Made It To Shewula...Barely

Dec 23, 2008
Yesterday we moved along to Shewula. We took a combi to Manzini, then one to Simunye. In Simunye we were trying to haggle over the price to get to Shewula. We asked for $10, but they said $15. Finally someone said $10 and we hopped in. After riding for a few minutes he says $12. Our car got stopped by the cops and Sarah was reprimanded- it is illegal to let any part of your body protrude from the car. Oops. The mountains in this area are breathtaking. As we made our way up the sun was setting and there are no words to describe the raspberry sherbet the sky had become. We are making stops and people are getting out of the combi. Night is falling and the driver says that we must pay $15. We argue that we agreed to $10 then even to $12. Ten minutes later he stops again and tells us that we must pay. We say look just take us to the place. The police? No, no the place we are going to. Ten minutes later he stops a combi going the other direction and all we hear is blah blah blah, it is $15. Fine guy we’ll pay $15 just take us to where we are going because I’m not going to argue with you over $3 apiece. When we finally got to the Shewula Moutain Lodge it looked deserted. A man emerged and helped us with our bags. The driver is complaining about you, he told us. I was so quick to get out of the combi that I didn’t notice my Nalgene had fallen out of my bag. What annoys me more than loosing my Nalg is loosing it in that guy’s combi.
Anyhow, we arrived at the lodge at dinner time. The food was excellent, some of it traditional, and all lovingly prepared by local people- chicken in peanut sauce, grilled chicken, baked beans, spinach, porridge. We ate until we couldn’t eat any more. Our room was so cute and it was so nice to sleep in a bed.