Lesotho

Beautiful Lesotho – where everyone, literally everyone, waves and smiles when they see you. Lesotho’s motto is Khotso, Pula, Nala – Peace, Rain, Prosperity – and how can you not like a country with a special handshake to go with it?!

Here are a few photos, but frankly they don’t even begin to describe how beautiful the scenery is, how friendly the people are, how peaceful you feel, how fresh the air is, how cute the goats are, how hard the hiking is, or just how fucking terrifying it is riding down a mountain on a pony 😬.

Most people are just subsistence farming, so there are shepherds and cattle herders wherever you go.

This is not Big Five or safari Africa! It’s all about the goats, sheep, horses and cattle.

But it is hiking country, so we hired a guide and a pack horse and set off to explore. Although for me the hike almost stopped before we started when I realised I had to get across what was a terrifying bridge for me!

But it was worth it to see so much of the beautiful mountain kingdom of Lesotho. If you look really closely, you can see at the far end of this valley that bridge we crossed earlier. Depending on how much time you’ve got, there are plenty of great walks across the country from a couple of hours to several days long.

We only had time for a two day circular walk, and here we are walking in to the rural village where we spent the night.

The rondavel next to the goat kraal where we camped…

And a well-deserved South African Pinotage that our lovely pack horse had carried for us all day 😆

Setting off again the next morning during rush hour.

A beautiful spot for lunch under the shade of a willow tree.

Thaba Bosui – where the nation was born. It’s called the Mountain of the Night because it gets bigger at night. Apparently.

Statue of Moshoeshoe, king and founder of the Basotho Nation.

The last time I went on a horse, I promised myself it would be the very last time I did anything that dumb. But I was on holiday and I got carried away with bucolic setting and the romantic rustic surroundings. Looking now at those eyes on this four legged hell-beast, I should have realised this horse was going to take the piss out of me….

But I rode without incident over a beautiful vast plain and up the mountain to see the Maletsunyane Falls with its 192 metre drop (even though I had to get off and walk once we’d got this close to the edge of this cliff!). The thing is, I don’t really like horses and they don’t really like me, and what’s more, I know that they know that I don’t know what I’m doing on the back of a horse, so my sure footed Basotho horse decided to have a bit of fun on the way home.

Say hello to Mbele again. On the way back to the lodge, he took off down the mountain. Now I remembered my briefing and that I should be pulling back on the reins to bring him in line, but by this stage, I was too scared to let go of my white knuckle grip on the saddle! Fortunately, my guide with the help of another jolly helpful Basotho came to my rescue, pulling alongside and getting the beast under control. “Ah yes,” said the guide, “the horses can get a little bit stupid, because the owners usually race them home from here!” 😵 Oh how we laughed.

Well, I laughed after a calming gin anyway 🤣😂

Never going on a horse again though.

The Terrifying Big Cat of Lesotho. It’s such a great country; I know it’s out of the way and mostly forgotten, but if you like hiking, or horse riding, or driving round on motorbikes, if you want to turn off the wifi and get back to basics with lots of fresh air, good food, real fires, local beer and South African wines, then you can’t do much better than the mountain kingdom of Lesotho 😊