In which I visit a kingdom

Tim had a four-day weekend beginning last Friday, so we decided to take a few days off from the city to check out The Kingdom of Lesotho. Lesotho, I was surprised to find out, is completely mountainous. While the area where I live is relatively flat (think Missouri), this was nothing like I had ever seen in the Southern Hemisphere. Upon our arrival, we were immediately confronted with mountain upon mountain upon mountain, a veritable smorgasbord of rock and dirt. After navigating a pothole-riddled dirt road for a few miles, we arrived in the village of Malealea, in the west of the Kingdom.

We spent the night in a lodge there and set out the next morning on a Pony Trek. Tim and I each got a horse to ride, while Mom and Dad walked alongside us (since she is allergic). Our guide, Pakane, led us along a dirt road, passing through multiple villages (at which a group of little kids would run after us asking Mom and Dad questions), until we arrived six hours later at our destination, the tiny village of Ha Lebona. From there, we hiked on foot to a waterfall about three miles away before eating and going to sleep in a local hut. I was unconscious by 7:30 that evening.

After a wonderful night of slumber, I woke up at 4:30 in time for sunrise. After going for a jog, I discovered that Pakane had also gotten up so he could prepare the horses. Tim stumbled blearily from the hut, and we were given a quick lesson on saddling horses. We set out for Malealea as early as possible, but within a half hour we were caught in a wet chaos of hail and thunder. We sought shelter under a ledge, where we stayed for another half hour until the onslaught had subsided.

After another couple hours of frigid, soggy riding we came into the sunlight and stopped to let the saddles dry. Dad wanted to give riding a try and Pakane wanted to walk a bit, so they traded positions and Pakane put me in charge or leading the packhorse. He said that he always enjoys having interested boys on the trip, because he loves teaching them about working with horses. After a few minutes of learning the hard way that  controlling two horses is a LOT different from just riding one, I settled into my new role (Pakane also appointed me guide, since he was on foot behind us) and had a lot of fun being in charge of the pace. The pinnacle of my reign as leader occurred when we had to descend into a canyon with steep drop-offs that the horses loved to put their heads over (much to the dismay of Dad, who hadn't had the pleasure of experiencing that on the way to Ha Lebona). As if leading two horses down the rocky trail wasn't nerve-wracking enough, we discovered halfway down that there was another group trying to get up! It being their first day on the trail, they were really bad at handling the horses and were stopped in the dead center of the trail. Without Pakane to help us navigate, I was quite flustered until I saw the helpless British kid in front of me asking "Am I far enough over?", while both of us knew that he was powerless to change his mount's position. Seeing his concern gave me confidence, so I plowed forward, trusting the horses to keep their balance. They did, of course, and were soon rewarded with a lunch break to graze on a grassy spot by the river.

I had given up on a fun day when the thunderstorm came, but it was all forgotten by lunchtime. We found a spot next to the river, where we could swim and climb rocks. Pakane warned that the water might be cold, but after spending time in Yosemite I was pretty sure I'd experienced colder, and waded in with abandon (a bit of an oxymoron, I suppose, but I didn't want to swim with jeans, so I was stuck with wading and head-dunking). After laying out on a big rock to dry, we set off on the final two hours of our trip, during which Tim led the packhorse (and quite adequately, I might add!).

It was incredible to find such an isolated area of the connected world we live in today, and refreshing as well. We met some awesome people (mainly Pakane, but also some Canadian students and a security guy who protects merchant ships from pirates) and saw mountains and waterfalls I had no idea existed! The food at Malealea Lodge was also exquisite, making it pretty ideal as a whole. If any of you ever visit South Africa, I highly recommend taking a trip to Lesotho, if not Malealea specifically. I'm starting to think of it as South Africa's best-kept secret.

Some pictures from the trip--enjoy!

Eating lunch with Pakane on the way to Ha Lebona

Ha Lebona had about 4 families living in it. Ours was the second hut from the left.

If you feel like tilting your monitor sideways, the waterfall was amazing--especially framed by the cliffs and sky like this.

Sunset from outside our hut.

Pre-sunrise picture from my morning run. I don;t think I would've been quite to admiring of the clouds had I known what was going to come out of them in two hours.

Gettin' my guide on!

Home, home on the range...

Took some time after the swim to be lord of all that I surveyed.

View of the river from partway up the canyon. They put in a bridge for people to cross, but the horses are afraid of it so they wade.

There was sign by the entrance to the valley saying "Wayfarer pause and look upon a gateway to paradise". This was the view. Ha Lebona was at the base of the tallest mountain (middle-left of this picture).