Pastoral scene - Lesotho

A typical pastoral scene in Lesotho - a blanket wrapped herdsman tending to his cattle. This picture was taken on the back road, between Mohales Hoek and Malealea.

Tuesdays Trees #4 - Blue Gum

This magnificent old Blue Gum tree was captured at the arboretum at Hogsback, as it reaches up towards the sky.

Lesotho - first impressions

We entered the Mountain Kingdom of Lesotho in the Southwest, at Tele Bridge, which borders on to the Eastern Cape. It is there that we first saw that Lesotho is a totally different world, to our own country that co,letely surrounds it and I guess, fell in love with the land and its people.

One similarity though is the taxis - when it comes to speeding and stopping in awkward places we are on a par - though I will be bold enough to say that ours are probably worse than theirs, when it comes to aggression.


As you start climbing from the river valley at Tele Bridge you see the first of many huts, probably very similar the the early stone structures. The older ones have walls built of beautifully dressed sandstone, while the inside walls are plastered with a mixture of clay and cow dung. Where corrugated iron has replaced thatch the roof sheets are held down with rocks, to prevent them from blowing off in the high winds that sweep through the country.


Taxis are an important mode of transport in the country - other than donkeys, horses, wheel barrows and of course feet.


The land is badly eroded eroded from over grazing. Wherever you go, whether in the river valleys or on the highest peaks, you will come across herdmen looking after their livestock.


We found that the people are warm and friendly. Wherever we went someone was smiling and waving at us as we drove past. Here a couple of women are headed home with firewood they have just collected.


Many of the Basotho people still wrap themselves in their traditional blankets when going out during the day, a custom that is unique to the Basothu.

The village of Mt Moorosi was organised chaos. Music blaring from radios, traders selling their wares and shoppers looking for a bargain. Believe it or not this is a main road - no wonder the speed limit through the towns is 50 kph.

If you happen to miss the speed limit sign, which is quite possible as there often aren't any, you may hit a rather nasty speed hump in the middle of the road, if you are not careful. As you will see in the picture below they are also not well marked.

The road to Mount Moorosi, where we spent our first two nights, followed the Senqu (Orange) River as it wound its way through rather hilly country.

Journey's end on day one was Mount Moorosi, which was the scene of an epic nine month seige and battle between the the Baputhi tribe and the British forces in 1879. It is a heroic and tragic story that I will be covering in a later post.

Butterflies are free

This butterfly was very obliging, by hanging around long enough for me to get a picture. Their usual tendency is to fly away just as I am about the release the shutter. This was taken alongside the road just outside Alicedale.

Roughing it in the Mountain Kingdom

We have been without phones and internet for six days since leaving for Lesotho, so this is my first opportunity to do a post. Lesotho may be surrounded by South Africa, but it is very different from South Africa. In fact in most parts of the country, it is like going back in time.

Though my cell phone is on international roaming, I could only send sms's when there was a signal. Public phones are available though.

Did I say we were going to camp?


In the words of Arnold Schwarzenegger, "I lied". Not totally - we decided to go for variety. Looking at the wind swept camping site at Mt Moorosi we decided to try out the local accommodation - a stone built, thatched hut, with the internal walls plastered with a combination of mud and cow dung. In case you are wondering it does not stink, but creates a rather hard textured surface.


Suzi-k looking rather pleased with her abode for the next two nights. That's what it looked like before we filled it with our gear. It was a great experience, even though the matresses we a bit lumpy.

Greeting the dawn of a new day with a cup of hot coffee. By the way it was very cold up in the mountains - for those of us who come from a temperate coastal climate.


Even though we were in a remote area, with very little in the way of modern trappings, we were reminded of the big world that exists out there with the early morning "milk run" fron Durban to Port Elizabeth flying past.

We have so many interesting things to share about our experiences and life in the Mountain Kingdom of Lesotho and the journey up there, so watch this space and Suzi-k's blog for more.