Lesotho

  Lesotho, Lesotho
Monday, January 16, 2006

From the backpackers in Bergville we booked a trip into the small country within South Africa called Lesotho (pronounced Le sue too) It was definately one of the highlights of our trip so far. Many routes into Lesotho and around Lesotho are only accesible by 4X4 and can be tricky at that.

We left with a few others in the 4X4 truck. We passed a few spots of interest along the way. A large dam which has water tranferred all the way up to Johannesburg when they can't meet their own demands.

We also made a stop at something quite unique. It is called the restaurant. We parked the truck and were told to look a ways in the distance to a large flat field. We could see many dark objects on the ground that just looked like rocks. We were informed by our guide that they were dead cows, different types of bucks and other animals. It is a program they have in place to try and restore the numbers of a type of native vulture. Apparently they die quite often from eating dead animals that are poisened. They have veterinarians that assist the program by first checking the cows, etc. to make sure they are free from any toxin or poison. Farmers in the area call them and donate animals that have died from old age or other causes. They are then placed in a protected area, and there you go a la carte, vulture style.

We soon drove out of Kwazulu Natal province and into the province of Free State where we would have access into Lesotho. We went through the township of Qwa Qwa. A Xhosa town of a million people. Most of the landscape was riddled with small brick houses all looking the same. It was houses provided by the government so people have proper shelter in the area. They are provided the land and the house at no charge, but have to pay for their electricity and water they use monthly.

We got to the border crossing, we had to show our passports and get a stamp from the south african side. We were told the Lesotho side was closed that day, so the south african side would take care of that stamp, etc. Never heard of a countries border being closed, lol!

We were already pretty high in elevation, but we soon started to climb much higher. I believe the highest point we got to was somewhere between 2500 and 3000 metres. We passed through incredible scenery. We felt like we were in the mountains of the Himalayas.

We stopped at a set of retangular brick buildings and were informed it was the local school. One of the buildings we were proud to find out was sponsered by Canada! The kids were still on summer holidays, they were to start school in a few days.

We left the truck here and started a hike which would take us up to some San people paintings. There are many San or Bushmen paintings in Lesotho as well as parts of the Drakensberg. Other areas in Africa have them as well. Young children seemed to be popping up out of no where as we hiked along. They were following us with great curiosity. We soon had a huge entourage. They loved to have their picture taken and laughed hysterically when we would show the picture of themselves on the digital screen.



The San paintings in this area were dissapointing, they had faded considerably from weather exposure. Dispite some attempts to protect it, children had drawn on parts of it. We sat here perched up high and listened as the guide told us the history of Lesotho and the area. We really felt the heat and the altitude as we climbed up to this point. It was becoming more difficult to breath as we moved. The guide climbed with great ease, and the children might as well have been small mountain goats. They practically ran up the cliffs.


We climbed back down to where the truck was and then drove through to another area. We passed some of the peoples homes. They had round mud huts and thatched roofs as we had seen many times before. It had to be at least 30C. They had their traditional thick wool blankets wrapped around them, and their woven tall cone hats. They were so friendly, most everyone waving at us as we went past, with big smiles.

We came to the home of a Sagoma (natural doctor for the area) We entered her house and all sat crossed legged on the floor. Again we were amazed at how simple these people live and how little they possess. We had translated from the guide her story of how she became a Songoma. We all said our names and where we were from. Australia, Canada, and England were the countries. She was confused and asked the guide how we all knew each other, it seemed strange to her that a group of people from around the world were together and had come to see her. The guide explained that we were all staying at a backpackers and had just met that day.

When we said our names and that we were from Canada, she stopped and started to talk quite fast and said many words to the quide. Then she repeated Canada quite prounounced a few times. The guide told us she really likes the word Canada, she also thinks everything is very happy in Canada. It was a good feeling to know that this women in the middle of no where had this idea of Canada.

We then made our way to the local Shebeen. It is basically a hut that is the local pub. They make a local beer, or at least that is what they call it. It is quite the process and is made out of maize. The particular one they make here does not have a high alcohol content and would take a lot to get drunk from. It is really thick and does not have a pleasant taste, yuck!

Now we went to another local home to try some traditional food. It was a meal of what we would call spinach and of course the national dish pap (maize porridge) It was actually quite tasty.