Day 112: Manzini to Richard's Bay 405 km 22.5°-42.5°C

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Someone has created a wonderful botannical garden here.
Something beautiful.
We love walking through the lush tropical domain.

Off on our bike...
First stop petrol 
A chat with a new friend.

Wonderful winding roads
Through pineapple plantations, farm land, villages in the hills,
An antidote to the long straight roads yesterday.

The quickest border crossings of them all.
No customs formalities,
"Take the dirt road, the tar road is very bad"

Up and over 15km of forest roads.
Huge areas of eucalypt forest.
Some areas recently milled and burned and now regenerating, as eucalypts do.

Paulpietersburg, a tidy town
An iced coffee from KFC for morning tea.
Christmas hats at the intersection.

Panoramic vistas,
Grass so lush, Sugar cane,  maize... 
Fortunately the two year drought has broken.

The mercury rises to 42.5°C (108.5°F)
We were in Iran the last time it was this hot.
A tree offers shade for a brief stop.

Richard's Bay 
Hooray.
Our home for the night.

 
 

 




 

 

 

 

 
A small border crossing, an easy border crossing...

 
Take the dirt road...

 

 
Burned eucalypt stumps already regenerating. 

 

 
 

 
 
Sugar cane for miles.

 
It is 42.5°C here...
 

 
 

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