Travelling on from Ezulwini Valley in Swaziland to Johannesburg in South Africa, I once again relied on a bus to take me. Turned out to be not the most interesting overland trip I have done, but it was a 4 hour ride only, so fine enough. As you might remember from my trip to Swaziland, my bus turned into a SUV, and when picked up at the pick-up point at The Pub & Grill at the Gables Shopping Centre, I was starting to wonder if this was the case again, as I was picked up by a regular car with two other passengers in it. Nah, not so lucky this time. We were instead taken to Mbabane, which btw was a lot bigger than I though it was going to be, it is a decent sized city. In Mbabane we were moved over into a minibus (with more people, bus was almost full), and handed our lunch bag (tasty lunch!), and off we went. A while into our trip, with the weather getting warmer by the minute, and it got quite hot towards the end, I realised there was no A/C… Luckily one of the guys sitting next to a window that could open, opened it so we got some cooling off. Two stops on the way also helped. One was for refreshments, the other for the border crossing, which was smooth sailing. In South Africa we stopped at the airport, before our last stop at Sandton, where we were dropped off at the Gautrain station. Witbank is also a possible drop-off point. Another good thing to know, is that the wifi only works on the SA side.
I went with SiyeSwatni TransMagnific. After I had booked my ticket(s), I read mixed reviews on TripAdvisor, but I was very happy with what I got. When booking tickets online, it is best to use whatever Internet browser they recommend on their site, Safari definitely not a good tool for this. They answer e-mails, but if in a rush, calling is the best. With the lesson learned in Durban, I called the day before departure to make sure that 1) there were no changes I needed to know about, and 2) everything was ok with my ticket – there were a few details missing on my booking confirmation, which might be crucial. Turned out my pick-up time had been pushed forward by 15 min, and as for the passenger details on the ticket, nothing to worry about – on pick-up you just give them your name, no print-out needed. Also, it was not a problem to change drop-off point after the booking was made.
Here’s how my aforementioned first trip with SiyeSwatni TransMagnific went, from Durban to Swaziland.
Lunch included – love that! Thanks for sharing with #FarawayFiles
Me too 🙂 And it was tasty too!
It’s good that you were given a lunch as part of your bus ticket. That’s a nice touch. Thanks for sharing on #FarawayFiles
Definitely a nice touch! And a nice lunch as well, a lot better than I though it was going to be, so I was happy 😀