We depart Drakensville Resort at 7:30 AM and head towards Lesotho. It will be a long drive, approximately 8 hours, along rural mountainous roads. The scenery is spectacular....dams that create huge lakes, mountains with colorful out croppings and western US buttes surrounded by large fields of sunflowers....awesome!!
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| Entering Golden Gate Park |
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| River Carved Cave |
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| Colorful Rocks Formations |
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| Sunflower Butte |
Lesotho is a country in
southern Africa, known as the
Kingdom in the Sky because of its lofty altitude in the Maluti mountains— it has the highest lowest point of any country in the world (over 1.4 miles) and is the only country to be entirely above 1000meters!
Lesotho appears to be poorer than Swaziland since its ability to grow crops is limited due to its elevation, cooler weather and lack of rainfall trough much of the country. We cross the border...entering/exiting South Africa appears to be more time consuming than other South African countries; lack of active immigration agents seems to be the cause.
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| Crossing Lesotho Border |
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| Lesotho Countryside |
The drive through Lesotho is along 2 lane roads, expansive countryside of valleys and mountains and small villages. People walk; their access to vehicles being minivans which are the buses/taxis between point A and B. We finally arrive at our destination which is located 5 kilometers (3 miles) from the main road along this exciting rough dirt road. Our accommodations for the next 2 nights; the Malealea Lodge. We will be spending 2 days here hiking trails, visiting a village, school and getting to know the people. See (
http://www.malealea.com/). I would classify this Lodge as rustic and fascinating.
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| Typical Cinder Block or Adobe Homes |
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| Road to Malealea Lodge |
Facilities at Malealea include group cottages, single cottages (one that I'm in) and camping areas. There is a large bar area with a pool table, dining halls for our personal use and a fire area for local get-togethers and entertainment. My room, en suite, is quite nice and clean. One potential drawback is that electricity is available from 5 - 10 PM is due to its remote location; generator electricity only.
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| Main Building - Rec Area + Bar |
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| Cottage 9 - TJW's Abode |
Before dinner, there is entertainment provided by a group of singers and a band from a local village. The singers sing a cappella perform about 8 local songs...some slow...some fast...all beautifully done. Next a group of 5 guys play instruments; 3 string instruments made of 5 gallon gas cans and one percussion instrument made out of a steel drum with a rubber tire tube...the 5 kid sang and danced...this group was featured on British TV years ago when some TV executive saw them perform while he was visiting Malealea....It was a ball to watch their performance and intensity.
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| The Band - Notice Instruments |
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| Local Singing Group |
At the entertainment session, the four young ladies you see wrapped in the red blankets talked funny; like Americans. Being a curious type guy, I went up and introduced myself and I was right, they did talk funny...they were from Houston, Texas. Not only that, they were 1st and 3rd pediatric med students at a Houston hospital doing volunteer work in Lesotho's capital. We talked and I felt a little pride as an American that these young women would volunteer their time to help others. They promised to send me their names so I might include them in this BLOG. Dinner, a game of pool and off to bed because an early morning hike to "Bushmen Paintings" is scheduled. The picture below is a view of the mountainous area from my cottage....zzzzzzzzzz
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| Houston Pediatric Med Students |
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| View from Tom's Abode |
We leave Hogsback Resort area after a wonderful 2 days and head into South Africa's East Cape province which was Nelson Mandela's home base. We enter the town of Alice and the University of Fort Hart where Mandela attended law school before he began his liberation activities. We drive through Grahamstown, the capital of the East Cape Province and arrive at our destination about 3 PM. We are spending the night at the Addo Elephant National Park. The Park is home to the concentration of Addo African elephants as well as Cape Buffalo, lion, black rhino and countless prey, antelopes. The elephants are unique in that only 17% of the female elephants have tusks. We will be spending the night in rooms at a lodge within the Park and taking a late afternoon game drive in a truck. (www.sanparks.org/parks/addo). Facilities are excellent with a nice double bed. Below is a picture of the skull/horns of the various animals including one of a dolphin; no silly, dolphins are not park residents.
