Kingdom of Swaziland - 330km

BARBERTON

Situated at the foot of the Makhonjwa Mountains in the De Kaap Valley, Barberton is a picturesque town with a profusion of jacaranda, flamboyant and indigenous trees. The town owes its existence to the discovery of gold in the hills around the present-day town in 1883. A rush of miners and fortune-hunters ensued. The town was officially named on 24 June 1884 after Graham Barber and his two cousins, Fred and Harry, who discovered a rich reef in a creek to the southeast of the town, naming it Barber’s Reef. Among the town’s many links with the past is the classical façade of the Kaap Gold Fields Stock Exchange building, built in 1887. Its existence was short-lived, however, as most of the brokers left Barberton following the discovery of the rich goldfields of the Witwatersrand. Other historic buildings include the Lewis and Marks Building (1887) – the town’s first double-storey building – and the neogothic Masonic Lodge, built in 1884 as the Union Church and taken over by the Freemasons in 1887. The town’s three house museums – Stopforth House (1886), Fernlea House (early 1890s) and Belhaven (1904) – provide a fascinating picture of life in Barberton in the gold-mining days.

Also of interest is the statue of Jock of the Bushveld, the aerial cableway and the corrugated-iron blockhouse, built in Rimer’s Creek in 1901. Far less elaborate and smaller than the first double-storey stone blockhouses built in March 1900, the rectangular corrugated-iron building is the only surviving example of this type of blockhouse in South Africa. The Fortuna Mine Trail incorporates a 600-m-long tunnel built in 1907 to transport gold-bearing ore from the Fortuna Mine to the mill where the ore was crushed.

Best known among the rich diversity of flowering plants occurring in the area is the showy Barberton daisy (Gerbera jamesonii), which has become world famous. Other noteworthy plants include the Barberton Lowveld sugarbush (Protea curvata) – endemic to the area – the Barberton mountain sugarbush (Protea comptonii), as well as several rare aloe species.

AERIAL CABLEWAY

Built in 1938, the aerial cableway linking the Havelock asbestos mine in Swaziland with Barberton dominates the slopes of the Makhonjwa Mountains. The 20,36-km-long cableway is supported by 52 pylons, with the longest unsupported span being 1 207 m and the highest point above the ground being 189 m. The cableway was built to bring asbestos to the Barberton railway station and to transport coal on the returning cocopans to the Bulembu power station. Able to carry loads of up to 200 kg per pan and moving at a speed of 11 km per hour, the cableway has a capacity of 13,5 tonnes per hour.

SONGIMVELO GAME RESERVE

Situated in the rugged Barberton highlands, Songimvelo covers 50 000 ha of grasslands, undulating hills, high mountain peaks, river valleys and deep gorges, and borders Swaziland’s Malolotja Nature Reserve. Game roaming the reserve includes elephant, white rhino, buffalo, giraffe, Burchell’s zebra and a variety of antelope – among them kudu, waterbuck, red hartebeest and impala. Grassland birds are well represented among the more than 300 bird species recorded to date. The area is rich in history, with archaeological sites dating back over 2 000 years, while relics of the Barberton gold rush of the 1880s can also be seen. Luxury and budget accommodation facilities are available in the reserve.

SWAZILAND

is a landlocked country covering 17 363 km2 of highlands, deep valleys, plains and lowlands. Along its eastern boundary, the Lebombo Mountains form a natural boundary with Mozambique and South Africa’s KwaZulu-Natal province, while the western boundary with South Africa is demarcated by several high mountains. Although excavations have provided evidence that Iron Age people lived in the area some 1 600  years ago, the Swazi state was created in the early 1800s under Sobhuza I, who initially settled with his Ngwane people in the upper reaches of the Nkomati Valley after they were driven northwards by the Ndwandwe. Sobhuza later moved southeastwards, establishing his capital in the Little Usutu Valley. After Sobhuza’s death, the kingdom was ruled by a regent until 1845, when Mswati became king. He organised the Ngwane along military lines and his subjects became known as ‘the people of Mswati’. Various concessions for grazing and minerals and ‘friendship’ treaties with the Boers saw the kingdom’s territory reduced by half its original size. In 1894, Swaziland became a protectorate of the Zuid-Afrikaansche Republiek (ZAR), and in 1906 it was detached from the Transvaal and became a separate British colony. Swaziland became independent in 1968 and is ruled by a king, Mswati III, who wields both executive and legislative authority. The Swazi people are still deeply rooted in their culture and traditions and are known for their beautiful crafts, which include basketry, mats, pottery, printed cloth, jewellery and soapstone carvings, and for their reed dance, or umhlanga.