Day 9 - Long way to the East

After our great adventure through Lesotho, it seems everything is tasteless and South Africa appears now as an old, known and almost boring place.

We find the landscapes in the Golden Gate natural park hardly noteworthy. It was actually yesterday that we rode through it (but it didn't fit in last night's post and it is really a wonderful place that would be worth a visit just by itself. 25km of road that goes through a natural park almost stealthily and humblily; a natural park which seems to be kept away from human touch, with its dreamily flowing rivers and mountains packed with grottos that is looks almost like a piece of gruyere cheese, endless prairies on which packs of antelopes, horses (and hundreds of animals we cannot tell apart due to distance and the upcoming night that was turning the light off) take a walk carelessly.

The day after, on the other side, we were faced with the disapointment that was Royal Natal national park which turned out to be a fantastic campsite for unstoppable but with really nothing worth mentioning for the driving-through biker. All that time lost in seeing...nothing we set ourselves to get to the East as fast as we could setting our goal on getting as close as we could to the border of Swaziland. More than 400km on a straight line going through vast meadows scattered with farms, grazing and a few historical sites that hosted who knows which battles (well, actually, I do, the second Boer war, where the Dutch fought the British).

Hitting the gas as much as we could, letting the bikes enjoy the speed trip the mountains had denied them for the last three days,  we got closer and closer to the border. We got there late, almost at night, but safely, towards our last South African destination for a the time being Piet Retief, a shithole located a short 40km away from the land of the mad king.

Tomorrow we will leave for Swaziland, minute country ruled by an odd king that gives himself private jets and 356 Mercedes Benz cars for his birthday; that has more than 17 wives and chooses the arbitrary death of whoever pisses him off, but still keeps the unswerving loyalty of his subjects. Subjects that make it through the day with less than 1,25 dollars a day, fighting the plague that AIDS's has become, affecting more than 50% of the population still in age of having children and whose life expectancy is 47 years.

We will cross the country of the mad king, if the state of the road allows so, in a single day, to get to the capital of Mozambique, Maputo, beginning our way to the north.

Until then, we'll just get another stamp on our passport tomorrow. Still 7 to go. Will you miss it?