Lesotho

Dumela! (hello in Sotho). About three weeks ago I was fortunate enough to travel with a friend to the small, beautiful country of Lesotho for a hiking weekend in the mountains with 15 other people. We hiked from one village to another for a distance of 25km (15m) in one day.


Although Lesotho lies in the middle of South Africa, it has a completely different feel to it that's immediately apparent as soon as you cross the border.

My friend and I took a public taxi from Bloemfontein to the border which was about an hour and a half drive for R80 ($11)! That's the cheapest fare I have ever paid to go to another country! The border crossing was also the easiest  and quickest I had ever experienced.

We spent our first night in the capital Maseru. It's a quaint and quiet city, but they do have an Alliance Francais!

The second day we did some sight seeing of the city and that evening we made our way to our beginning destination of Bokong. It was pouring rain with flash flooding, mudslides and fallen boulders along the drive. If it had not been for our cool, calm, and collected driver, plus the fact we were driving a 4x4, we wouldn't have made it.


We stayed in basic huts (no water or electricity) the first night. We woke up early the next morning and began the 25km hike to the Madiba Lodge. The hike was relatively easy until the final descent. We had to descend down the mountain to the Lodge. We reached the edge and could see the lodge down below. From that point it took 3.5 hours to actually make our way to the bottom. It was well worth and extremely rewarding

Most of the hike was like the photo below. Going up and over large hills that never seemed as steep as they actually were. 

 This was a shot of the group when we reached the descent. We scaled down the side and then followed a long line of zig zags and streams.

 About half way down the descent I was able to capture this photo of the waterfall. The torrential down pours the night before graced us with clear skies and intense waterfalls for the day of our hike. 

 By the time we reached the descent it was getting close to sunset. The sun cast incredible shadows in the mountains giving way to photos like this.

Lesotho was a country with amazing people and scenery, I will surely be back!
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