Phophonyane

I went to Swaziland for the weekend (I'm amazed that I can say this). The Swazi border is about four hours' drive from Joburg on the usual excellent roads - but the border crossing took far longer than it should, partly because there are NO signs to explain the process, so you have to ask random people to find out that you need to park first, go here, go there, get a piece of paper, get it stamped somewhere else, hand it to an immigration officer who crumples it up without looking at it and throws it in a bin, etc (then start again at the Swazi border which was frankly better organised).

However we got to our destination in the end - the Phophonyane Falls "Ecolodge and Nature Reserve" in the northwest corner of the country - a mountainous, heavily forested logging area. The lodge is a few kilometres down a dirt track in an already remote area - and it's a fantastic place; the various cottages and tents (I stayed in a tent) are dotted around in lush sub-tropical vegetation and are connected by paths and footbridges which cross streams of red-brown water heading down to the Phophonyane river - my tent was so close to this river that I slept wonderfully, all background noise (insects, birds, rain) drowned out by the roar of the water. This isn't a game reserve as such (no hungry lions, myopic rhino, etc) so it's safe to walk around - there are well-marked paths that take you over the river, up to viewpoints of the falls, through the trees and back again, with lots of millipedes, spiders, giant snails, flowers, exotic plants and the occasional spider monkey troupe to look at.

(Above: my tent; the path from my tent back up the hill; a black'n'red millipede about five inches long; the biggest snail I've ever seen in my life - about four inches long; a mummy monkey; the falls.)