbuluzi.com/)

• Hlane’s main drawcard is the great waterhole and main campsite, whereas the amazing private campsite, wilderness and hiking opportunities at Mbuluzi will keep us going back!

• There are various border posts between Eswatini and South Africa, and we recommend the smaller quiet ones – you will likely be the only ones there!