The Kingdom in the Sky: Lesotho!

---

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 the country:
Lesotho (Le-SOO-too) is a small independent kingdom, geographically located in the mountains inside of South Africa. It is the highest country in the world and the only country that is entirely above 1000 meters above sea level. More than 70% of the population of Lesotho lives in Rural areas, and rural here means rural. There is one main tar road in the country and most of the rural areas are only accessible on horse back, foot, or with a 4x4 vehicle. Their largest export is water, their second is wool, and their third largest may in fact be marijuana (I've heard). The dominant tribe are the Besotho people, they speak Sesotho. Very few white people in the country, and a relatively small group of chinese, taiwanese, and indian own most of the businesses in the country (creating some racial tension).

26/03
I was traveling with Kyla (from California) and we decided to travel to the northern tip of Lesotho and enter from the top- the eastern side (closest to me at PMB) is all mountains and can take alot of time to travel through. We spend an entire day getting there, taxis are a mistake for long trips, and we got to the border crossing at the sun was setting. Slightly shady crossing in the dark, but the post is open until 10 and the only cheap accomdations were across the border in Butha-Buthe. We made it, with some help from the boarded guards and a miner who was crossing with us. We got into Butha-Buthe, Lesotho's second largest city, and it was one main dusty road. At 7pm, there was really one area that had any signs of life and it was a gas station (petrol garage here) and a pub attached. We found a taxi who agreed to bring us, though it took some deliberation to figure out where this hostel was. After a long, slow drive on a "path" (hardly a road, no tar) up the side of mountain- we came to a dark house, with no signs or anything. We got out, knocked and an old man came to the door and said we were in the right place. His name was Simon and he was running Ramakatane Youth Hostel. The place had a few beds, a bathroom, kitchen (no electricity, candles, gas stove, and water pump outside). Very cute, a bit over priced (100R!) but lesotho is having economic troubles and there isnt enough of a tourist route to have cheap places. The stars were great that night- such little light pollution from a town in the mountains with such little electricity.
27/03
The next day we said goodbye and Kea Leboha (thank you in sesotho) and walked the 3Ks back to town on the dirt road. We said 'Dumela' to people as we passed on the road (sesotho for hello). At one point a young guy came up to us and said, in broken english, 'can i talk to you?;' and we said 'yes, sure' and he said 'i have never spoken to a white person before' and continued to quiz us on where we were from, what our names were, how we got to lesotho, and a slew of other questions before saying goodbye. I hope i represented my race well (the question of whether eastern europeans are really white has come up- but it seems that being american and lacking any more interesting shade, I'm white).

We got to town, found the taxi rank, got breakfast in a little stall- traditional papa (similar to zulu puthu- its a corn meal dish that is a staple all over southern africa) and beans, which i actually enjoyed.

[Side story:
The woman who made them was Ida Khotso (sesotho for peace), and we talked to her for a while, she told us that her family came from germany and india before south africa. she talked a little more and said, at one point, "It's hard to go back home; you don't where is your home." This crisis of identity is a recurring theme in south africa and its been interesting to here people's perspectives. Not having a home sounds crazy but its true, her family moved so many times because of wars that no place is home. The afrikaaners were kicked out (generations ago) by the Dutch and made south africa their new home- but white people always get funny looks when they called themselves Africans. And during apartheid, tribes were moves and divided, and kicked off their lands and forced to move again and again- so many live in urban areas, that home is also an elusive concept for them. Its just an interesting topic to me, especially when being White/American comes up]

We caught a mini-bus taxi (well, waited 2 hours first) to Liphofung Caves, about 45 minutes outside of town. Liphofung (di-poe-foong:: this one took us a while and NO ONE understood us until we got it right) are caves where you can see 5,000 year old paintings done by the shaman of a tribe of San people, or the bushmen. The learned the history of the paintings from bushmen that were jailed in the 1830s for hunting on private farms; the drawings were done by a shaman, who entered a trance brought on my music and dancing. In this trance he had visions, which he draw on the walls, and the elders of the tribe discussed them to find the meanings. The pictures include people hunting, dancing, animals, and half-animal-half-humans. Some ofthe meanings have to do with the rains and the spirit world. The caves were also important as they were inhabited by King Moeshoeshoe (mo-shway-shway... or something like that) at some point.
Part of the entrance fee included a mock besotho village, which was tacky but interesting, we got to musical instruments, traditional fur uses, and huts. We decided to get going back to the main road because it was a sunday and would take a while to get a taxi. We hiked the 2ks back up to the hill to the main road and got lucky as a taxi passed after a few minutes. The taxi was packed full- at one point there were three people hanging on the back, each row had four people in it and there were between 2-6 people standing, sitting, leaning on other people. It was pretty crazy, very funny.
We got back to town and made out way to a meeting point with Jen, a peacecorp volunteer that would b putting us up for a night in her area just outside of B/B. Jen is from summit, new jersey and has been in lesotho for 10 months, is fluent in sesotho, and was excited to have guests (it seemed a bit far from any other english speakers to spend the 2 year term). She showed us around her area, Ha Mopede, brought us back to her room, which is on a homestead with a host family. We hiked to the top of the mountain behind her room for sunset. We made some dinner (bread + cheese or peanut butter from my backpack) and got to sleep.
For a panorama video from the top of hill behind her room, Check here

28/03
We woke up and hiked to the opposite side of the same mountain for sunrise- it was really beautiful. We decided on plans for the day and Jen said she would join us- as she hasn't toured much in the area because white women don't do much traveling by themselves in africa. We flagged down a ride to town (hitchhiking in lesotho is the primary mode of transportation for most- sometimes there are lines to wait in on the side of the road) and the guy offered to drive all the way to our destination: which was a small town, Subeng, a few Ks north of Hlotse to see legitimate dinosaur footprints in a river bed. We got out at the river, according to our directions, and there were no signs, nothing. We asked a guy walking past and he showed us the 'elephant prints' for R5 (these prints were NOT elephant prints but people in the area called them that because, if you have never had proper western style history education, you wouldn't know what a dinosaur was). The spot had three clear species of dinosaur prints- and multiples of each. We took some pictures, explored the area, found a giant rock that had been carved into a frog shape by a local artist, and got back to the road.
For a video me retracing the dinosaur tracks Check here
We went to the next spot, a few Ks south of Hlotse, to find more prints. When we got off the taxi, a man asked us if we wanted to see the prints and told us it cost alot of money. he was lying and we told him so, finally he said he worked as security (another lie) but would do it for free (also, a lie). We confirmed that it was free and spent the whole walk up arguing over prices with him anyway, the guy ended up being kind of a jerk- but a harmless one. We were accompanied up by a few local kids, too. The hike was strenuous up to the prints, especially with our backpacks on (with our food, clothing, and everything in them). At the top, we had to look up at an overhanging rock cliff- and there were two stops with many clear prints. Though they could have been ostrich prints- they were definitely imprinted in rock and i dont think ostriches really populate mountainous terrains. We hiked back down, gave them each R5 and the older guy, as we expected, sort of flipped out (which is why we didnt pay them until we were back near other people). He yelled and was mad and said we were playing him for a fool- and he was just being an asshole because he thought all white people have dollar bills growing out of our... ears.
Anyway, Jen got us a ride to Maputsoe (i have no idea how to say that one... mah-poo-tsway or something), where we changed for the capital, Maseru.
The ride was nice, we needed a break, we just ate some lunch and relaxed/napped. Maseru was a really nice (though small) capitol. We caught a local taxi to St. James Anglican Church, where there is the only low budget place to say (and it was still 100R). we checked in, the place was nice- had power and hot, running water, which was much needed. We walked into town, found an internet cafe to let our families know we were alive and check bus times for our return trip in a few days time. We got dinner at Lancer Inn and made our way back to the hostel, took warm (much needed) showers, and slept.
29/03
We went to the bus rank early to catch a bus to Semonkong, which is 3 hours away on a dirt road into the mountains. Long story short (yeah, right) we waited from 9 to 12:30 and decided to take up an offer we had gotten from the Lodge that we had reserved for the night. They offered to pick us up in town for free at 3pm, which was fine except we didnt want to waste the day. But seeing as we had wasted most of it already, we wandered through town (which was well worth it, actually), got food, and waited for the ride. We met Maria and Hanna, two norwegian girls studying in capetown, also going to Semonkong Lodge with the ride. Jonathan, one of the managers of the lodge drove up in his pick up and we loaded in and started our trip. Jonathan is mid-40s, white, and 5th generation lesotho- one of the very few original british families that settled into lesotho to stay (talk about identity and home). He was a really nice guy and we all talked most of the ride back- about race, tension, history, offensive terms (that week in south african parliament a black representative used the K-word, an unmentionably offensive term for blacks in Afrikaans , and a host of other subjects. Jonathan gave us his personal history of lesotho and he had some great opinions on politics.
The ride was long, bumpy, and got cold. Until now Lesotho was warm during the day and chilly at night- but Semonkong was even more in the mountains and it got cold.
We arrived, settled into a room with the norwegians, and two older guys, and got dinner at the restaurant there. We decided to do a full day pony trek the next day all together (the four of us).
30/04
The next day we spent the day on horseback. I had never ridden a horse before and received more instruction from Kyla than from our guide. It was scary at first but i picked it up alright. My first horse was not listening to me and I switched with Hanna, who has been riding all her life (she made me feel better but saying that the horse was not for beginners and didn't listen well). Hanna and Kyla rode up in front and Maria and I hung back because we were having some trouble feeling comfortable. We did, by the end of the day, get to reach a full on gallop a few times, but it wasnt easy.

We took lunch at a very tall waterfall- the sight of the largest commercial abseil in the world (though we didn't do it). We rode some more and stopped in a small village to see mealie meal (corn meal) being made and to see sheep being sheers (which you probably saw at the top of the post). The men just handle the sheep like they are ragdolls and use huge scissors to clip all their wool off. By the end of the day Maria and I could not longer move faster than a trot, we were too sore and tired- we made our way back to semonkong lodge, kyla and i made pasta (with ingredients we had bought in maseru) and we slept pretty early.
01/04
Woke up very sore and got breakfast at the lodge. Kyla and I had arranged to do a short walk in the area with a local woman who was an expert in indigenous flowers, we went to the office and the woman told us that she had not been able to get in touch with her, so a messenger was sent on horse back early in the morning (!!how cool). She got there later and it was worth the wait- she is a younger woman who was training to be a traditional healer, because he grandmother is one and had taught her everything about the many uses for flowers and plans. We got a good tour of the area, with lots of interesting information- medicines for all sorts of problems (head, stomach, stds, boils, etc). She also showed us some more spiritual ones- including the plant that grows in the river and is used to protect yourself from lightening which, according to besotho tradition, is a weapon of a witch who is trying to hurt you (being in the mountains, being struck by lightening is a more common occurrence, i think). She told us some more about witches because we asked- apparently they are a very real thing in Lesotho and people are brought into the group but they must prove their loyalty by killing a loved one or something of that level and as of a few years ago, a witch had been discovered in some school by a traditional healer. The witch was arrested, the whole thing was televised, and the healer who found the witch actually died.
After we were done, Kyla and I went on a relaxing hike following the river- it was nice but we found ourselves tired from the horseriding (and sore!) and we made our way back and turned in pretty early.
02/04
We caught a ride with Banita (another lodge manager) into maseru early in the morning. We talked for a while and Banita has been a world traveler at one point and had settled to work in a lodge elsewhere in Lesotho- and she was getting a degree part time in tourism work. We got into town, caught a taxi across the border out the west side of Lesotho- our plan was to go to Bloomfontain, an afrikaaner town west of Lesotho- but a big transport hub where we could catch a direct, overnight bus to maseru the next night. We got a taxi to Bloom from over the border and found ourselves in Bloom by 12 in the grey, rainy weather. We walked around town with our bags, tried to find the bus station to make reservations, could not find it- instead went to the backpackers, Naval Hill Backpackers, a nice place with questionable ownership. We called greyhound (same company here in SA) to make a reservation and they told us the bus was full. We called every other company- all full. We got desparate and started calling car companies to rent a car for the day, but no one had an automatic for the next day to rent to drivers under 23. We panicked a little and resigned to take taxis all the way back, which would take a very long time and be very tiring. We went into town for dinner and, while waiting for food, called again to check on tickets and, this time, were told that plenty were available. We could not make reservations over the phone with an int'l card and had to go in the morning- but she assured us tickets would be available. We got dinner, and went out to the Mystic Boer, an afrikaaner emo/punk rock bar. It was pretty cool- very well decorated and a nice crowd. We had a drink or two and called a cab back to the hostel.
03/04 We went to the station by 7:30am and went to the greyhound desk- which told us that the bus was full. We started to panic again and walked to other company's desks to ask- they all said the same thing. As we were leaving, the guy from the greyhound desk got our attention and told us he had 2 seats on the bus- he was on the phone with the capetown station, where the bus originated, and there had been some noshows. We got tickets, breathed a sigh of relief, stored our bags at the station and went out to enjoy the day in Bloom. We went to a really nice art gallery, with a poetry/print exhibit on child abuse that was very intense. We wandered around a bit more but it started to rain harder and we found our way back to the big mall in town and decided to see a movie in order to kill some time and dry out our stuff. the only movie showing at that time was Rambo, so we went in. It was warm and comfortable- but those were the best parts of the movie experience- the movie itself was pretty awful. I found myself embarrassed to be an American in that theater.
We bummed around until we could meet up with Maria and Hanna, would had spent that last 2 days elsewhere but were taking a greyhound at the same time as us- back to capetown. We met them for drinks at the Mystic Boer and me and Maria played some pool. We were pretty horrible and 2 south african guys challenged us. We lost horribly but had fun talking to them and soon caught a taxi back to the bus station.
We said goodbyes and boarded our bus. I fell asleep pretty quickly, as the bus was comfortable and warm. I woke up a few hours later in Bethlehem where the bus had, apparently broken down. They were trying to contact a mechanic. I walked around abit, got food at a gas station shop, then fell back asleep. I woke up as the bus was pulling out 4 hours later- i have no idea if we found a mechanic- but the rest of the trip was uneventful. We got back into Maritzburg by noon and walked back to campus.

Wheh, that was a long one but there were so many things I didn't want to leave out. Thanks for reading, I hope you enjoyed. I have to run to class now.

cheers
mark

---

Photos

Simon and the hostel
A show of Simon, the man who runs the backpackers, with the backpackers and a large boulder in the background.

5,000 yr old cave paintings
Done by the Shaman of a Bushman or San tribe. The Shaman would enter a trance, brought on by music and dancing, and have certain important visions. He would then draw his visions and they tribesmen would discuss their significance.

Kyla and Jen at Sunrise
On the left, Jen, a peacecorp volunteer in Butha-Buthe, who put us up for the night on her floor. on the right, Kyla, who I met at UKZN and am traveling with.

Lesotho Nat'l Fower: Spiral Aloe
These gigantic aloe plants grow high in the mountains and you can tell if they are male or female depending on whether they grow clockwise (male) or counterclockwise (female).

Pony trekking in the Blue mountains
In this photo are Kyla and our two Norwegian friends: Maria and Hanna. Notice how far behind I am...

Me, on a horse
At the end of a long day, my words exactly were "Kyla take a picture of the last time I'll ever be on a damn horse"

Sheering Sheep>
We got to stop in a local sheering building, it was a crazy place.

Me + Waterfall
This is the site of the world's longest commercial abseiling- which we did not have time or funds to do, but it was a great spot for lunch, anyway.

Hot Choco with Frodo
In the rain in Bloomfontain, we stopped into Hobbit Inn, a hotel named for JRR Tolkein's Lord of the Rings because, after all, Bloom is JRR birthplace (though they tend to ignore that he left when he was three and never returned)

Comments

[Chris]

Hi Mark I came across your blog the other day.I stay in Maritzburg and have lived here for most of my life. It is so interesting to get an outsiders perspective on life in this country!It makes me want to pack my bags and become a tourist in my own country!Anyway, keep up your spirit for adventure and be an inspiration for the rest of us. Best Wishes Chris

[Erick]

Geographic Names
Hi there. I myself am a Bloomfonteiner. I came across your blog and saw you were here. However as a friend I woul like to ass that The spelling is Impecable except for my hometown. The correct bilangual spelling of Bloomfontein is actually Bloemfontein with in my Mothertongue, Afrikaans, means Bloom Fountain because of the diverse flora that is found in this region. Keep up your facinating yourneys. Best of luck Erick

[mark t]

lesotho been there done that
how cool, i just got back from riding those horse at samonkong four days ago, we stayed 2 nights at the lodge and rode horses to the falls, my son and daughter inlaw repelled down, it took my son an hour to walk up and d.i.l and her friend a doc from baylor univ 2 hours to walk up out of that canyon. my sons a bush pilot there, flying to 18 very isolated mountaneous runways