Lesotho (7/30-7/31)

We had one weekend available for traveling, and a lot of ideas. We thought about going north to an elephant sanctuary (too expensive), south to capetown (too far), and lesotho (just right). Lesotho is a land-locked country within South Africa that has its own government and a different culture than South Africa. Tourists visit Lesotho for its natural beauty, with mountains and valleys, and the main recommended activities are hiking and “pony-trekking” on “tough Basotho ponies” (to quote the guidebook).

We decided to use Friday to finish up with our work from the week and prepare for a big presentation on Tuesday, so we went to the airport Friday evening to pick up our rental car. We got a “Picanto,” which is a cute little car, and Chelsea had to be our driver because she's the only one capable of driving stick shift (with the wrong hand on the wrong side of the road). Luckily she had a lot of practice before we got here, so she was really excellent on this drive. Friday night we drove into Bloemfontein, to a trendy restaurant/lounge called “Cubaña.” which I only mention because unbeknownst to us they were having a “Christmas in July” event complete with about three inches of fake snow blanketing the entire restaurant. This was very, very weird:

We woke up early on Saturday morning and headed out towards Lesotho. It is a beautiful drive East, only about 115k, but took us quite a while because there was a lot of construction on the road. At all of the construction points they stop traffic completely in one direction for 25 minutes at a time, then switch and let the other cars go. If your timing is unlucky it can take a really, really long time to get anywhere. We reached Maseru, which is the big city on the way into Lesotho, around 11am. We were searched by customs, showed our passports, and were waved on in to the country. Chelsea and Sameen had been to Lesotho before, and they did not get their passports stamped, so we did not either and continued on into the country. This is foreshadowing for our later adventures.

We stayed in Morija, which is a small town about 45k south of Maseru. The drive through Lesotho was lovely, and out our windows we saw dozens of herders with their sheep and cattle, often wearing Basotho blankets, roaming the fields. Lesotho is a very poor country, and the poverty of the homes and businesses was in stark contrast to the beautiful mesas and mountains as the backdrop on our drive. I snapped some photos out of the moving car:

We arrived at the guest house around noon, ate a few snacks, and got ready for a pony trek. This is basically a trail ride, but on ponies. Our guide, Kefoe, took us on about a three hour ride through the scenic mountains behind the guest house, and then all through the village of Morija. It was very peaceful, and it felt good to be surrounded by nature. The only animals in this part of the country are farm animals, and we saw pigs, goats, sheep, and cows from horseback. In the mountains there are non-indigenous pine forests that smell just like the mountains of California where I usually spend my summers, and it was so refreshing to be there.

Here I am with my pony, Ms. Brown:

Ms. Brown liked to stay at the back of the pack. Here we are in front of a small lake.

One of the coolest things about this ride was going through the village and seeing where the people of Morija live:

At one point we got off of our horses and climbed through a hole in a rock. Here we all are:

We arrived back at the guest house just about in time for sunset at our lovely cottage. We stayed in a three-room cottage for four with our own cozy fireplace and kitchen. It was perfect for us, and this was the sunset view from our little patio:

We ate a delicious dinner cooked for us by the staff of the guest house, and socialized with the other guests (from Texas and Germany). Then we discovered a guitar and an epic songbook, and the camp counselor in me surfaced for a few hours. We sang until I literally could not speak anymore, and then settled in for a rousing game of hearts. It was a perfectly relaxing day in a beautiful beautiful place. We woke up Sunday morning and visited an art gallery and museum quickly in Morija before we hit the road. We had a deadline to keep for the rental car, and because of the construction it's really hard to estimate how long anything is going to take.

What we were not expecting, however, was to be delayed for an hour at immigration leaving the country, faced with potential jail time on the border. Oops! So it turns out you are, in fact, supposed to get out of your car and get your passport stamped on your way into Lesotho. Of course no one told us this, and we were going with the knowledge of Chelsea and Sameen having successfully entered and exited the country a few weeks before, but that doesn't change the fact that we were illegally in the country for 24 hours. It was a pretty stressful time there at the border, where we were told to wait outside of our vehicle on the side of the road as they figured out what to do with us. It was a Sunday and the US embassy was closed (it is literally 100 feet from the border), so we did our best to explain the misunderstanding on our own. With my non-voice from the singing the night before I made a pretty pathetic sight for the immigration police, who listened as we told our story. I would like to publicly thank the Lesotho border police for eventually letting us go, so that we could get our car back (barely) on time, and get to work Monday morning. It was a stressful end to a relaxing weekend, but we certainly learned our lesson.