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STRAIN HUNTERS LIVE THREAD! - SWAZILAND


Mr.X
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STRAIN HUNTERS SWAZILAND - DAY 2

I wake up around 6 in the morning, half an hour before the alarm has to go off. I slept less than 5 hours, but I feel rested and full of energy. We all meet for breakfast in the hotel restaurant, already lit by the bright sunshine of a beautiful African morning. I rolled up a couple of joints and I am ready to go.

The breakfast buffet is not very exciting, so I just get some coffee and a croissant.

When the crew is packed up and ready we check out and load our luggage on the shuttle bus; we head off to the airport one more time.

We check in on a South African Airways flight to Swaziland, then clear passport control and security.

There is half an hour left before we have to board and I want to get to a pharmacy: I am not feeling very well, I have a swollen tonsil already since 3 days, and now it's staring to hurt when I swallow. I buy some mouth-wash and some ibuprofen+codeine+paracetamol mean-pills. Hopefully they will help.

We sit at a cafe to eat some more food before the flight, and while we are sitting and relaxing hile MrX finds puts his hand in the front pocket of his bag to look for something, then freezes. He looks at me with his eyes wide open, and screams "Nooooo!". He pulls out a small bag of weed, left in his bag from Amsterdam by accident. It was stashed hidden in the front pocket of his hand-luggage the whole time, and he didn't know about it. We all laugh and then we almost cry when we realize that now we are gonna have to throw the weed away before flying to Swaziland, and there is no place to smoke it inside the airport. What a story.... if he would have found it last night we would have at least enjoyed it.

A couple of cigarettes later it's time to go to the gate for boarding. Our plane is a small jet, and we barely fit our bulky hand luggage in the overhead compartments. We take off on time, and we enjoy the beautiful African panorama underneath us. The flight time is less than an hour, and we land in Manzini before noon. Clearing customs and collecting the luggage goes surprisingly fast. The custom officers and the police are very friendly and very welcoming. It is a very smooth entry, perhaps the smoothest we ever had during an expedition.

As soon as we step outside we meet Simon, who is waiting for us with one of his crew: But. Simon spent the last three weeks scouting all over Swaziland, with the help of his friend Dave. But is helping during this trip, driving and shooting backstage footage.

It's awesome to see Simon again, now the Strain Hunters are reunited again.

The 4x4s are ready for us at the car-rental, so we quickly load up our bags and make a plan for the rest of the day. We also start smoking copious amounts of weed, which makes the day a whole lot better. My friend but brought me a nice large bud of Exodus Cheese, grown indoors in South Africa, and it's a real joy to smoke. Simon has some great Bubba Kush and Cheese, grown outdoors, and it's all amazing.

According to the plan we will try to film two locations before heading for a nice lodge (hotel) on a dam to have a good night of rest.

I drive a Toyota Hilux double-cab with Arjan, Simon and Dave. The crew follows in a Volkswagen Amarok double-cab. We drive for about an hour on good tar roads, heading north-west, then a few minutes on a steep dirt track, until we reach the house of a local contact named Thunder. Dave is there waiting for us. We are now in a mountain area, near a popular tourist area called Maguga Dam. Thunder welcomes us with some food and some drinks, then he guides us to see the first field of our trip. It's just a few hundreds meters away from the property, down in a small gorge next to a stream.

We arrive from the top, and we have a great overview of the field from a large rock. We sit there and look at the large plants dancing in the wind, with the big colas slowly waving at us. After smoking a joint, we venture inside the field.

The plants are huge, healthy and in full flowering, not far from being ready for harvest. The quality of the buds and the resin is very high. It is immediately clear that we are in the presence of a very good grower with access to second or third generation imported high-grade genetics. The plants we see are very different one another, some seem Skunk-related, others look like they belong to the White family, others have a kushy look and smell. But all of them are mixed with a certain degree of local Swazi, it is very easy to see. There is a common sativa incense-like background smell common to most of the plants in the field.

We take the time to shoot a good couple of scenes for the documentary, then we head back to the cars.

We now drive for about half an hour to reach the next location, a field on the hills near Maguga Dam. The view of the man-made lake is awesome. It is a clear day, sun is shining, and the light is great for filming towards the end of the afternoon when we reach the place. We meet a local grower, leave the cars in a safe spot and start walking in the bush. Fifteen minutes later we reach the field, hidden in the thick vegetation. It's even better than the previous one, the plants are large and almost ready for harvest; they have huge buds. There is again a great deal of mix in the genetics, it seems the high-grade imported seeds are very diffused in this area of Swaziland. After all we are near Pigg's Peak, one of the main cannabis producing areas and one of the places where foreigners (tourists and smugglers) have been bringing high-grade seeds for over 20 years.

The sun is going down fast, and it is time to walk back to the cars. Our local contact invites us to the village to rest and get some food, so we follow him. When we arrive we are invited to eat some meat by the fire together with some local growers. Dave takes care of the fire and of cooking the meat, and we all eat a lot and enjoy. I am feeling really sick now, my throat hurts a lot and I need to take some more medicines and smoke lots of weed. I can barely eat or dring, my throat burns like fire every single time I try to deglute.

We sit for an hour around the fire smoking and relaxing, then we drive few kilometers to a nearby lodge where Simon organized some rooms. It looks like a nice place, and we settle in quickly.

The crew starts backing up the video material we shot yesterday and today, and MrX and myself go online to update the live thread on the forum. Now I feel wasted, it's time to take some more pills and get some sleep. I hope tomorrow I will feel better.

The alarm clock is set at 4:15 am.

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Strain Hunters día 2 – Swazilandia –

Despertamos pronto para dirigirnos al aeropuerto, ha sido agradable pasar la noche en una cama y no en un asiento de avión. Hoy por fin llegaremos a Swazi, tenemos que tomar otro avión y en algo más de una hora llegaremos a nuestro destino, aprovechamos el tiempo para realizar las últimas compras, necesitamos linternas, insecticidas y otros útiles para el día a día.

Aquí la malaria es un serio problema, y en el aeropuerto tienes que pasar por un escáner térmico que detecta las personas con temperaturas más elevadas de lo habitual, y evitar los contagios. En el anterior aeropuerto también tuvimos que pasar por un escáner corporal completo.

Una vez realizadas las últimas compras, tomamos un desayuno en uno de los bares para hacer tiempo, cuando estoy guardando las cosas en mi mochila de mano, descubro con sorpresa y cierto terror que me había dejado una pestilente bolsa de hierba ahí, en medio sin ningún camuflaje…!! La cara de Arjan y el resto es un poema cuando la ven, y yo tan contento pasando por los aeropuertos, poniendo en peligro la expedición. En fin no sé puede estar tan fumado, reviso bien y no veo nada más. He tenido mucha suerte.

Una espera mas en el autobús y por fin vamos al vuelo, el avión es pequeño y como siempre empieza el lio con los equipajes, ya que siempre llevamos las cámaras con nosotros, y en estos aviones los porta equipajes son muy pequeños. Como clara señal de que estamos en el sur de África vuela una enorme palometa por el avión, como si estuviera en la selva. Aquí los animales siguen teniendo su espacio.

A las diez y cuarto partimos, sobre las once y media ya estamos saliendo del aeropuerto, nos espera Simon y But, ellos han preparado un poco el terreno, ambos son de la zona y son las personas perfectas para guiarnos en esta aventura.

Después de las presentaciones oportunas y saludos, yo por mi parte estoy muy feliz de ver de nuevo a Simon es un gran tipo, con el que tengo una muy buena amistad y siempre se aprende con él.

Alquilamos los todo terrenos y sin perder más tiempo nos dirigimos a estudiar los primeros cultivos, nos espera un buen rato en coche hasta llegar al primer campamento base. Comemos un poco, un porrito y empieza la caminata.

No pasa mucho tiempo hasta empezar a ver las puntas de las plantas, cruzamos un par de cultivos más tempranos y llegamos a uno maduro, repleto de cogollos por todos los lados, una hierba de gran calidad, sin semillas en su mayoría, de todos los tipos, un amplio abanico genético.

Después de filmar y entrevistar a los cultivadores de la zona, es hora de ir al segundo campo, el día pasa rápido y tenemos mucho que hacer, podríamos estar mucho más tiempo aquí pero nos comentan que los siguientes son mejores.

Así que volvemos a los coches, nos espera otro pequeño trayecto y un rato a pie, conocemos al cultivador de la zona que como siempre resultan ser gente muy interesante, la mayoría sin miedo a defender sus ideas.

Nos adentramos en la selva y otro excelente cultivo se abre ante nosotros, de nuevo una calidad importante, algunos cogollos parecen de interior, ellos hacen sus selecciones e hibridaciones, pero en un par de generaciones todo vuelve a su cauce y pierden el vigor que tanto les interesa. Porque aunque para nosotros lo más interesante sean plantas sin cruzar con semillas de importación, para ellos que viven en unas condiciones muy complicadas, marca la diferencia entre comer y no comer, o ir al colegio o no poder hacerlo durante mucho tiempo. No tienen otra opción. En esta parte del mundo casi la mitad de la población está sin empleo, y por si fuera poco es la población con mayor nivel de infección de sida, con una esperanza de vida muy baja comparada con nuestra habitual y cómoda vida.

La luz se va marchando y estamos muy cansados y con hambre, así que es hora de colver. Nuestro amigo Dave nos prepara un poco de carne junto al fuego, es hora de revisar el material, escribir un poco sobre el día y luego iremos a descansar a unas confortables cabañas en un hermoso paraje que ha organizado Simon.

Las primeras sensaciones son muy buenas, la gente aquí es realmente agradable y la hierba de calidad así que este viaje a empezado con muy buen pie!

Mañana seguimos, saludos. Mr.X.

pd When I have little bit more time I will put the english translation...sorry

pd2 more photos coming, I hope you like!

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Awesome guys loving this coverage :D

I hope you feel better tomorrow Franco.

Amazing pictures mr.X & team, some beautiful landscapes and the fields oh the fields :O:nyam:

Some lovely looking buds right there!!

Rest up Franco and fingers crossed you'l be feeling better in the morning.

and with a behind the scenes video as well you guys are spoiling us!

Keep up the awesome work and wicked clip - Arjan 'Like a Marijuana Disco' i gotta try that hehe

Can't wait for tomorrow's

Peace

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wow what a start you guys wast no time in finding the fields they look amazing as dose all the surrounding scenery

love the stoned ideas they often the best ones arjan think you may have just started a new trend lol

keep up the good work guys wish you all a safe trip

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Yes yes, we hit some awesome fields right away on the first day in Swaziland..... Simon and Dave did an amazing job scouting in the previous weeks! And we have a full program for the next days!! ;-)

Here some more pics from today....

Soon I will pass out, need some rest.

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Thanks for the coverage, hunters! It's a real day brightener for me here in the USA. :D You guys always make me want to jump off of my couch and go hunting myself.. Franco, feel better soon, brother ;) ; you guys are an inspiration, and I'm thrilled to be here on Strain Hunters for the ride!

-Dan

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HAHAHA Arjan killed me " we should make a shaking pumping machine, between week 2 and 5 when the plants ask for more, is a stoned idea? " :king: love it.

GUYS for a first day that is just awesome, some wonderful fields and buds, a loads of pictures, backstage videos, timelaps of beautifl landscape.. what could we ask for more? i almost felt i was there :)

Franco i hope your throat will go better tomorrow too, ask the africans for some local treatment or a shaman :rabbi:

Thanks for that great update, stay safe and may all the trip bring us some awesome buds!! :D

have a good hunting

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You guys rule. What a fantastic location. Looks more like Morrocco than a tropical place - prfect for growing great weed.

Great coverage.

Arjan get that Disco fan on the market, you're the king for a reason.

Franco - get better soon and best see a doctor. We want you laughing and in a good mood - so take care, maybe drink ganja tea and smoke a bit less for a few days...All the best !

Simon + Mr. X you rule

Greetings to Dave + the rest of the crew.

Thanks for this inspiring Live Thread for the easter holidays.

C-Ya 2morrow.

Have a good rest everybody.

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