Spending so long in South Africa was doing my head in so we thought the perfect escape would be to duck into Lesotho for a week or two to clear the mind in a peaceful relaxing country. Lesotho for those of you that might not know Africa from a bar of soap, is a wee land locked country, surrounded by South Africa on all sides, and miles in the sky. It’s got the highest low point of any country in the world, blankets, ponies and snow.
We trotted out of South Africa on horseback, another boarder crossing first, and I was extremely proud of my Basouth pony when it stuck it to the man and did a large number two on the border post’s doorstep, good thing I was leaving the country and not entering. It’s the first border post I’ve been to that’s pedestrians only. Once you cross through, it’s just wilderness and a 30kms trek through the stunning Drakkensberg NP to the Lesotho border post. Actually border post it a little stretch of the imagination, it was a whole in the razor wired fence. There were half a dozen houses with their roofs ripped off, apparently the government built them, but they never used them and they’ve been left to decay ever since. We climbed some rocky mountain passes that I never though possible on a pony and saw such an amazing sunset before gazing at more stars than I ever knew existed. The following morning bum still stinging, we perform the masochistic ritual of getting back on that pony and heading back to SA to drop of the ponies.
Lesotho border crossing, take two - Sani Pass. You start the day off by getting to the minibus station one minute too late and watching the minibus depart. You buy some poor mans twisties and bum around for more than three hours waiting for the next bus to fill up. Once you’re on the road, the bus drops you at another bus where everyone gets out and pays another fair before jumping in. The bus holds 15, but it’s the last bus of the day and there are people waiting at the stop since the last bus dropped them there, so you squeeze in 20, plus packs and this time the driver has a suicide wish and intends to bring everyone else along. I’ve been to disco’s quieter than this bus. For the next few hours you rise about 1000m up a road neglected by both governments as it lies between border posts.
We hired a local guide to walk to a nearby peak and sitting atop of the world I realized that I’ve never been so high in my life (well, with my feet still on the ground), Hodgson’s peak at 3257m smashes my old record of Mt Kosicuscio by about a thousand meters.
We stayed most of our time in Lesotho at a Malealea Lodge, past the Gates of Paradise where there is a plaque in the wall reading Wayfarer pause – and look upon a Gateway of Paradise. It was a wonderful little series of circular huts with bountiful atmosphere. We were greeted with the local choir performing and Souto Sounds, a band that plays with homemade instruments such as guitars made out of old petrol cans.
The area around the backpackers was beautiful. We decided to do a pony ride into a nearby village and sleep the night, but rain that pounded down prompted us to just play billiards instead. We did however manage to have a drive around the area and a trek to some San rock art.
We bumped into two French boys we’d met in Cape Town and we decided to make use of the hire car and head to Katse damn. On the way we passed Hakome caves, the caves appeared as a gigantic yawn in the mountainside where people have build some houses. It wasn’t until the following day we read that the original inhabitants were cannibals.
On our approach to Katse the road started to wind and the ice on the side of the road become thicker. We pressed on and managed to reach the crest before the snow became too thick to pass. You heard me right, the snow was too thick to pass. It’s so strange to see snow in Africa, it’s just not the postcard images that come to your head, but Lesotho is roughly the same latitude as Eastern Australia and as mentioned before, much higher. We plodded through some snow well past our thighs, made a snow angle and made our way to a small cave with interesting icicles and an amazing view before heading back to the car.
Next stop “Namibia” so until then “Sharp Sharp”
www.lesotho.gov.ls/
www.khotsotrails.co.za/
www.sanitopchalet.co.za/
www.malealea.co.ls/
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