Africa

[Visited: February 2014]

We were driving north on our way to Malolotja National Park, but somehow missed the entrance, realized we did when we reached a viewpoint where we saw a river and green mountains in the background. We decided to continue to Phophonyane Falls, past Piggs Peak. After taking the turnoff from the main road, we drove down an empty dirt track through the forest until we reached a grassy parking spot. When we got out, we could hear the falls not far away. We felt like eating, ordered lunch, and went for a short walk - we could already see the water through the trees. We reached a first viewpoint, where we saw the water coming from above, and rushing down the open area in the forest.
We walked further down, past a small pool, from where we had another view of the water rushing down the rocks. The falls looked more like rapids here; the real waterfall is a little lower. We walked up, and then down again, to reach a small pool at the end of the waterfall. From here, we had a better view of the Phophonyane Falls rushing down through the forest. At 3,5 billion years, the greenstone rocks here are among the oldest rocks on our planet. We crossed a wooden bridge, and continued our walk up the falls on the other side. We found tall, straight cacti, as well as cacti looking like trees in the dense vegetation. We also spotted small spiders looking odd with their triangular shield.
We were a little further away from the Phophonyane Falls now, and could see them only once when we reached a higher, open spot in the forest. When we reached the Phophonyane river again, we saw more of the old rocks, and the brown water finding its way down towards the top of the falls. Back at the lodge, we enjoyed the peaceful atmosphere and the sweeping views of northern Swaziland while enjoying a tasty Swazi lunch. It was tempting to stay in this attractive environment, but we decided to drive south again, to our initial destination. We had liked our surprise visit to the falls, and put it on our list of places to come back to one day and do a little more of the trails in the nature reserve.

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Phophonyane Falls (Eswatini)

Phophonyane Falls > Eswatini > Africa

[Visited: February 2014]

Around the World in 80 Clicks