Day 92, Zulu traditions, South Africa

Oh dear, I really should not have mentioned "South Africa" to Ramzi yesterday.He is so upset that he didn't get to see all the beautiful Zulu maidens of my country!!

Sita loves beaded items , and so she wants to know about Zulu beadwork.

Well, beads were probably first traded in Africa during the time of the Egyptians, Sumerians and Chaldeans about three thousand years ago!

Beading is a strong part of the African heritage and in traditional Zulu culture is used not only to create useful or decorative items but also as a means of communication.

Since the Zulu people could not make these themselves they came to value them highly and used them to craft many different items and also as a means of communication.

What makes Zulu beadwork unique?

It is the code by which particular colours are selected and combined in various ways to create messages that are woven into decorative geometrical designs and shapes.

Both the colours and the shapes have particular meanings assigned to them, which makes it possible for a "love letter" (incwadi) made entirely from beads to be sent to a sweetheart to express a range of emotions.

Thus Zulu beadwork forms an intricate system of communication which is devoted entirely to the expression of ideas, feelings and facts related to behaviour and relations between the sexes.

Zulu beadwork is designed and manufactured exclusively by women, but is worn by both sexes - thus any beadwork worn by a man has been received from a woman.

In this way, beaded items can be used to facilitate communication between unrelated males and females, which avoids the discomfort of initiating direct discussion on the sensitive subject of personal relations.

Men usually wear beadwork to show involvement with women they may marry. This means that mothers, sisters and daughters do not give their sons, brothers or fathers beaded gifts, owing to the incestuous implications of such gifts

Nopi wants to know about love letter...

The love letters are small, postage stamp sized plaques of beads that convey an emotion to the recipient - usually a favourable or unfavourable inclination towards his advances.

The colours are mixed to convey a range of meaning.

	White is the colour of purity.
	Black indicates the colours of the rafters of the hut, to which colour the maiden has turned in pining for her loved one.
	Blue - if I were a dove, I would fly to your home and pick up food at your door.
	Yellow - I shall never eat if we marry because you own no beast you can slaughter.
	Pink - You should work harder to gain your lobola and not gamble your money away.
	Green - I have become thin like the sweet cane in a damp field and green as the first shoots of a tree because of my love for you.
	Red - My heart bleeds and is full of love.

They were also used to show whether a girl was single, engaged to be married or a new mother.


What makes these so special is the fact that these people will handcraft each item and so each piece is unique....and Nopi loves that because she hates to wear something that everybody else is wearing!!.

Zulu beadwork tells us a lot about the way in which the Zulu have constructed their society.

One soon understands that they have produced a closely integrated system in which all institution - religious, social, economic, educational, technological, communicational, recreational, legal, political as well as those designed to give aesthetic satisfaction in the form of art - are mutually supportive.

This makes it a very powerful system, highly resistant to change.

Oh, Ramzi is definitely not interested in my story about Zulu crafts........he just wants to know why the women are bare breasted?

Well, women in different stages of their lives wear different attire. The older they get and marry, the more they cover their bodies.

Single:
An unmarried girl (intombi) wears only a short skirt made of grass or beaded cotton strings, she wears nothing on top regardless of her size, weight, small or large bosom.

Zulus do not contribute any sexual meaning to the naked breast, but rather to back of the upper thigh.

She then spruces herself up with beadwork. They also keep their hair short.

Engaged:
When a young woman has been chosen or engaged, she lets her hair grow and covers her breasts with a decorative cloth as a sign of respect to her future family, it also indicates to the community that she has been spoken for.

Married:
Married women cover their bodies completely, which signals that she is off limits.
She wears a heavy knee length cow hide skirt.
The hide is treated until it is relatively soft, then the leather is cut into long strips and sewn together.

Over the skirt , a cloth that is decorated with predominantly red, white and black is worn or draped over.
Beads are also worn over this.

Married women also cover their breasts with either material or skin though nowadays they tend to wear vests or beaded bras.

When a woman is pregnant she wears an ‘isibamba’ a thick belt made from dried grass, covered with glass or plastic beadwork to support her stomach and additional weight.

Married women also wear hats ‘izicolo’, traditionally they were made of grass, and more often than not intertwined with red or white cotton thread.

Size and shape of the hats differ from clan to clan.

They were traditionally sewn into the hair – the bride’s hair would be straightened, herbs applied then the hat would be sewn into her hair so it could no longer be taken off and over a period of a few months would rot on her head.

Her hair would then be washed and the procedure repeated again.

During her husband’s long absences, a woman could not take the hat off and pretend to be unmarried. Nowadays though, hats are generally not sewn onto the head, but are worn only on special occasions.

I hope that I have answered all your questions now Ramzi.....yes, all the bare breasted maidens are available.......so take your pick...BUT of course you will also have to pay a lobolo

(http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lobolo) perhaps up to 22 cows!

Day 73, Morocco

Thanks Ramzi....we loved the Algerian tour....especially since many of us would never have the chance to go to these places under normal circumstances......au revoir!

Oh, there is Marrakech in Morocco guys.....

Capital of the south and epicentre of Moroccan tourism, Marrakech is changing fast but some things have remained – the Djemaa el-Fna and the area around remains the beating heart of the city and the greatest souq in the south......



no, no, girls, there is no time for shopping....we have only one week left to complete our journey......
Amit has been nagging me to visit Paris since we started this journey.....well, we have 19 countries to visit in the next week, so let's see if we can fulfill that wish for him ;-)

Day 72, Timgad, Algeria

Ramzi is taking us to Timgad. Yippee!!

Whatever happened at this site before AD 100 is of little consequence: the story of Timgad begins in grand style when the Emperor Trajan decided to build a colony for soldiers and veterans of his Legion III Augusta. The Colonia Marciana Traiana Thamugadi, to give it its full name, is, in the words of the UNESCO report that recommended inscribing it on the World Heritage list, 'a consummate example of a Roman military colony'.

Timgad was intended to provide accommodation for 15, 000 in all, but it soon outgrew that number and moved beyond the original grid, with new quarters being added to the original ground plan over the next 300 years, leading to a quadrupling of the original camp. During its 2nd- and 3rd-century heyday, Timgad stood as a clear expression of Roman power in Africa – solid, brilliantly conceived and executed, and perfectly located at the head of the Oued el-Abiod and a crucial junction that gave Romans control of one of the main passes through the Aurès Mountains, and therefore of access to and from the Sahara.

There was a Christian presence at Timgad from the mid-3rd century, which grew to such prominence that a Church Council was held here in AD 397. The Vandal invasion of 430 brought an end to any centralised power and at the end of the 5th century the region was so weak that Timgad was sacked by tribes from the nearby Aurès Mountains, the very people the camp had been designed to control.

Timgad was revived in 539 under the Byzantine Emperor Justinian, when a fortress was built outside the original town, reusing many blocks from earlier Roman buildings, but this remote outpost could only survive with a strong central power and, with the Arab invasion in the 7th century, the end was at hand. The site was abandoned some time in the 8th century.

Nothing in the surrounding area – certainly nothing in concrete-cladBatna, prepares you for the grandeur of Timgad

Even the entrance is deceptive, a large car park, a line of trees, a museum and then… an entire Roman town.

Wow!!! Awesome!!!

Amit is tired....we have covered Monaco, Djerba and Algeria today...ok, Amit, we will stop now. Good night......

Hey guys, the South African government has finally set up a hotline number 0861 DOH CDC or 0861-364-232; and a dedicated email query service at H1N1@health.gov.za. for all swine flu queries.......

Day 72,Timimoun, Algeria

Ramzi has insisted that we make a very quick stop at an oasis around the Grand Erg Occidental,it's Timimoun.
Wow, it's such an enchanting place, full of distinctive red mud buildings studded with wooden spikes, and surrounded by ancient villages.

Perhaps the best thing about Timimoun is its location – the town is built on the edge of an escarpment, and there are fantastic views out over an ancient salt lake to the sand dunes in the distance.

The residents are really friendly and it really seems like one of the nicest places in the Sahara....but Ramzi wants us to move on.......he says that even if he was the Incredible Hulk, he would not be able to protect us from the terrorists!!

Day 72, Djemila, Algeria

Ramzi has just invited us back to Africa...to his hometown of Setif, in Algeria....this is exciting!!

Once a popular holiday destination on a par with neighbouring Morocco, Algeria's tourist industry all but disappeared when bitter civil war broke out in 1992. Ramzi told us that independent travel without a vehicle is almost non existent, and after the tourist abductions of 2003 self-drive travellers need to be very aware of the risks involved.....so luckily we have him as our personal tour guide.....

The highlight of Algeria (and of North Africa for that matter), the remarkable World Heritage site of Djemila is all that remains of the ancient Roman town of Cuicul. Tucked into the strikingly beautiful Petite Kabylie hills, some 40km inland from the Mediterranean, Djemila is one of the most perfect expressions of the meeting of Roman power and African beauty. Here, more than almost anywhere else this side of the Mediterranean, perhaps even more than in the great Libyan sites of Leptis Magna or Sabratha, you can come closer to understanding the Roman aesthetic: the marriage of order and beauty. It is, as the French writer Albert Camus observed, 'a lesson in love and patience'.

Ramzi told us that Djemila's early history is lost, but it was occupied by Berber tribes in the early centuries BC. The surviving town can trace its origins only as far back as the 1st century AD, during the brief reign of the Roman Emperor Nerva (96–98). As well as the new colony at nearby Sétif, Nerva ordered that some veteran soldiers from the Legion III Augustan, the same who were to found Timgad a few years later, be settled at a place then known by its Berber name, Cuicul.

The site had advantages and disadvantages. The biggest advantage was its position, 900m above sea level on a spur of land created by two mountain rivers, the G uergour and Betame, surrounded by rolling hills. The hilly stronghold was easy to defend. The main disadvantage was the irregularity of the spur – the classic Roman townplan was a square, bisected by two broad streets, the cardo and decumanus maximus, but here it had to be turned into an irregular triangle to fit.

The early years were some of the best: Cuicul took shap e under the Antonine emperors – this was when the forum, the curie (town hall), market, capitol and other temples and even the theatre were built. Growth continued under the Severan emperors (AD 192–235), themselves of North African origin, and Cuicul outgrew its original enclosure wall – new roads were laid out, the great temple to the Severan family built, the nearby baths plumbed, and a new forum was built outside the original town. But even with these developments, Cuicul was never a grand city: its grandeur lies in the location and in the arrangement of stone buildings in such an unrestricted landscape.

Christianity came to Cuicul in the 3rd century – the first bishop, Pudentianus, was first mentioned in AD 255. By the beginning of the 4th century the town, perhaps now with some 12, 000 inhabitants, had spread up the hill and developed what is now known as the Christian quarter, with its chapels, baptistery and basilicas.

The Vandal army reached here in 431 and the town easily fell. The Vandals moved on in 442 and the area was retaken by the Byzantines in the first half of the 6th century, but abandoned on the eve of the Arab invasion of North Africa, after which Cuicul – which the Arabs later called Djemila (beautiful) – sank into obscurity.

Soon after the French conquest of Algeria, attention was turned to the antiquities: the Duc d'Orleans hatched a plan to dismantle Caracalla's monumental Arch and r eassemble it in Paris. Although that plan was dropped, some sculptures were shipped to France in the 1840s, intended for an Algerian museum in Paris that never came to fruition.

The site was excavated relatively late; work started in 1909 and immediate progress was made. In the first year the northern part of the House of the Donkey, the temple and the Severan forum were discovered. The main streets were uncovered and mosaics removed from the House of Amphitrite in 1912. The old forum was revealed between 1913 and 1915. In 1 917 the grand baths, theatre and cardo were excavated. Work finally stopped in 1957.

But much remains and is in need of attention. The extremely knowledgeable and friendly M Mohand Akli Ikherbande, conservator of the museum, is unequivocal about threats to the site. A brief look around shows up the problems: even the mosaics removed from houses into the museum for safekeeping are falling off the walls. Whether the Algerian authorities will provide necessary funds before these and other treasures are lost remains to be seen. But with Djemila inscribed on UNESCO's World Heritage list as 'one of the world's most beautiful Roman ruins', it would be a matter of national shame and international scandal were this to happen !!

So where to next Ramzi??

Day 72, Djerba

Marti is waving HELLO to her friend in Djerba,

the largest island off North Africa, located in the Gulf of Gabes off the coast of Tunisia.
We decided not to stopover since we are pressed for time.

Day 32; South Africa

We are patiently waiting for the guys to join us so that we can leave the continent together...but they were so jealous of all the safaris we had been on, so, they decided to go on a marine safari from the Indian Ocean to the Atlantic. They want to boast that they have seen the Big 7......the lion, the leopard, the elephant, the buffalo, the rhino, the Southern Right whale and the Great White shark.....and they do!!

And as a bonus, they see some penguins and seals too:-)).

Finally we meet them on a wine estate in Stellenbosch....the winelands of the Cape is truly picturesque...isn't it Sita?

Nopi simply loves the Cape Dutch architecture.......and South African wine;-)....but we really need to leave Southern Africa now ........our ice strengthened ship awaits......

Hamba kahle .....we had some really awesome adventures here.........hot air ballooning, sandboarding, makoro safari, elephant back safari, pony trekking, canoe safari, helicopter flips, bungee jumping, white river rafting etc.........and we loved it!!!!

Who's complaining?? Nopi! Why?? Because she wants a vuvuzela too!!
More complaints.....Sita wants to see a whale, Marti wants to see some penguins, and Jarca wants to see a seal........ok, girls, I promise that you will, on the next continent, but for now, we really have to move on....

Amit and Ramzi wish that there were more postcrossers in Africa......but I guess internet accessibility, affordability, ill-literacy, poverty, nomadic lifestyles, amongst other factors make it slightly difficult at this time, but we all hope that in the near future, every African country will have a few postcrossers.

Day 32, South Africa

The guys now wish to see the 2010 Soccer World Cup stadia in South Africa....

but Feroz explains to them that they are still under construction..... & due to the strikes at these sites countrywide, it is probably unsafe to even go have a peek at the unfinished sites....sorry guys...

Don't look so disappointed..now you have an excuse to come back and visit South Africa next year..
Seeing the disheartened looks on their faces :-(((...Feroz went out & bought vuvuzelas for both Amit and Ramzi...and now they are happy again......boys and their toys!!

Day 31, Kolmanskop, Namibia, Africa

Goodbye Namibia.....

Wait a minute.....Nopi has insisted that she wants to visit the ghost town of Kolmanskop......before we leave...OK, Nopi....lets go...

Day 31, visiting the Himba , Namibia, Africa

The Himba are an ethnic group of about 20,000 to 50,000 people living in northern Namibia, in the Kunene region (formerly Kaokoland). They are a nomadic, pastoral people who breed cattle and goats.

The responsibility of milking the cows lies with the women. Women take care of the children, and one woman will take care of another woman's children. Women tend to perform more labor-intensive work than men do, such as carrying water to the village and building homes. Men handle the political tasks and legal trials.

The Himba wear little clothing, but the women are famous for covering themselves with a mixture of butter fat, ochre, and herbs to protect themselves from the sun.

The mixture gives their skins a reddish tinge. The mixture symbolizes earth's rich red color and the blood that symbolizes life, and is consistent with the Himba ideal of beauty. Women braid each other's hair and cover it in their ochre mixture (called otjize in their language).

Modern clothes are scarce, but generally go to the men when available. Traditionally both men and women go topless and wear skirts or loincloths made of animals skins in various colors. Adult women wear beaded anklets to protect their legs from poisonous animal bites.

Day 31, Skeleton Coast, Namibia, Africa

Next stop...The Skeleton Coast (German: Skelettküste), the northern part of the Atlantic Ocean coast of Namibia and south of Angola from the Kunene River south to the Swakop River.

The Bushmen of the Namibian interior called the region "The Land God Made in Anger", while Portuguese sailors once referred to it as "The Gates of Hell".

The Skeleton Coast seems to be in a world of its own. Whatever the reason, this piece of land was created to be so entirely different from anywhere else that comparisons are invalid.

It is difficult to visualise a greater contrast than a desert alongside an ocean. Such a meeting of opposites occurs at Namibia's northern seaboard where the edge of the Namib Desert pushes a sea of hot sand into the frigid waters of the South Atlantic.

The Skeleton Coast Park, a seemingly hostile, barren environment allows us to experience the mystery and subtlety of nature hidden in its fragile mistiness.....

The attraction of this remote area lies in the colour, changing moods and untouched profile of its landscape. Its aura of mystery and mightiness is largely due to the dense coastal fog and cold sea breezes caused by the cold Benguela ocean current from the Arctic, and bones scattered on its beaches from where the park's name derives.

The landscape ranges from sweeping vistas of wind swept dunes to rugged canyons with walls of richly coloured volcanic rock and extensive mountain ranges.

Most of the plant and insect species depends for their moisture on the thick for that envelopes the coast and hinterland, and in the northern edges of the wilderness, where there are rivers of sorts as well as underground water, birds and animals manage to survive and even flourish.

Adjoining the northern section of the Skeleton Coast Park is Kaokoland inhabited by the Himba people, who still live according to ancient customs and traditions....so let's pay them a visit......

Day 31, Fish River Canyon, Namibia, Africa

We are all eagerly looking forward to our trip to Fish River Canyon which is the second largest canyon in the world and the largest in Africa.
We hired some horses and went in search of the canyon......... whoa.....pull back the reins......it came as something of a shock when we arrived at the canyon, as we had no idea it was there.

It just suddenly drops vertically by 1,800ft (550m) out of a flat arid plateau without any warning, even though at some points it is 17 miles (27km) wide!

Wow! It is absolutely magnificent and breathtaking in its immensity. Rock stratas of purples, pinks and greys stretch along a 100-mile (161km) course. According to the San Bushmen the twists and curves were carved by the serpent, Kouteign Kooru, in an attempt to escape capture.
However, geologists say it was initially created by a fracture in the earth's crust 650 million years ago. Erosion and the action of glaciers then further deepened the canyon.

Absolutely breathtaking amazing view:-))
None of us felt fit enough to attempt the famous "Fish River Hiking Trail". The hike covers a distance of 54 miles (86km) over 5 days in the base of the canyon, with absolutely no facilities whatsoever. You have only what youcarry on your back and whatever water you can find in semi-permanent pools. Because of its arduous nature, the National Park's office insists on a
certificate of fitness before you are allowed to commence the walk.
Do you know what Namibia's national tree is?

It's the Aloe dichotoma or Quiver Tree and we saw several beautiful examples of these here. The trees can reach an age of about 300 years, and flowering occurs during wintertime from May to July.

Day 31, Twyfelfontein, Namibia

My dear friend Anita from Austria ( http://www.postcrossing.com/user/honeybee ) recommended a trip to Namibia's only UNESCO World Heritage Site:-Twyfelfontein or /Ui-//aes in the Kunene Region of Namibia containing 2,000 figures of rock carvings.
It has one of the largest concentrations of petroglyphs, i.e. rock engravings in Africa.

Did you know that the figures at Twyfelfontein were created over the course of two thousand years, before 1000 AD

Most of these well-preserved engravings represent rhinoceros,elephant, ostrich and giraffe, as well as drawings of human and animal footprints and 6 rock shelters with motifs of human figures in red ochre.

The objects excavated from two sections, date from the Late Stone Age. The site forms a coherent, extensive and high-quality record of ritual practices relating to hunter-gatherer communities in this part of southern Africa over at least 2,000 years, and eloquently illustrates the links between the ritual and economic practices of hunter-gatherers.

Some of the figures notably the "Lion Man" depict the transformation of humans into animals.

Archaeologists have dug objects from two parts of the site including stone artefacts, pendants and beads.

Walking here gives is like travelling in a time machine.......

Day 31,Etosha National Park, Namibia, Africa

Hello....today we leave Botswana for Namibia

Our first stop is the Etosha National Park.

Etosha Game park was declared a National Park in 1907 and covering an area of 22 270 square km, it is home to 114 mammal species, 340 bird species, 110 reptile species, 16 amphibian species and, surprisingly, one species of fish. Did you know that when it was originally proclaimed at the turn of the century the Etosha Park consisted of an area of 100,000 square kilometres. This was the largest reserve on earth but in the 1960's political pressure resulted in the Park being reduced to its current size.

We have been informed that the game viewing in Etosha National Park is excellent but unlike many other African game reserves, Etosha does not have its own guided safaris, so hired a private guide.

Wow, Sita....more elephants, zebras, antelope, warthogs..!

We drove past Namutoni Fortwhich is located in Etosha National Park. It dates back to a German police post, built before the turn of the century, and was later used as an army base and for English prisoners in the First World War, before being restored to its present state in 1957.

day 30, Botswana, Africa

Wow, it's our 30th day together..and we have arrived in Botswana where we are going to take a makoro safari in the Okavango Delta

The Okavango Delta is the largest freshwater wetland in Africa; in Botswana's arid and unforgiving bush it's an oasis where you'll find one of the greatest concentrations of wildlife in Africa - and the beauty is that it is basically a year-round destination for safaris

Marti looks at me ?? Makoro??
Well, it is a type of canoe traditionally made by digging out the trunk of a large straight tree, such as an ebony tree or Kigelia tree. Modern makoros, however, are increasingly made of fibre-glass. Our guide warns us that the boats are very vulnerable to attack by hippopotamus, which can overturn them with ease.

Hippopotamus are reputed to have developed this behaviour after the use of makoros and other boats for hunting. Oh, no I don't want to fall into the swamp and be eaten by a crocodile:-((

A blend of tranquillity and activity, the Okavango Delta is perhaps a last glimpse of an older Africa, an unsullied, wild place of land and water...

Next stop :Chobe National Park, in northwest Botswana, which has one of the largest game concentration in Africa continent.

The Chobe River, which flows along the North eastern border of the park, is a drinking spot for elephants and buffaloes at dry season.

Sita, did you know that this park is probably best known for its spectacular elephant population: 50,000 elephants today, it is actually the highest elephant concentration of Africa. Moreover, most of them are probably part of the largest continuous surviving elephant population on Earth.

Elephants living here are Kalahari elephants, the largest in size of all known elephant populations. Yet they are characterized by rather brittle ivory and short tusks, perhaps due to calcium deficiency in the soils.

Damage caused by the high numbers of elephants is rife in some areas. In fact, concentration is so high throughout Chobe that culls have been considered, but are too controversial and have thus far been rejected. At dry season, these elephants sojourn in Chobe River and the Linyanti River areas. At rain season, they make a 200-km migration to the southeast stretch of the park. Their distribution zone however outreaches the park and spreads to north western Zimbabwe.
I wonder what else we will see today.....

Nopi spots a pair of meerkats

and then a warthog

No guesses for what song we ended our Botswana tour on!!

After yet another awesome, unique safari experience, we are heading to our luxury lodge.

Every single one of us is a HUGE MJ fan, so hopefully we will find a television or computer and join millions around the world to bid an emotional farewell to the greatest showman of our times.....the King of POP

Goodbye Michael Jackson, may your tortured soul finally rest in peace...

...

day 29, South Africa to Lesotho

The full bellied guys then left the Swazi Kingdom and stopped over in the Mpumalanga Province of the Republic of South Africa.

They visited Bourke's Luck Potholes; The Blyde River Canyon is the third largest canyon worldwide, after the Grand Canyon (USA) and the Fish River Canyon, Pilgrim's Rest, some waterfalls in the area and then went on a safari in the Kruger National Park

be careful Mr Giraffe, the croc may snap you up for lunch!

siesta??

Oh, they are so cute:-)

The guys were fortunate enough to see the young of the Big 5 animals of Africa!

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Vlp82Dh58ck

Amit was a little disappointed that he didn't see the snow on top of Kilimanjaro so Feroz took him to Lesotho!

Officially the Kingdom of Lesotho, it is the southernmost landlocked country in the world and is entirely surrounded by the Republic of South Africa.

The name Lesotho translates roughly into "the land of the people who speak Sesotho

Its lowest point of 1,400 meters (4,593 ft) is thus the highest country in the world.....

Since Amit loves the outdoors so much, he was ecstatic when they arranged a pony trek for him!!

Lesotho boasts valleys over 1000 feet above sea level and the guys experienced exquisite scenery and magical terrains boasting waterfalls, lush forests and mystical snow capped mountains......what an awesome way to spend a birthday.......Janamdin Mubarak Amit:-)

Day 29; from Tanzania to Swaziland, Africa

I was extremely worried since I was unable to contact the guys....but I have now discovered that they did not climb Mount Kilimanjaro at all, because Ramzi claims to suffer from altitude sickness!!! We believe you Ramzi, you lazy bum!

So where are they??

Once we parted company in Tanzania, they went straight to a travel agent in Dar es Salaam,

and arranged a trip for themselves...to celebrate Amit's birthday today;-)...that was really sweet of them.

They took a speedboat to Zanzibar where they relaxed on a beach for the past two days...

This morning they took the speedboat to Mombasa, Kenya

where they boarded a plane for Mozambique.

Maputo, formerly Lourenço Marques/Lourenzo Marques, is the capital and largest city of Mozambique, and is a melting pot of several cultures, with a strong South African influence. The Bantu and Portuguese cultures dominate, but the influence of Arab, Indian, and Chinese cultures is also felt.

The cuisine is diverse,owing especially to the Portuguese and Muslim heritage, and seafood is also quite abundant.
Ramzi and Feroz savoured the succulent peri-peri prawn feast for brunch, but Amit is a vegetarian:-(

They then decided to feed and entertain Amit, so they flew to the Kingdom of Swaziland (Umbuso weSwatini),a landlocked country in Southern Africa, bordered to the north, south, and west by South Africa, and to the east by Mozambique.

King Mswati III of Swaziland is the king of Swaziland, and head of the Swazi Royal Family. He is one of many sons of King Sobhuza II (who had 70 wives and at the time of his death left over 1000 grandchildren). The King currently has fourteen wives and 23 children.

No, the guys did not want to meet him, they are here to see the Umhlanga Reed Dance, a traditional dance and ceremony where up to 100 000 Swazi maidens gather and dance for the Queen Mother.

This is a demonstration of tribute to the Royal Family that goes back centuries in time.
Thousands upon thousands of maidens dress up in brightly coloured attire and sing, dance together as they deliver the reed or umlanga to the Royal Residence.Their enjoyment of this ceremony is quite apparent as they use the opportunity of bonding with girls of similar ages from across the country.
As the maidens dance, warriors and other spectators often join the dance kugiya or throw money at their feet in appreciation of their skill.
The King sometimes makes use of the occasion to publically court a prospective fiancee or Liphovela. This young woman will be given a dominant position amongst the dancing princesses.

But, oops.....the Reed Dance only takes place between 28/08/2009 - 31/08/2009 so all they saw was a few Swazi Warriors.

The warriors dress in gaily patterned cloths (emahiya) with loinskins and anklets, decorated with feathers and beads, carrying a knobkerrie and a traditional shield for defence purposes.

By now Amit was starving and sat down to a feast of traditional Swazi Food:

sishwala: thick porridge normally served with meat or vegetables
incwancwa: sour porridge made of fermented cornmeal
sitfubi: fresh milk cooked and mixed with cornmeal
siphuphe setindlubu: thick porridge made of mashed groundnuts
emasi etinkhobe temmbila: ground corn mixed with sour milk
emasi emabele: ground sorghum mixed with sour milk
sidvudvu: porridge made of pumpkin mixed with cornmeal
umncweba: dried uncooked meat (biltong)
umkhunsu: cooked and dried meat
siphuphe semabhontjisi: thick porridge made of mashed beans
tinkhobe: boiled whole maize
umbidvo wetintsanga: cooked pumpkin tops (leaves) mixed with groundnuts
tjwala (umcombotsi): traditional beer

......
next stop??