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Having said my goodbyes at the airport I took a taxi into Jo'burg. I hadn't exactly been looking forward to returning to the city and I was feeling pretty apprehensive as the Lesotho minibus stand is not inside the official bus station. Things were made worse by the fact that my taxi driver was blatantly a criminal. As I drove through the city he insisted on pointing out all the places where he goes when he is on the run from the police. As you can imagine this was not very reassuring. He also had absolutely no idea where he was going so it took me about twice as long as it should have to reach my destination. When I got there a minibus was just leaving so I had to spend about an hour hanging around. I was so glad when the next minibus turned up. I eventually made it to Lesotho at about 7.30pm. The contrast between Lesotho and South Africa was unbelievable. As soon as you crossed the border you felt like you had entered another world. The guy next to me on the minibus had been a Bangladeshi and he told methat the best place for me to stay would be the Indian run Maloti Guesthouse as it was extremely cheap. It was certainly cheaper than all the other options and I got a TV and hot showers, which was very exciting. I had planned to stay in Maseru for just one night but I became rather attached to the Maloti Guesthouse and had some difficulty in tearing ourselves away. During the day I went sightseeing and in the evening I lounged around, watching South African TV and eating pizza from Scooters, who kindly delivered the pizza right to my front door. What more could you want. During my time at the Maloti Guesthouse I visited Thaba Bosiu - a mountain, on which the King used to live. I wasn't particularly impressed, especially as my guide abandoned me when he saw some Chinese arrive at the foot of the mountain. He clearly thought they had more money than me. It is not a surprise to find from me! - I can't imagine why. I also visited the Ha Baroana Rock Paintings. Getting there was supposed to be straightforward but when I asked the villagers they led me to cattle field instead. I'm not sure why they thought that I had come all that way to wander across a field full of cow pats. I eventually made it to the paintings so it all turned out well in the end. My final excursion from Maseru was to see the dinosaur footprints at Roma. I have to admit that I had expected them to be rather larger than they were, but the fact that they'd been there for thousands of years was impressive enough. I finally dragged myself away from Maseru to visit Malealea. Malealea was beautiful but the prices at the lodge were not. I was paying the same as I had for the Maloti Guesthouse for a hut with no linen and no electricity. I spent my first afternoon walking around the village and visiting the museum. This was interesting but the constant pressure to buy local handicrafts was pretty annoying. In the evening the tour buses arrived, this was when I knew that I would be leaving soon. I watched the Children's choir and Sotho Sounds perform before eating an outrageously overpriced dinner. Sotho Sounds were pretty good. They had played at the Womad Festival in the UK a couple of years before. The next morning I went for a pony trek. Lesotho is famous for it's Basotho ponies and pony trekking is supposed to be the best way to see the country. I had never ridden before and my previous experiences on cowsback were nothing to boast about. I set off at a steady pace, but I had hardly been going for 5 minutes when my pony decided that it wanted to go somewhere else. The guide chose this moment to inform me that my pony had a tendency to run. My pony was called Bullet and my guide's pony was called Atlas. Given their characters I felt that it should have been the other way around. Atlas eventually decided to behave and I was able to enjoy the stunning scenery for a couple of hours. On the way back however I was warned to keep my pony well away from his as Atlas had a tendency to kick other ponies too. Why is it always me? This all confirmed my belief that I am not destined to become a great horseman in this lifetime. As soon as the ride was over I decided to head back to Maseru. There are no prizes for guessing where I ended up. Yes, I reinstalled myself in the Maloti guesthouse, where I enjoyed another night of pizza and TV. I realised that this could not go on forever so I decided that I would leave Lesotho the next morning. I was going to spend a day in Bloemfontein.

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