It's a Sunday at the beginning of March.
On the way between a junction above Mbabane and the Ngwenya area we once again crossed paths with believers of one of the colorful faiths of old Swaziland. They are Dino Dlamini, Mpendulo Masuku and Muzi Mahluza.
They wear yellow, red and green tunics, in their order, ribbons on their foreheads, chains and threads on their necks.
They are part of the Zion church in Jericho. They tell us that they share an animistic belief, in a God who emanates from the water, the wind, the elements, the beings on the face of the Earth.
Believers of the Jericho church, in their colorful uniforms
We tell them that we are on our way to Malolotja. They assure us, almost in unison, that this was, in itself, an Eden of Swaziland, like that of Ezulwini Valley, which would dazzle us.
We arrived at Nduma.
From Nduma to the Entrance of the Malolotja Nature Reserve
The road we were traveling headed towards Ngwenya, the town. From there, to the border with South Africa of the same name. We leave it, pointing north, through grassy valleys, dotted with trees and houses, usually white country houses.
The route slopes against the southern slopes of the Ngwenya massif (1862m), the second elevation in the country, which the Swazis call Inkangala, their term for a cold place, devoid of trees, the equivalent of highveld from neighboring South African Boers.
The buildings diminish visibly. We climbed to a ridge with an open view. The Malolotja Nature Reserve reception is nearby, accompanied by a classic John Deere tractor.
We register in a large entry and exit notebook.
Having completed the formalities, we proceed, still in a car, driven by a driver who is accompanied by his girlfriend, along a road that runs through the grassy ground.
Little by little, we uncovered part of what made Malolotja special.
Rocks that are billions of years old emerge from the meadows of Malolotja
Herbal hillocks and jagged ancient rocks: the contrasting settings of Malolotja
The route progresses between formations of large grayish pebbles, some almost silver, highlighted against the light blue sky tinged with white clouds.
A few trees between the rocks almost break the lithic protagonism.
In a much denser green than the meadow they emerge from.
Tree emerges from a rock formation
They almost stay.
Despite being natural, schist and quartzite rocks appear in shapes and configurations that appear to be divine works of art. The park authorities guarantee that they are among the oldest on the face and under the surface of the Earth.
They form part of a so-called Swaziland supergroup and are estimated to have originated, more than 3.5 billion years ago, in oceanic sediment compacted by the pressure and heat generated by intense tectonic movements.
We see them succeeding each other along hills that undulate in the approximately 18 thousand hectares of national park. In themselves, they proved a reason for admiration.
Trio of zebras, whose predators in Malolotja are only leopards
Herds of Zebras, Different Antelopes and Other Animals
And yet, along the hills, between the rock formations, successive herds of different large herbivores grazed, especially antelopes, accustomed to human incursions into their territory, less elusive than what would be expected.
As we advance, dozens of zebras that are not at all apprehensive vacate the road and give us way.
Trio of botenboques keeping an eye on the reserve's visitors
Bonteboques and Topis watch our movements from a greater distance, with their white snouts dotting the immensity of the meadow.
Ahead, a family of warthogs digging roots from the ground leaves the path we were following, following the trail of a matriarch's tail.
Keep an eye out for the eventuality of one of the park's predators, namely leopards, targeting them.
Fachocheros over the reserve road
The rest, jackals and deer, do not pose a threat. Much less the telos or aardwolves that feed on enormous quantities of termites.
Malolotja: From Private Ownership to Nature Reserve and National Park
Half a century ago, such animals were rare in these parts of Swaziland. Around 1970, most of the area of this reserve remained privately owned. It was used for livestock farming.
Here and there, it hosted a few plantations.
Later, the Swaziland National Trust Commission concluded the environmental and tourist waste that that use represented, especially because the soil in the area, in addition to being reddish, is strongly acidic.
The peasants who had settled there produced little or none of it. Accordingly, the authorities moved them to more fertile adjacent lands.
Herd of bonteboques, the reserve's predominant antelope.
Those around the Malolotja River were declared protected, as was its flora and fauna, recovered with the reintroduction of dozens of species that were prominent there before excessive hunting almost eradicated them.
Down, on this same acidic soil, the rocks multiply.
Concentration of rocks billions of years old
They become more pointed, pointing in the same direction.
The park road rises again, in an ocher of packed earth, instead of the previous grassy groove.
Hill full of ancient rocks
It approaches a hill overlooking it, green sprinkled with countless stones and rocks.
Some plants that emerge from the meadow contribute to coloring the landscape.
Here and there, torch lilies stand out with spikes that evolve, from bottom to top, from a pale green to a dense orange.
One of the Reserve's exuberant plants, the torch lily
They compete for exuberance, voluminous chandelier lilies, a dark pink color from which flowers of the same resplendent tone bloom.
We detect them in abundance. Others exist, in the surrounding vastness, in relative sobriety: orchids, grasses, cycads and the like.
Around, more interested in the common herb, we come across herds competing with those already described.
Common eland, one of the largest species of antelope, surpassed only by its giant eland subspecies, wildebeest and a few changos.
Elands lined up along a gentle slope.
In Search of the Trail that Leads to Rio
We passed beyond the stony hill. The views are renewed, now made up of immediate slopes that descend into a deep valley and, on the other side, of real mountains subsumed in the mist generated by the summer heat.
We progressed a little further down this slope.
The driver stops us in a parking area, next to a panoramic bench that has become a photographic and Instagram attribute.
Indicator of one of the many trails that cross the Malolotja Reserve
It shows us the beginning of the trail we had proposed to follow, hidden by the slope.
Around 200km of trails zigzag through the Malolotja Reserve. We were going to follow those who descended to the depths of the river and eponymous waterfalls.
The Malolotja River, the Reserve's Eponymous Tributary
Below flowed the Malolotja River, one of the largest tributaries of the Komati, a major international river that originates in Mpumalanga, South Africa.
It crosses Swatini and southern Mozambique, until it flows into the Indian Ocean, in the north of Maputo Bay.
View of the hills leading up to Ngwenya Mountains
The trail pointed us to the Malolotja tributary. I descended, to the “esses” through vegetation that increased as we approached vertices irrigated by the rains, more frequent from December to April.
In these summer months when it falls as part of severe storms in the late afternoon and evening.
From almost the bottom of a slope, we climbed to a new ridge, already in a breathless way that the abrasive and humid heat of the morning made inevitable. This intermediate peak gives us views of the north and south behind.
And the Malolotja Sneaky Waterfalls
To the north, the tall vegetation and a few balanced trees blocked our view of part of the ravine. We went down until we left them behind.
Finally, we noticed threads of white water sliding over a bed of rock. At a certain point in their journey, they rushed into the shadow.
Glimpse of the Malolotja waterfalls.
We go down a little further.
Until we gained an almost complete perspective of the Malolotja waterfalls, the highest in eSwatini, at 89 meters.
And with its touch of monumentality, even if tiny, in the depths of the majestic mountains of Ngwenya.
Aerial view of Malolotja waterfalls.
Already somewhat beaten by the heat of the oven, exhausted, even somewhat dehydrated, we forced ourselves to take successive forced breaks.
In one of them, South African hikers passed us, already in trouble due to the heat, and were still only on the way out.
South African hikers on the climb to the Malolotja waterfalls.
We returned, exhausted, to the starting point.
We found the driver and his girlfriend sitting on the panoramic bench, hugging each other.
Visitors at the Malolotja panoramic bench.
Five kilometers more painful than we expected, almost four hours later, we could be proud of having explored the heart of the Malolotja Reserve.
Tiny as the Kingdom of eSwatini is, we had twenty days to go. Many more reserves and natural parks to explore.
How to go
Fly to Mbabane via Maputo, with TAP Air Portugal: flytap.com/ and FlyAirlink.
Where to stay
Forresters Arms Hotel: forestersarms.co.za/; Phone: +268 2467 4177
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