L is for Lesotho

This past weekend we were off on another Ellie and Ali adventure. We were joined by our group of regular adventurers - or as Joseph and Ellie have decided "The Big Five". There is Eleopardora (Ellie), Joe the Rhino (Joseph), Sabuffalo (Sabrina), Mat Delephantorme (Mat) and Alion (me). We had an extra this weekend as well, Caroline, another Canadian who is living in Grahamstown.

As many of you know, I have many travel ambitions; one of these being to travel the alphabet - a country for each letter. Obviously this is a long term goal, but this past weekend I added one more letter - L - to the list, bringing the total to 14 of 26.

Friday morning marked the beginning of our most recent adventure. Joseph had arrived from Joberg. Mat, Sabrina and Caroline had arrived from Grahamstown. Ellie and I had been the organizers and had all the food and such packed up and ready to go. We were in a Toyota Fortuner for the trip, which although gigantic proved to be only barely large enough for all of us and our stuff. We left Durban and headed out towards the mountains.

Lesotho (pronounced Le-soo-too), is called the Kingdom in the Sky, and based on our route into the country, it could not have a more fitting name. Due to a number of historical incidents involving battles with the Boers and disagreements with the Cape Colony government, Lesotho is an independent country, although completely surrounded by South Africa. Although it was able to escape the terrible experience of apartheid, it appeared to us, in many ways to have been left in the past. Forty percent of the population live below the international poverty line (less than $1.25 US per day). The majority of the population lives in a rural setting. And, like it's neighbour, it has one of the highest rates of HIV/Aids infection in the world. In addition to these sobering statistics, it is an absolutely beautiful country with extremely friendly people.

Our route into Lesotho took us through the Midlands of KZN, up to the Southern Drakensberg and on to Sani Pass. Once at the top of Sani Pass, we entered Lesotho and continued on to a village called St. James where we would stay for the weekend.

The drive was long. Ok, not completely accurate. The distance we covered was not particularly significant, but the time it took was long. After about two and a half hours of driving, we were on to a dirt road that ended up being the most difficult, sustained driving I have ever done. But I have to say, I was an awesome driver. I also very much enjoyed it.

After a sign that read: "only vehicles equipped with 4x4 will be permitted to proceed beyond this point," we arrived at the South African border crossing. We officially exited the country (although we would still be in the country for something like an hour longer) and we looked up at the daunting drive that we were facing.

From the border crossing we proceeded up the very steep, very rocky road (and stopped for some photos along the way). It was intense driving for me, and a few moments of "please watch your head on the ceiling as we are going to go over some very large bumps"

You can just see a 4x4 mini-bus up the hill.
We eventually caught up to the mini-bus.

After many many switch backs and hair pin turns,

This is obviously tipped on its side a bit, but you can see almost all the switch backs

we made it to the top of Sani Pass, 2865m.

And there was the Lesotho Border Crossing.

Clearly it was a little colder than the 30 degree weather we have gotten used to in Durban, but I was very happy to be up in the beautiful mountain air.

After officially exiting no man's land and entering Lesotho, we had lunch at Sani Top Cafe which boasts to be the highest pub in Africa. The other patrons at the cafe were clearly much older than us and had hired drivers to take them up the pass. I was quite proud to say, no I drove the pass myself.

As I said before, we continued on for almost another 2 hours (the one and a quarter estimated by the lodge was grossly inaccurate), we arrived in St. James. When we arrived at the lodge there was a notice on the door saying to call Elias the caretaker. Joseph pulled out his phone first - no service. Ellie - no service. Caroline - no service. We had no phoning capabilities, and since the doors were all open, we decided to make ourselves at home. The lodge was a great place. No electricity, but more than enough charm. We had a six-bed room and a great common space. It was clear that there would be no other guests that night, so we had the place to ourselves (and ended up with it to ourselves the whole weekend). The lodge was in a building that had belonged to the local mission, but had recently been sold off when the mission no longer required the space.

We had a great night, with a great dinner and I taught Mat and Joseph to play the card game golf by paraffin lamp light - Mat won with some beginners luck.

The next morning, I was up quite early and had a lovely morning sitting reading in the beautiful mountain air. I watched the Lesotho world go by and had more than one moment of feeling so incredibly lucky to have the opportunity to be in such a very special place. It is a place so secluded and shut off in so many ways from the rest of the world and so very beautiful because of that.

Slowly the other girls began to join me in the warming sun and finally, once the boys were awake, Joseph made one of his amazing breakfasts, mimosas included.

The afternoon took us on a pony ride (Lesotho is known for is Basotho Ponies). Elias, the caretaker, rounded up some ponies to take us out. He was only able to get three at first, so Mat, Ellie and I were the first to go on our little tour. Mat and I were both fairly comfortable with the horses. By no means expert, but comfortable. And my pony was beautiful. 

Ellie had been so excited about the ponies, but I think it came as a bit of a shock and disappointment that the ponies were not purple with pink hair and smelling of bubble gum. I think there was also an expectation that the 'ponies' would be smaller. I'm not sure she could have ridden a pony that was much smaller than the one she had (in fact, I'm not sure they exist), but still. She had been talking a long time about how excited she was about the pony ride, but I'll leave it saying that pony riding turned out not to be one of Ellie's favourite activities we have done (but she still smiled for the camera). 

My pony, although very beautiful, was slow. And quite stubborn. As much as we tried, Mat and I weren't able to get the horse moving at much more than a walk. Except on one occasion where it took off after Mat's horse with no encouragement from me. It took me by surprise and I was laughing so hard, I could barely hold on. Then the horse came to an abrupt stop and that was the end of moving quickly. When we got back to the lodge, Joseph, Caroline and Sabrina were waiting, and more horses had subsequently arrived. Carolina (an experienced horse woman), had picked hers. We quickly realised when Joseph and Sabrina went towards the horses that Ellie's reaction should have been the expected reaction, as all of the "Immigrant Kids" seemed to have a similar reaction.

Eventually they were on there way again, and shockingly when they returned, Joseph (who says that he doesn't like animals), leaned down and kind of hugged his horse and said, oh good boy. He later said, he really didn't know what had come over him. 

That afternoon we also were taken to one of the local shabeens for Lesotho beer. We were clearly a bit of a novelty, but had a wonderful welcome by the community.

We had another wonderful dinner by candle light that evening, but before dinner I beat Mat at a game of Jenga. I had pulled off an impossible move and before I could put the block on top, Mat hit the table and knocked the whole thing over. 

Lesotho is an absolutely beautiful place and I only wish I could have stayed much longer and seen much more of it. But here are a few more of the sites of our adventure...

We had to get up early to get going yesterday morning, as I still had to maneuver back down the pass...

We said goodbye to our beautiful weekend in Lesotho, and the last adventure of The Big Five during our time in South Africa. After dropping Sabrina, Mat and Caroline at the bus station, Joseph, Ellie and I went for dinner. Ellie and I have had this discussion before, about telling the people who have meant or mean something to you that they have or do. To tell people who have influenced you. To express what you feel and actually let people know. I have been so incredibly lucky to have four such wonderful people to share so many adventures with here in South Africa and now Lesotho. Each one, I have so much love and respect for. So thank you guys for some wonderful times in the past six months. Some of us still have some South African adventures to go, but to "the Big Five" - thanks.