Lesotho

We journeyed to Lesotho, hidden away on the other side of the Drakensbergs. Our trip was to an extremely rural corner of the Kingdom was undertaken in a 4 wheel drive. We couldn't have negotiated the unbelievably dirt roads otherwise. We drove past the Sterkfontein Dam, through the Zulu homeland of Qwa Qwa to a remote border crossing up in the mountains. We were disappointed not to get Lesotho stamps on our passports but as you'll see from the photo their border post was never great & is now abandoned.

Our guide for the day was Power, a local schools teacher. We couldn't visit the school as it was being used as a polling station for the4 national elections, which passed off peacefully on this occasion unlike previous occasions in the recent pats. We did visit another rock art cave & a village pub where we tasted disgusting pineapple beer. No marijuana beer was available at that particular pub, luckily. We also had an audience with a Sangoma, a 67 year old mother of 10, ho asked for payment in cigarettes & money. She specialises in treating colds, chest complaints, headaches & fertility problems (connected?). She also acts as the local midwife.

The houses were mainly traditional round thatched huts. There was no electricity in the area & they have communal standpipes. They survive by subsistence farming of mainly maize, veg., although marijuana is also grown extensively. Their staple diet is pap & wild spinach which we sampled. They keep goats, cattle & sheep. Everything is transported by donkey & horse. They dress in blankets manufactured in Britain from Lesotho wool.

The Besotho were all very friendly & the mountainous valleys they live in were spectacularly beautiful. There was a bit of a panic to get back to the border before it closed at 4 pm but we wouldn't have been unhappy to spend more time there.