The end is near

Bloemfountain, South Africa

I know the blog updates have been few and far between lately, and frankly, this post won't really make up for that... I'm in Bloemfountain, South Africa right now. It's a university town in the middle of the country, about 100km west of Lesotho. There's not really much reason to be here, other then it's a transportation hub and, well, I'm waiting for transportation to Cape Town right now, so maybe I do have a reason for being here...

I spent the last week in Lesotho, which far exceeded my expectations. Lesotho had been on, then off, then on, then off my list of places to visit for the last few weeks. After I arrived in Swaziland and being rather disappointed, I decided to write Lesotho off and just focus on South Africa for the rest of my trip. Well, at the hostel, two other travelers convinced me that I shouldn't skip Lesotho, so the next day I caught a minibus from Swaziland to Durban, spent a few nights there, then continued on to Lesotho.

Lesotho has been described as the "Switzerland of Africa" and that's pretty accurate. It's mostly mountains and, being their winter right now, there is snow at the higher levels. I'd also describe it as "Ethiopia with snow and fewer people", since both countries have a very "forgotten in time" sort of feel to them. In Lesotho, horses are the main form of transport and the clothing of choice is a ski hat, rubber rain boots and a blanket draped over your shoulders. Not quite clubbing attire, but fashionable in a Lesotho sort of way.

First stop in Lesotho was on the eastern side of the country at a place called Sani Pass. I hitched a ride up to the top of the pass, home to the "Highest pub in Africa", with a tour group that included a South African driver who got all excited when we started reaching the snow line since this was only his 5th time seeing snow, and the first time in a "blizzard"... Not what you want to hear from your driver on a dirt mountain pass with over 20 switchbacks! (Note that he used the term "blizzard", Canadians would use the term... "Uh, yeah, I think it might be snowing, maybe a bit, tough to say, could just be the wind blowing it around...")

Anyways, we managed to get the Land Rover stuck on the road, despite the fact that there are advertisements both at the bottom of the pass and at the top that the Land Rover was the original car to summit the pass... At the top, there was plenty of snow and freezing temperatures. I spent two nights there where I shared the guesthouse with a South Africa guy now living in Florida and a French girl. We had the entire place to ourselves, especially after dinner when the staff returned to their houses in the village. Incidentally, the bar, which was left opened, worked on the honesty rule... We just had to write down what we had... Uh, huh.... ;)

After two days, which included some amazing hiking on the second day, I caught the next onward transport to the town of Mohoktlong. Before even stepping foot into the most overcrowded minibus I've had all trip, another passenger offered me a place to stay at her place.

There's not much to Mohoktlong. It was a little warmer then Sani Pass and the snow had melted where the sun shined, but otherwise it's a sort of outpost town in the middle of nowhere. That said, I spent three nights there with Dulle, my host, and here half dozen cousins, all under the age of 10 and about as easy to entertain as a dog.

It's always interesting staying off the beaten path and when you get to stay with locals, well then you really get a sense of what day to day live is like. For Dulle, who from what I could tell is probably doing better then most people in town, that means no power, bucket showers with water heated on the stove in the "bedroom", a half dozen cousins in her kitchen almost all day and not much else for entertainment. Regardless, it was still a highlight of my trip and three nights I won't seen forget... (In that the day to day experience was special, not in the evening "activities", which for all the guys reading, means that nothing happened... Honestly...)

From Mohoktlong, I caught a rather nice luxury coach bus to Maseru. Of course, the music was ridiculously loud. Might be a new record. Problem was, unlike in East Africa, this bus actually had a decent sound system, so they really cranked it. Either out of pride for the speakers, or just to drown out every conversation, I don't know, but even with my ear plugs in (don't leave home without them) I still found the music over powering...

The road to Maseru crosses over some amazing mountain passes. At times, you genuinely could be in Switzerland. At one point, we even passed a small ski resort called Oxbow. There wasn't much more then a 150m long T-Bar and some snow making guns, but still, a ski resort... I nearly shed a tear as it occured to me that this was the first winter in probably 27 years that I didn't ski... /sigh

I only spent one night in Maseru, at the Anglican Church, who happen to rent some pretty nice rooms and provide a hot shower. (Coupled with my Sunday church attendance the previous day in Mohoktlong with Dulle, I think I got my yearly fix of 'God' in... ;)

The following morning, I headed back inland to a town called Semonkong. It too, like so much of Lesotho, is in the middle of nowhere. The town "square" (really just where two roads meet) as a bunch of horses tied up to poles and men wandering around with ski hats and blankets on, all wearing chin high white rain boots...

Just outside of town is the Semonkong Lodge, quite possibly the nicest place that I've stayed in so far. It's set down in a bit of a gorge with a decent sized river running right in front of it. They normally cater to an upper clientely, but also have a dormitory up on the hillside that they rent to backpackers for a reasonable 12$ per night. I had the dorm room to myself, with views over the gorge that were amazing. With a crisp mountain air the area felt like fall in the mountains back home, only I had donkeys, horses and people passing by my front doorstep on their way to the adjacent village.

After spending the afternoon "in town", which included a lengthy discussion with the local police who initially took offence to me taking photos in the streets, but after I steered the conversation away from that, we then spent the better part of an hour talking about politics, life in Lesotho, work, religion, wearing your seat belt and littering.

The following day, I hiked about 1 hour away from the lodge, through another smaller village, and over to some amazing waterfalls. At close to 200m tall, they sort of come out of nowhere and plunge right into a breathtaking canyon. From the ridge, the falls are impressive, but to really appreciate them you have to climb down to the river. After some initial difficulties locating the trail, I eventually noticed a local walking not far away and headed over to him. Sure enough, his "trail" was in much better shape then where I was walking.

After about 30 minutes of downhill hiking, I reached the bottom of the canyon and spent the next half hour just staring at the falls. You can't get too close because of the mist (and the cold water/temperatures), but you can still enjoy them.

I spent the rest of the afternoon slowly walking back to the lodge, passing through the small village I had crossed through earlier. In Lesotho, if a hut has a white flag flying out front, it means beer is available. I crossed just such a hut and sure enough a few locals were outside drinking, so I enjoyed them. Now, I don't like beer at all, let alone Lesotho beer, so I just gave my beer to one of the locals, who I think intended from the beginning for me to buy him one since he initially didn't give it to me. Oh well, he got it in the end and I got my taste...

I contemplated spending another day in Semonkong, but through some fuzzy math figured it would take me 2-3 days to make it to Cape Town and decided to get moving instead. Turns out, it doesn't take that long at all to get to Cape Town, I'll make it there in 24 hours.

I was able to get a mid-morning bus back to Maseru, then a short taxi to the border, where I only had to wait around 1 hour for a minibus to fill up and head to Bloemfountain. From here, they run overnight, 12 hour, buses to Cape Town, so if all goes according to plan, I'll be in Cape Town early Friday morning.

Anyways, that's the lastest from the road. So much more to write about but crappy internet cafe keyboards, high internet costs, and frankly me spending less time in internet cafes are cutting the updates short. I should be back in San Francisco before the month is up, so the trip is coming to an end... From what I hear, Cape Town is a worthy place to finish such a trip.... We'll soon see...

Kenny