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Friday
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Friday was get-away day, with Elizabeth and I deciding that we would
take a road trip to "Sani Pass", located at the far eastern edge of
Lesotho. The plan, if our tiny rental car would allow it, was to go to
Sani Pass on Friday, descend the treacherous mountainside road on
Saturday, then loop around the northern part of Lesotho via South
Africa on Sunday.
Our journey was complicated by our lack of transportation. Public
transportation would not allow us to execute the circuit we desired in
the time we had available, so a rental car seemed the only option.
After considerable investigation, we discovered that our cheapest and
most efficient car rental option would be found in the South African
town of Bethlehem, about 2 hours drive from our hometown in Lesotho. 2
hours driving that is, but as I mentioned, we didn't have a car.
So on Friday, with a multi-leg journey ahead of us, we got an early
start. At 6:30am we were out the door with our backpacks on our back.
The hike into town was cut in half by hopping into a taxi that was
passing by, which we shared with 3 random and slightly surprised Basotho. That taxi dropped us at the mini-bus taxi stand, and moments
later we were whisked away in a land cruiser, accompanied by another 4
Basotho, similarly random and slightly surprised. Direction: South African border.
We walked across the border into South Africa without a problem, though the
inefficiently placed stamps in my rapidly filling up passport made me
cringe. On the South African side we were directed to the nearby bus
station, where, we were told, we could get a mini-bus to Bethlehem. We
located our mini-bus, quarter full when we arrived, and waited; an
hour and a half later we were on the road. By noon we were in
Bethlehem, and by 12:30 we were sitting in our rental car. Four
separate modes of transportation in half a day was an excellent pace,
but that would be our entire output for the day; my personal
single-journey record of 8 forms of transportation would stand. From
Bethlehem we drove back to a different border crossing, stamp-stamped
back into Lesotho, and drove from one edge of the country to the other
in around 5 hours. It was a beautiful drive through numerous snowy
mountain passes (see picture) and I am happy to report that I can now
comfortably drive standard. Soon after dark we arrived at Sani Top
Chalet.
Chillin' in Africa
Saturday
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Sani Pass, located nearby the eastern Lesotho-South Africa border, had
the reputation of being one of Lesotho's most beautiful destinations.
But it also had the reputation of being one of Lesotho's most
difficult places to pass through. When approaching from the Lesotho
side, as we had, the road was moderately rough but very manageable.
However to go from the top of Sani Pass down into South Africa it was
highly advisable, according to multiple travel books of ours, to do so
using a four-wheel drive truck (especially if one was travelling
uphill, which fortunately we were not). But when we ran the idea of
descending Sani Pass in our Lilliputian rental car by a few locals,
they assured us we would get to the bottom, one way or another. On
Saturday morning we took a stroll along the bank of the escarpment to
size the situation up for ourselves. In addition to (yet another)
breathtaking vista (see first picture below), we also got a wonderful
birds-eye view of the steep slopes and treacherous switchbacks we
would soon attempt to conquer (see second picture below). We hiked
back to our accommodation, exited but a little nervous of the journey
ahead. We settled our bill, took a quick picture that had to be taken
(see third picture below), and hopped in our VW Chico, which was
almost literally over-shadowed by a fleet of 4x4s (see fourth picture
below).
View from the top of Sani Pass
Notice the 4x4 to get an idea of scale
A picture that had to be taken
Who needs 4x4?
The descent, it must be said, was difficult: steep slopes, huge
potholes and river crossings gave me, now the passenger, a good deal
of anxiety. Probably the highlight of the descent, not counting the
beautiful views and the fact that we were proving all our guidebooks
wrong, was the collection of comments made by the slack-jawed but
well-meaning drivers of 4x4s making the ascent (all in fantastic South
African accents). Here are my top 5:
5. People are talking about you guys all down the mountain!
4. Good advert for VW!
3. I rubbed my eyes when I saw you!
2. How did you get through the border post in that?
1. Did they airlift you in here?
But yes, we made it. With increased excruciation I watched the South
African immigration officer stamp us in, my traveling power
disappearing under a mural of blue and green ink.
I was incredibly pumped when we arrived at the nearest South African
town because I discovered it was moments away from kick-off of a
Tri-Nations match between the South Africa's Springboks and
Australia's Wallabies. Although New Zealand's dominant All-Blacks had
already secured the Tri-Nations championship for the year, it was
nonetheless a treat, especially after our harrowing descent of Sani
Pass: sitting in an authentic small-town South African pub, cracking
open a cold beer and watching the match: scrums, mauls, rucks and all.
And it's rugby I'm talking about, of course, but I'm sure everyone
already knew that...right? By the way I hope everyone is pumped for
the rugby world cup in '07 and is ready to support the Canucks!
Time only permitted us to watch the first half of the game, which was
one of the lousiest halves of rugby I've ever seen (6-3 Australia at
half). An hour later while on the road listening to the radio, I could
not help but chuckle at the sports reporter's take on the game, which
ended something like 28-25 for South Africa: "The second half of the
game was as exciting as the first half was dull". Ah well.
We spent Saturday night in the town of Ladysmith, most noteworthy for
being the hometown of Ladysmith Black Mambazo, the smooth-sounding
a capella band that helped resurrect Paul Simon's career beginning
with the Graceland album in 1986.
Sunday
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Sunday was yet another driving day, but a very leisurely and enjoyable
one at that. After a few hours driving through South African rolling hills and small
towns, we arrived at the entrance of Golden Gate National Park. You
can drive through the little park in about an hour, but it is
a splendid drive indeed. I'll allow a couple pictures to do the
talking for me...
For me one of the more interesting aspects of the South African
countryside was the striking difference in standards of living between
whites and blacks that still seems to remain, 15 years after Apartheid ended.
I realize that since I didn't visit South Africa in those days I don't know the amount the gaps have narrowed
in that time. I also
suppose it was to be expected that the economic disparities would take
more than a couple decades to disappear. But let's hope they do: the
poor and overwhelmingly black neighbourhoods (or "townships" as they
were once known) situated nearby affluent suburbs whose dominant race
I suspect is not black, are disturbing and shameful relics of days
gone by--and to some extent, of days ongoing.
An all too common South African sight
Ever heard of the massive slum known as "Soweto" near Johannesburg?
Know where the name "Soweto" comes from? SOuth WEst TOwnship. You'll
now find many cities in Africa, including Moshi, whose area southwest
of the city is called Soweto.
We re-entered Lesotho in the late afternoon, while I tried to figure
out whether the remaining space in my passport will last me the year.
Pictured below is a "donga". A donga is sight that can be seen
throughout Lesotho's countryside, and one that represents a grave
danger to the Basotho. A donga is an area of formerly farmable land
that has been slowly eroded and washed away during repeated rainy
seasons. These massive trenches are supposedly forming at quite an alarming
rate, and with growing dongas comes the loss of precious farmland.
They say that unless the creeping dongas are slowed or reversed, the
amount of farmland will shrink to the point of threatening Lesotho's
sustainability. Intensive farming techniques and failure to plant
trees are largely to blame for this phenomenon. To reverse the tide,
the challenge is convincing the impoverished populace to leave land to
fallow or to spend money on planting trees.
There goes a livelihood
We arrived back in Leribe on Sunday evening. Monday was a quiet day
around Leribe, and Tuesday was back to TZ.
In closing my 5-part series about Lesotho, here's an example of
something weird happening while traveling. Apparently since I left
Lesotho a few weeks ago, the country has introduced a new national
flag. Quite the coincidental timing indeed. But what's more, just a
week after I wrote about Lesotho's interesting obsession with hats, I
discovered that the flag has the traditional Lesotho hat as its symbol
(akin to our Maple Leaf). Could it be that the support offered by
Mzungu Days to Lesotho's hat culture actually influenced the decision
to use this particular symbol on the national flag? I would say
possibly.
Lesotho's flag as of 3 weeks ago
Lesotho's flag as of 2 weeks ago
Kea le boha 'm'e success (sorry I forget how to say success in
Sesotho) |
