Sani

The weekend was incredible. We left on Friday and meet Suzanna's mother at her cottage in Leribe (about 1.5 hrs from Maseru). We picked up Phil from work, and headed directly toward Sani Pass. The weather was a bit overcast as we began to climb through Butha-Buthe then up, up, up through several different passes, the highest at about 3240 meters. The road was paved through this part of the drive, and the Toyota truck had no problems curving up the hairpin turns. We passed Oxbow, and the beautiful lodge right on the river there. Then we went through the area where people ski in the winter. The ski slope is just a hill with what looked like a rope tow, not a chairlift, though I could be mistaken. The sun came out again once we got to the top of the highest pass and headed down toward Mokhotlong. In Mokhotlong, after 3.5 hours of driving, we stopped at an orphanage – Touching Tiny Lives – to drop off some clothes that were donated through Lauren. This orphanage takes in kids affected by HIV and TB.

It was approaching 6 p.m. and with the sun going down at 7 p.m. We headed out from the orphanage pretty quickly. We were told it was still 1 hr 15 min to Sani Top, and driving in the dark is ill advised. We turned off the main road in Mokhotlong and made our final ascent to Sani Top. The road became dirt, but it was well made, like the dirt roads I used to drive up in Shaftsbury, VT. The hairpin turns were crazy though, and we had to drive through some mini-rivers. My guide book said it was 60 km from Mokhotlong to Sani Top, so when it was 7 p.m., dark and cloudy and we'd only gone 30 km, we were all pretty on edge. But then the best thing happened. We came upon the sign for Sani Top! The guide book was wrong. It was one of the few times I was really thankful for misinformation. We pulled into the lodge at 7:30, and were expecting to be herded over to the Backpacker's part, but the owner took pity on our long day and late arrival and gave Sarah, Suzanna and I a room in the main lodge. And dinner...which was great. The inside of the lodge felt very medieval, dark, with big soup bowls and hearty bread. The furniture was deep brown, and sturdy. We could have been in the Alps or anywhere. I crashed pretty early on a full stomach, in a warm bed. Oh yeah, it was freezing up there. Well, not really. But it was probably in the 50s, which in comparison to when we left Maseru, was really freakin' cold! Fortunately, we'd brought warm clothes.

I woke up around 5:45 a.m., just missing the sunrise, and ate a big breakfast of granola and yogurt. Then the day really began. The five of us headed out into the bright sun, and hiked, hiked, hiked. It's not really hiking here, like at home where you follow a trail. You just pick a destination and walk there, through valleys, past cows and sheep and goats. And then up the grass and rock covered hills (10,000 ft hills!). We went over the ridge in front of our lodge and found that there was a huge long ridge of mountains to hike around, so that's what we did. Up one peak, down the other side, then up another, and down. There were so many sheep and cows and horses just grazing up on the highest parts where we were walking. And there were several shepherds and dogs.

After about 4 hours, we came across a shepherd who we thought was following us. After some very bad communication, we realized that he was trying to help us find the right way down, so that we would cross the river in the valley at the easiest part. It was funny because we had no idea what he was saying to us, but he just kept talking as if we did. He was probably about 20 yrs old, and really had such a sweet demeanor that we really wished we had been able to communicate. So, after we got across the river, we thought he was go back to his animals, but instead he followed us for two hours all the way back to our lodge. Actually, he wasn't following us, I decided. He was walking behind us to herd us...like he does with his animals. It was really pretty funny. Actually, it was really good that he was there because I attempted to walk down one part of the hill, not seeing the shepherd rondavel beneath me, nor the protective dogs. So I probably would have wound up with bite marks all over me....at best.

We hung out in the lodge for the end of the afternoon. After 7 hours of walking, we were all pretty wiped out, and were basically counting the minutes until dinner was ready. I'd never been so happy to see overcooked and unidentifiable meat in my life!

The trip did not end there, though. After breakfast on Sunday morning, and after meeting and considering adopting a dog at the lodge, we made the trip down the pass into South Africa. Trip is an understatement. It was definitely an adventure! We had thought the hairpins coming up to Sani Top were intense. Well, the way down was not only steeper with sharper turns, but the road was a boulder field. Seriously, it was just strewn with rocks and gullies big enough to swallow the truck tires. It was only about 8 km, but it took us an hour!

We got our passports stamped at the S. African border, and thought we were home free. But the road continued to be dirt, and though it was better, we still couldn't go over 40 km/hr. Since we were driving the length of the Drakensburgs, we decided to stop somewhere relatively on the way to the highway, so we picked Kamberg. The area is known for it's San rock art cave paintings and the Rock Art Center museum. We thought it would be an ideal stop to break. Well, it started to rain about an hour before we got there, and then when we finally arrived (4 hours after we left Sani Top), everything was closed for the weekend. Thus, we head back toward the highway, with high hopes of a speedy return to Maseru. Well, we didn't get to the highway until 3:30 p.m. (we left Sani at 9 a.m.), but it was paved, so we were all excited.

We decided to go through Golden Gate National Park on the way into Lesotho, hoping to see some animals and the cool rock formations. Well, even though we had been in the car for the whole day, and we all really wanted to get home, the detour was well worth it because...we saw wildebeests! And eland, and bushbok. We had our own little safari. It was amazing, especially to see the wildebeests. They were out in the field romping around with each other, running so fast and staring right at us. It was invigorating.

Oh, and we also saw baboons on the way into Golden Gate. We steered well clear of them. They can be pretty ruthless with attacking passing cars!

So yeah, then we headed into the Caledonspoort border post at 7:00 p.m. And yeah, we had problems. You're supposed to get three month tourist visas to be in S. Africa, but no one told us, so we didn't get them, and the Elkins' were expired, so tired, cranky and ready to be anywhere but still traveling, we had to wait for the bureaucracy to finally agree to let us through. Obviously, they did, and it could have been much worse, but the whole thing was ridiculous because the guy who stamped us into S. Africa should have been on top of the visas.

We arrived in Leribe at 8 p.m., planning to drop off Phil and then head to Maseru. But it was so dark, and as I said, you really don't drive here in the dark, so Sarah and I stayed at the Leribe Hotel, and Suzanna stayed with her parents. We got a cab back to Maseru at 6:45 this morning, and made it to our 8:30 a.m. staff meeting.

My day was all office, getting ready for my trips out to the districts this week. Berea tomorrow, Leribe on Wednesday and Mapoteng on Thurs.

Photos are up from the weekend on Flickr.