A Trek to Maletsuyane Falls, Lesotho

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July 12th

In the morning our plans for the four of us to hang out together kinda disappeared, we had all planned to goto the Maletsuyane Falls together. But due to the weather our new friend wouldn’t be able to abseil, it had begun to snow and that makes the conditions to dangerous to try rappeling down nearly 200 meters.

So with the snow falling Nicio and I went for a walk, it had began just as a walk to the top of the nearby mountain pass to see the plateau before us. On the way to the top we met a young Basotho boy named Joseph, he was 11 years old and walking home from school, it had been canceled due to the weather as well. We walked and talked with him and he explained to us how to get to the waterfalls. At first we just thought he gave us directions but he ended up walking with us all the way over to the falls, it was a special experience talking with an 11 year old boy that walks two miles through mountain passes each day to get an education. His English wasn’t the best but he made his points understood and we got along well with the young boy.

After an hour or so of walking we made it to the viewpoint of the waterfalls. It was something I’ll always remember, walking around a bend in the gorge and see the Maletsuyane Falls before me. They were magnificent and the surrounding landscape was amazing. The snow had blanketed it everywhere around it for miles, leaving the contrast of the waterfall something to behold. We must of sat there in stupor for about an hour before Joseph piped up that he had to get home. We had some last photos with him and gave him some food and money as a gesture of appreciation, we told him our great of a guide he was and I like to think he learned that he may have a future doing just what he did for us that day.

Nicio and I stayed at the falls and sat in silence and awe. Every now and then we would tell eachother how beautiful it was, and Nicio would thank me for talking him into coming to Lesotho and Semonkong. We told eachother we were glad we waited for the bus to pick us up in Roma and not changing our plans to goto another spot in Lesotho. You can see a video of the falls here and here. Natural beauty that took millions of years to be created deserved to be admired for a at least couple hours.

We took loads of pictures and walked around the gorge a bit before heading back to the lodge. On the way back we noticed that the blanket of snow that had been covering the plateau had now disappeared, the difference was pretty awesome, and only in the space of a couple hours! We were glad to leave when we did because it began raining behind us as we were arriving back at the lodge. After a short rest and snack at the restaurant we headed back up to the dorm to find our friends had left without even a goodbye note! Some people’s kids!

After resting for a bit and writing for you, dear reader, we headed back to the restaurant to give them another chance. This time the food was much better, and we had our share of it after working up an appetite from all the hiking earlier in the day. Post dinner we watched the news and I remember specifically being shocked to see the news from Uganda, Muslim extremists had bombed several locations the night before where people were in large numbers watching the World Cup final. Despicable and cowardly don’t even begin to describe the acts, and all because Uganda has peacekeepers in Somalia trying to make it a safer country!

We retired to our dorm beds shortly after to get another good nights rest for all the traveling we would have to do the next day.

Hope you like the pictures, videos and post! Until next time, Pura Vida!!

-Brendan

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