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After switching backpackers to one closer to the city center of Durbin via hitchhiking, using two Kombis (I finally figured out this is what they call the mini taxi's), and walking for a kilometer or two, we relocated to the Happy Hippo. Here I used the full day to do laundry, buy supplies, and catch up on emails and talking to people via skype. This backpackers had the cheapest internet I have found yet so I took advantage of it.
The next morning we took off for the Amphitheater, which is located in the northern part of the Drakensberg. We took the Baz Bus one final time. The journey was about 4-5 hours. The Amphitheater was in a remote, flat, grassy area with the mountains in the background. The scenery around there kind of reminded me of the western US. The atmosphere was really relaxed, and they even had a hot tub in the bar area that I took advantage of. They offered some day trips, one of which was a hiking trip. We only had two nights in this area, one full day really, and I wanted to go over the Drakensberg into Lesotho, so I opted for a
day trip there the following day.
The Kingdom in the Sky
Lesotho (pronounced le-soo-too) is the 3rd poorest country in the world. The Drakensberg's form its border on the East. Its people are called the Basotho (pronounced ba-soo-too) and their languages are Sesotho (pronounced se-soo-too) and English. During the early 1800's, its people were forced to this mountain stronghold during the forced migration. The mountains ended up giving the people an advantage because it was easier for them to defend the passes from above. It eventually formed into it's own nation and is completely surrounded by South Africa on all sides. The locals there tell me that they are not surrounded by South Africa, they are above it. We accessed this tiny nation through Monantsa Pass in the extreme Northern part of the country. It was myself, along with two Brits, and Irish girl,and a Frenchman. We got to the very top of the pass, and went through South Africa immigration. There was no customs on the Lesotho side. Apparently, there used to be a separate building for their immigration, but it got destroyed, so they never rebuilt it. We went down the pass on an extremely steep
gravel road into a valley surrounded by mountains. We drove until we came up to a local school. I liked this tour because it took us to a very remote 'village' which seemed isolated to the rest of the world. It was exactly the cultural experience I was hoping for. We spent some time in the local school getting to know the kids, then trekked up a hill, past some huts, and then had lunch overlooking the valley. We then looked at some 800 year old drawings on some cliffs left by the sand people. This was how they would communicate with each other back in the day. The drawing we were looking at showed which direction to go to find cattle. We walked along the side of a cliff and ran into a few local children who decided to follow us. It started out being only 3 kids, but ended up being about 10 - 15 by the time we got to the next hut. There we tried some local beer they brewed in the hut. It kind of smelled like vinegar, was a little thick, and had a sweet aftertaste. The locals in the hut were funny, I
think they had been drinking all day. After that, we returned back to the school where they cooked us some Maize and the best spinach I have ever had. They picked it right before they cooked it. They would use manure from the cows wandering around to fertilize the ground in their garden. We then played football (soccer) with the kids at the school for almost an hour. We were in high elevation, and I was feeling it running around. When we were done, we stopped by a bar and I picked up a 6 pack of Maloti. This beer can only be purchased in Lesotho.
The next day we took off for Fernie, South Africa. We had a friend there that we meet in Coffee Bay that was in the peace corps that offered to let us stay with her and her host family for a night. She was from Chicago and had graduated from Drake University out of all places. It took us 5 Kombi's (pronounced com-bee) to get there, stopping in Bergville, Ladysmith, Newcastle, and Ermelo on the way. It ended up taking us all day. We camped in the host families yard. They had minimal
Lesotho kid
This kid was funny as hell dancing with his sugar cane electricity and no running water. Our peace corps friend would have to use a bucket to take showers. She had a separate shack next to the host families. The family was very nice and accommodating. This town was an eye opener. It was very underdeveloped. You could definitely still feel the affects of apartheid in this area. It almost felt as if some of these people lived in fear.
The next day we ended up having to take 6 Kombi's to get into Swaziland to get to the Bush Fire music festival. The border crossing went smoothly. We would get off the Kombi, walk through the border, then get on another Kombi on the Swazi side. We stopped in the capital city of Mbabane to get some lunch. The population was only 60,000 people, so it was fairly small. The kingdom of Swaziland is a tiny country bordering South Africa and Mozambique. It is one of the last true remaining monarchs, and is overseen by King Mswati III, who can basically do whatever he likes (like the T.I. Song). The locals here say they are all royalty. With all of his wives and kids, that wouldn't surprise me at
lesotho
the kids would scream when I would carry them around all. There is a strong national pride in Swaziland. We traveled to Malkerns Valley to attend the annual Bush Fire International Music Festival. The festival was put together 4 years ago to get people to help out with the large number of kids orphaned in this country due to the exceptionally high percentage of AIDS deaths. I think I heard around 40% of the population is infected with the disease. The festival was crazy. We camped there for 3 nights. They had a full itinerary of bands playing throughout the 3 days. It was mostly local bands and bands from around Africa. Freshly Ground was a group that brought a lot of enthusiasm from the crowds. There were people from all over the world at this festival. It also seemed to be a vacation for all of the peace corps volunteers in the area. We met a lot from Swaziland, South Africa, and Mozambique. Every day the bands would play, followed by DJ's doing their thing until 5 in the morning. It was an interesting experience.
After the festival, we hitched a ride down the road to Swaziland backpackers to catch up on our sleep and relax. It rained
during the last day at the festival. Our tent leaked water so bad that I began to name the bodies of water that formed inside of it. Our plan next is to go into Mozambique for a few days. I plan on eating as much sea food as possible and sitting on a beach somewhere. After that I think we are going to check out Kruger National Park and hopefully finally see a Lion in the wild. After that we've got to head back up to the Jo'burg/Pretoria/Rustenburg area for some World Cup action. The games start on June 11th.
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- JB(H)
non-member comment
beware ...
... of bush fire :) Thx for calling! You are missed and in our prayers! outstanding pics as usual !!!