http://www.travelblog.org/Africa/Lesotho/ Travel adventures in journals and photos from Africa , Lesotho en-us Thu, 04 Dec 2008 17:19:49 UTC Thu, 04 Dec 2008 17:19:49 UTC Firstly I had better explain that we didnt actually go to Lesotho as we didnt have enough time but we were a stones throw away so I'd thought I would add itWe arrived at the Khotso Horse ranch at lunch time and were immediately awe insipired by the views.The ranch was in teh mountain near the town of Uunderberg in the Southern Drackensburg region. I beleive the ranch was approx 1500m above sea le http://www.travelblog.org//Africa/Lesotho/Sani-Top/blog-347249.html Lumela wie man so schoen in Sesotho sagt Hallo in LesothoSprache So langsam fallen mir nicht mal mehr Ueberschriften ein da sich ja jetzt doch einiges wiederholt hier in meinem Blog...nochmal Afrika nochmal Lesotho...also langweile ich euch nicht lang mit alten Kamellen sondern gebe nur einen kurzen Ueberblick ueber die letzten 3 Wochen die ich eben in Lesotho verbracht habe. Obwohl http://www.travelblog.org//Africa/Lesotho/Maseru/blog-341829.html Our journey started September 21 and ended October 2. The Global Neighbor Project Team of Tacoma WA Kathleen and Rick Olson Michelle Cox and Julie Nordlund led by Bob Bowen of World Vision left SEATAC on a Sunday afternoon and arrived in Lesotho on Monday morning. We flew Northwest Airlines Airbus KLM 747 and South African Airways turbo prop to reach our destination. We laid over in Am http://www.travelblog.org//Africa/Lesotho/Maseru/blog-331691.html Why am I traveling to a tiny country surrounded by South Africa Why now Here's the deal It started when I was President of Tacoma 8 Rotary in 2005. Our club hosted a team of business persons on a study exchange from South Africa. They stayed in Tacoma for a week and my husband Rick and I hosted a team member. I worked at Point Defiance Zoological Society at the time and provided a behind http://www.travelblog.org//Africa/Lesotho/Maseru/blog-322921.html Afrika die Zweite und nicht letzte...Nach aufregenden 2 Wochen in Botswana bin ich nun nach Lesotho bdquoweiter verschickt wordenldquo... Hier in Maseru ist ein weiterer Campus unserer Uni in dem gerade das erste Semester startet...Heit ein paar Leute aus KL und Botswana sind mit einem Kleintransporter 22 LeuteGepckUniMaterial 12 Stunden von Botswana quer durch Sdafrika nach Lesotho g http://www.travelblog.org//Africa/Lesotho/Maseru/blog-318003.html last weekend after a few very harried weeks at ALA 8 of us decided take a much needed excursion out of town. destination lesotho. the plan depart at the crack of dawn on saturday drive 4 hours on the n3 over towards the drakensbergs hike all day around in Lesotho then spend the night at carsonrsquos housematersquos exgirlfriendrsquos house really then more hiking in a different http://www.travelblog.org//Africa/Lesotho/blog-307273.html Histoire d'un week end par temps d'hiver au Lesotho pour aller voir .... la neige. Et oui en hiver on peut trouver de la neige en Afrique du Sud et notamment au Lesotho pays situ en plein centre de l'Afrique du Sud. Pour la partie historique le Lesotho est la patrie des Basotho et des peuples sothotswana. Lors du grand trek des Voortrekkers sud africains blancs ceux ci envahirent le pa http://www.travelblog.org//Africa/Lesotho/Butha-Buthe/blog-300599.html Lesotho is a gorgeous country Known as the Kingdom in the Sky because it is the highest country in the world measured from the lowest point if that makes any sense at all. Again very different from other places we've been to in Africa and even better that we were here for three nights at the same place yay no driving. The highlight here besides upgrading from our tent to a nice cab http://www.travelblog.org//Africa/Lesotho/Maseru/blog-280991.html I've been back at school for a little over a week now but I haven't had time to update from my trip to Lesotho because this is cram time on campus papers and exams flying right and left computer lab full at all times of the day and night and everyone including me is busy all the time. Luckily before this madness started I got to spend a week in lovely Lesotho here is some background on t http://www.travelblog.org//Africa/Lesotho/blog-274105.html Amazing placeThe backpapers at the Drakensberg organised day tours to Lesotho The Kingdom in the Sky and as we were so close we decided to head over there.The roads up to Lesotho are very very bad and very very twisty. You wouldn't believe that we could get up there in a normal minibus on the way we passed Qwa Qwa to say this you have to use the click found in ZuluSotho languages repl http://www.travelblog.org//Africa/Lesotho/Butha-Buthe/blog-272876.html The snow Blizzard started as soon as we left the Sani pass Police post in South Africa. It was chaos 7 4X4 vehicles in front of us had got stuck in the thick snow. There were vehicles behind us but we persevered after an exciting 3 hrs burning the clutch screeching tyres eventually we got to the top but ahead the gates were locked and there was no one to be seen. The blizzard grew worse and ther http://www.travelblog.org//Africa/Lesotho/Sani-Top/blog-243134.html Sehlabatebe Nature reserve. JanFeb 2008This is the oldest nature reserve in Lesotho Sehlabathebe is remote and rugged with an average elevation of 2400 metres. and covers more than 65 000 hectares of mountainous grassveld. There are no trees here which makes it a unique wilderness area of valleys teaming with plants herbs shrubs wild orchids and extravagant flowers. It is almost inaccessibl http://www.travelblog.org//Africa/Lesotho/blog-242864.html It had been a cold night with little sleep. I looked out of the tent and found Mr Seja scraping off frost from his tent and efficiently packing his belongings into his red German rental car. We'd met him one day earlier as we resembling two bagladies had dragged our plasticbagged belongings across the border at Maseru bridge. He was efficiency personified. Punctuality rationality German h http://www.travelblog.org//Africa/Lesotho/Maseru/blog-214163.html Lesotho translates as the land of the people who speak Sesotho the people of Lesotho are called Basotho. It's a small land locked country at 30000 sqkm it's completely surrounded by South Africa and lies entirely above 1000m its lowest point is 1400m with over 80 of the country above 1800m. And of its 2 million population around 29 have HIVAIDS recent estimates for the average lif http://www.travelblog.org//Africa/Lesotho/blog-208884.html I had found the Africa I was searching for but until I had crossed the imaginary line in the sand I had not found. On the South African side of the line there were towns and cities filled with a fearbased misery that seemed to affect both the obscenely rich and the hopelessly poor alike. All of the fear and all of the racial segregation instantly disappeared as we drove through the border pos http://www.travelblog.org//Africa/Lesotho/blog-175409.html Walking out of the Quach's Nek borderpost I tilted my head against the galeforce winds to see orange pieces of plastic on the ground...strikingly similar in colour to the bikes indicators. Yep the wind was strong alright and had blown the bike over much to the bemusement of onlookers. Battling against the wind we rode through the beautiful landscape Lesotho provides to Sehlabatebe National http://www.travelblog.org//Africa/Lesotho/blog-164870.html I have returned to Khotso Backpackers in Underberg in the Southern Drakensberg Mountains. I first arrived here on March 21. In between now and then good times have been had. Readers Digest VersionI left Khotso on horseback and rode into Lesotho. Two days were spent riding to or around Sehlabathebe National Park in Lesotho. After that a few days were spent in the capital Maseru. From Molumong Lodg http://www.travelblog.org//Africa/Lesotho/blog-147866.html Hello to you all let me start by starting how much I love South Africa. When I last left you I was just heading to Jeffery's Bay. I was in Jbay for three days and had a good time chilling out there to the reggae vibes in the bar. This town was the South Africa location for Bruce Brown's 1964 filmThe Endless Summer which many consider the best surfing film ever made. From JBay it was on to Eas http://www.travelblog.org//Africa/Lesotho/blog-144001.html Lesotho The Roof of Africa March 2529 2007 The gravel road snaked its way up through around and up again over the seemingly neverending range of mountains. The fourwheel drive whined as it carefully edged its way over cavernous holes and ruts the loose rocks churning under the wheels getting ever closer to the plateau of cliff known as the Drakensberg Range. I peered over the very cl http://www.travelblog.org//Africa/Lesotho/blog-143951.html We are in Lesotho having just crossed from South Africa. We have visited some local tribe people in one of their summer homes they seemed very nice and we had some home made beer and bread. Now back to the jeep and down the Sani pass again. http://www.travelblog.org//Africa/Lesotho/blog-120385.html Today Lesotho celebrated its 40th anniversary of independence. This small kingdom has had a rough history in recent years. In 1998 the political parties in the country contested the national election and riots broke out primarily in Maseru. Instead of supporting the government in efforts to restore order the army also began to riot. Unable to find local resources to quell the chaos the gove http://www.travelblog.org//Africa/Lesotho/Maseru/blog-100059.html One our first trips into the country was to visit Thaba Bosiu the hilltop fortress that was used by King Moshoeshoe to resist the Zulu invaders in the 1820rsquos. Moshoeshoe was a great ruler and diplomat who welcomed and offered assistance to all of the varied peoples who sought refuge from the invading Zulu. Within a short period of time his small band had expanded to a considerable number http://www.travelblog.org//Africa/Lesotho/Morija/blog-100045.html On September 25 we left Johannesburg and began driving southeast out of Gauteng Province and into the vaal or great grassland of the Province of Free State. Later that day we entered the Mountain Kingdom of Lesotho pronounced LehSUEtoo. We were invited to stay in the home of Kal and his family a very successful Bahrsquo businessman who has been in Lesotho for 33 years in the capital city http://www.travelblog.org//Africa/Lesotho/Maseru/blog-100042.html I was propping up the bar in a Durban hostel on the first night of my trip to Southern Africa. Enquiries at the hostel regarding a weekend safari at the nearby national park had reached a dead end and it was while nursing a drink that I met the Action Man a colourful young Alaskan guide and quite the adventurer. He dazzled me with tales of the Alaskan wilderness and encounters with grizzly bears http://www.travelblog.org//Africa/Lesotho/Sani-Top/blog-98907.html 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 go http://www.travelblog.org//Africa/Lesotho/blog-89745.html I had to look up to see the tops of the peaks and canyon walls as the sixseater sesna bumped and bounded its way through the turbulent air in the gorges running through the Malouti mountain range. The terrain is very dramatic and exposed not altogether dissimilar from pictures I have seen of the midwest Grand Canyon Brice and Zion. While the mountainous setting was surely a contrast to the Sou http://www.travelblog.org//Africa/Lesotho/blog-71757.html Our sleep at the mission was possibly the best we'd had in Africa so far and we even managed a whopping lie in 8.30am somewhat of a record for us We procrastinated until the last possible minute in the hope that a lift or another option might come our way before deciding on a big bus to a small junction village called Moitsupeli which was half way back to Maseru and where we were told we could http://www.travelblog.org//Africa/Lesotho/Morija/blog-68683.html There was no Africa time involved at all and Ashley the owner of the Roma Trading Post was ready and waiting at precisely 6am Seeing as though the temperature was still well below zero there was no chance of us having yet another cold shower. It was a pleasant and very comfortable drive in which Ashley gave us an in depth history of the area and how his family came to be involved trading the http://www.travelblog.org//Africa/Lesotho/Semonkong/blog-68677.html Another day another country a side trip to Lesotho. It was a totally different world to South Africa from the moment we crossed the border. We were in 4WDs but the majority of the other traffic was on foot or on horseback in fact we only saw 4 other vehicles moving all day on that side of the border. The roads were like the border post effectively nonexistent the border post comprising http://www.travelblog.org//Africa/Lesotho/blog-65852.html The Roma Trading Post turned out to be exactly what we needed a sanctuary. For the next two days we used it as a base whilst we explored on foot and via mini bus the surrounding area including small villages and local markets our favourites but also Maseru the capital of Lesotho only 30km away the National University ancient bushman rock paintings and among other things dinosaur footprints http://www.travelblog.org//Africa/Lesotho/Roma/blog-64240.html