Swaziland - 1997

A ride in Swazi with Team Rat

Intro:

Team Rat had been going to Swaziland for years and this time we joined them.

The riding in Swaziland is pretty much unrestricted but there are not many trails. These have to be found.

Accommodation

This was the motel where we stayed in Swazi. I don’t recall it’s location but I think it was somewhere to the West of the country.

Although these pics look like it’s out in the sticks it was actually close to a main road, garage and the ‘Why-Not go-go bar’ (the less said the better…)

The Toyota made the trip again.

Riding country

This is a picture of the typical riding in Swazi. As with most African states there are no fences so riding is pretty much unlimited.

Here we are parked on top of a small hill over looking the valley near Mbabane. Most of the grass has been eaten by the local sheep and goat herds so the visibility is excellent.

We came across a few farm fields during the ride and these were avoided. There were also burial grounds that were harder to spot and (apparently) if you roosted over these the guards would open fire.

Not good.

Descent

This was the trickiest part of the ride we came across.

We were trying to get down the side of this mountain to get onto the road in the distance. As we descended down the hill the incline got worse and worse, eventually we had to man-handle the bikes to the bottom.

Bridge

JR standing on a bridge.

I think this was the smoothest bit of road we found! The ‘normal’ road quality can be seen in the background. At this point the river down below was in flood and was quite a sight.

Rock Riding

JR Riding around some rocks

Lunch

Lunch time.

We stopped on top of one of the mountains and had some lunch. A few of the guys had decided to meet us there in the 4X4’s with food and petrol. It was ideal riding country for all off-road types.

Dead-man standing!

We came across this chap at a gas station and thought he was dead!

He was sitting on a tyre having a kip in the sun when we came onto the fore-court. If you can imagine the noise that 12 MX/Enduro bikes can make then you’ll know why we thought he was a goner. The rider in the picture had just gone over to check he was still breathing; he was just nodding to say that he was.

We gassed up, had a talk and rode off again. I was last man out and looked over my shoulder.

Still fast asleep!

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