Astounding Southern Africa - Aliwal North, Tuesday 2015 March 3


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Africa » South Africa » Eastern Cape
March 3rd 2015
Published: June 11th 2016
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Tseiso Koeshe showing dinosaur footprintsTseiso Koeshe showing dinosaur footprintsTseiso Koeshe showing dinosaur footprints

A cheerful guide with good knowledge
Our travelling schedule reasserted itself: breakfast at 7:00, leave by 8:00. I am sorry to leave the mountains of Lesotho. The scenery is awe-inspiring. The people are welcoming, fully smiling and greeting:”Damela” (hello) “Hi, how are you? I am fine, how are you? I am fine.” “Hello! Where are you from? Canada!” So often, people wave at us or respond to our waves with delight. (Now at 5:15 p.m., I am sitting on a pretty balcony in South Africa, overlooking the Orange River, entertained by bird song all around.)

We drove for about an hour this morning to Roma, named by Italian immigrants. There, waiting at the original Trading Post, was a guide for us. The Trading Post hotels used to be actual trading posts, established in the late 1800s by the family that still owns them. From the first one in Roma, they were set up across Lesotho. Only a few posts still do trading; most are licensed businesses with other operators.

Tseiso Koeshe, nicknamed Tshidy or CD, was our guide on a walk to see dinosaur tracks. This went rather like yesterday, even though Tshidy is 47, not just out of high school. Occasionally he would wait for us late trailers as we slogged a couple of miles almost continuously up the hills on the edge of town. The way was hot and the road/path was quite rocky, and the destination was always “not far now”. Thankfully, along the way there were some great photo shots.

My favourite was very close to our destination. Three herd boys (16 years old we later discovered) were standing by the path with a magnificent mountain valley view behind them. I asked, “Photo?”, and one replied, “Money”. I promptly said, “No”, and put my lens cap on while walking past. His friend cried, “Photo! Photo!” I took his photo quickly, just after the first boy turned his back. Then the second boy asked, “Can I see?” “Of course”, and I showed him the screen. The first boy started up the hill to see also, and I admonished him, “Not you!” He was aghast! Relenting immediately, I waved him over to see, but of course his face was not in the photo and his friend wasn’t sharing much. The third boy avidly looked, but didn’t speak. The first boy imperiously turned to Judy, “Take my photo!” He posed with his dog. They followed us all the way to the dinosaur footprints and exchanged some sort of explanations with Tshidy. Fun!

We could clearly see three footprints of a Lesothosauras Diagnosticus pressed into the mud-turned-to-stone. It was a plant-eating animal, about 1.3 metres tall, walking like a bird. The prints were about as big as our feet. Satisfied with our viewing, we headed back down the rocky path. Fairly near the top, we exchanged “thumbs up” with a silent, immobile toddler who seemed not to have moved since our ascent. Actually, he did start following the last two of our group, and they took him back to his father. At the end of our hike, mango juice and cookies were waiting for us – a welcome treat.

Driving to our next stop took us well away from the mountains, although they loomed purple and ochre in the far distance. Once again we were on the high veldt. Crops were mainly corn and potatoes, then mainly corn (white corn, or maize). Interestingly, many of the century plants (aloes) were in bloom – tall stalks with spiky pale green knobbly “flowers” rising from leaves from two to four feet long.

We arrived at the
Century Plants in bloom Century Plants in bloom Century Plants in bloom

aka Aloe or Agave
Morija Museum and Archives, a bright yellow, single storey building situated up a rocky, rutted road in the town of Morija. A bright curator engaged us in her enthusiasm for the collection, founded by a Canadian with his own personal collection. The history lesson started in dinosaur times – this is a rich region for dinosaurs. She explained very well how the Basuto chased out the San men and “married” the San women, creating the modern Basuto, who are now much shorter than they were historically. She summarized the missionary period (French Huguenot refugees) and the dynasty of the Lesotho kings, including the present day constitutional monarchy. In fact she led us through the history of all the artifacts, resulting in information overload.

Lunch was a picnic out in the backyard of the Museum where there were concrete tables for staff and visitors. The Trading Post hotel had packed lunches for us, including two sandwiches. Sandwiches in Southern Africa are terrible – thinly sliced bread with one or two thin slices of mystery meat. The beef flavoured potato chips tasted slightly better. The can of fruit juice contained 700 calories, being mostly grape or pear juice. Nevertheless, the location and the company were good. The uneaten food was collected for a donation to some guards – not clear which ones.

We continued our trip on excellent paved highways – a program of the government to better link all eleven regions of the country. Herds of cattle and sheep spread out on the vast golden plain. Trees and bushes dotted the landscape.

The border with South Africa seemed to come quickly. The Van Rooyenshek crossing was small – single lane each way. However, quite a number of people were lined up for the efficient immigration checks. As at the Maseru crossing where we entered Lesotho, many people take taxi to the border, cross on foot, and take a taxi to their work in South Africa.

The miles rolled by, except for three areas where the road was being widened. The first one we sailed through, but that was luck. At the next two we had to wait a while before we were allowed to drive on the single useable lane. The last was just outside Aliwal North, where we stayed in Riverside Lodge. Our rooms were tiny and cozy. After writing some notes, I checked out the pool, but it was being cleaned with an automatic vacuum cleaner. So I came back to my room for my camera to get photos of the Orange River. I encountered Elizabeth, so we both did that. My next desire was to drink beer on the veranda of the pub, so we did that too, joined after a time by Betsy and Jo.

Dinner: a huge portion of lamb-neck stew (rich and meaty), green beans and mushrooms, candied carrots, gigantic baked potato, white wine.


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Tranquil evening


12th June 2016

Lousy sandwiches
Sandwiches in Scotland were much the same as you describe - thin and tasteless. It's good that other parts of the cuisine are better, in both places. As for the century plants, the only other place I see them is Arizona. How odd to have echoes of Scotland and Arizona in South Africa . . .
13th June 2016

Sandwiches
Sometimes the world is big place, and sometimes it is remarkably small.

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