Lesotho

Last weekend, four girls from Malherbe and I decided to venture into the Drakensburg Mountains and to the mountainous Kingdom of Lesotho. We left Friday night and traveled via the Underberg Express to the Sani Pass Lodge Backpackers. It’s nestled right in between two mountains in the Southern Drakensburg. We stayed in dorm styled rooms with bunk beds, which were very cozy. We shared a room with a very nice and interesting couple from England (Genna and Elliot). They’ve been saving up money for three years in order to travel around the world. They had already been to Brazil, Ecuador, and Kenya – and their next stop was New Zealand. They still had 10 months left before going back to England. It was very fun talking to them, and they taught us “Dirty Grity” which is a card game a lot like Hearts.

At 8am Saturday morning, our group and two boys from Germany embarked on an adventure to the Kingdom of Lesotho, also known as “The Kingdom in the Sky”. Our mode of transportation was the Land Ranger (“4 x 4 x Far”, to be exact) to climb the “Sani Pass” which is a long windy road going from KwaZulu Natal up to Lesotho. The first stop along the way was to see the remains of a trading post used by the Sotho people and South African’s. We then embarked up the Sani Pass. The drive was amazing – words cannot do it justice. There are waterfalls everywhere you look, rolling vibrant green hills; it’s absolutely breathtaking. We stopped along the way to drink from the “Fountain of Youth” waterfall. Apparently it has the exact right mineral composition for drinking, and Guardia has not yet reached South Africa – so it was safe to drink.

After making about 40 hairpin turns up the mountain, we finally reached the South African passport authority where we got our stamps and continued up the Lesotho border. Once there, we had lunch atop the rugged Maluti Mountains where we got to meet some Herder boys. Most of the boys are sheep herders until they’re about 18 years old, and then go off to work in South Africa. They spend all day roaming about the mountains and sometimes travel on horseback, swaddled in traditional blankets. Talking to the boys was very difficult because they only spoke Sesotho. They thought it was hilarious whenever we laughed though – so when we laughed, so did they. I thought it was awesome that we could interact and connect in that way, despite our language barrier.

Our tour guide then took us to a woman’s hut for some homemade bread and Sotho Beer (which is very thick and porridge-like....). It’s brewed by many women as an additional source of income. A white flag is hung outside the house when beer or bread is for sale. The woman and her 7 children were all very welcoming, and we spent some time in her home chatting (she spoke English fairly well).

Our last stop of the day was at the Sani Pass Chalet. It is the highest pub in all of Africa. By 4pm, we were on the Sani Pass again, on our way back to the hostel. Once again, I sat in the very back of the Land Ranger with Kelly and Martin (the German exchange student…very strange coincidence, I know) to get “The African Massage” of bouncing up and down with every rock we hit. We tried playing “Dirty Girty” again that night, except the power kept on going off because of the horrible thunderstorm. So, we just ended up going to bed really early.