lesotho

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Whilst on our travels in South Africa we visited Lesotho. The first thing we noticed was the lack of fences, after barbed-wire mad South Africa. We hired a car in Bloemfontein and so were free to travel anywhere, as long as we stayed on the tarmac roads, you will need a 4 wd for some of the more rural roads which are very rough indeed. We stayed a couple of nights in the capital of Maseru which is a very friendly place with reasonably priced hotels and enough places to find something to eat. Maseru is fairly modern with shops, fashions, technology etc, but it is not unusual to see blanket wearing villagers and the odd horse-drawn cart. We stayed at the Lancers Inn in Maseru which is centrally located and has comfortable rondavels and chalets with en-suite bath. The grounds were fairly large with lots of places to laze on the grass and a swimming pool. There was a good beer garden and restaurant there too. We had heard about the wonderful Sotho blankets, that are still worn all over the country, before we arrived and we were determined to buy at least one. These blankets were originally made in Birmingham England, but today they are made in Port Elizabeth South Africa. We went to the Lesotho Blanket Company to have a look as they carry a large number of them in many different designs. We bought two pure wool ones which we posted back to the U.K. The locals wear them as clothing fastened with a large safety pin, as they are very practical helping to keep the body at an even temperature except when the weather is really hot. The blanket designs all have a meaning, fertility being the main one which is depicted by a maize cob. Apparently young brides wear the blankets tied around their hips until they conceive their first child. One of the most popular designs; which interestingly retains links with British imperial symbolism, features a large crown in the middle. We had wanted to buy this one but unfortunately on our visit the shop had sold out. Another of the more popular designs has British military warplanes on. We still use our blankets to snuggle up on the sofa when the weather turns cooler. We decided bright and early one morning to take a drive to see the Katse dam which our guide book made sound interesting. On the map it appeared that we would be able to make a nice round trip of it ending up back at out hotel. We always prefer to drive to and from things on different routes, it makes things more interesting and seems less tiring on a long drive. The drive took a couple of hours, and although the town of Katse is drab the dam is really impressive even if you are not at all interested in engineering, it is absolutely massive. Apart from the dam there was nothing else of interest for us, so after taking a couple of photographs we headed back to our hotel on what we thought was going to be a scenic route. With every kilometre we drove the road surface deteriorated, until it was quite clear that unless our car magically transformed itself in to a 4 wheel drive we would have to turn round. We had only driven about 10kms and it had taken so long as we were barely doing 10kms an hour. So much for a scenic drive back to the hotel! By the time we finally got back we were very hungry and very thirsty as we had not eaten all day, but thankfully we did have the sense to take some water with us, not that we didn't really enjoy a nice cold beer once we were back! The next place we visited in Lesotho was Hlotse to the north on the road between there and Maseru, there are a few attractions like the caves at Mateka and the woven crafts at Teya-Teyaaneng. Hlotse itself does not have that much of interest except for the remains of a small military tower built by the British, the most interesting thing to see was the set of dinosaur footprints a few kilometres south of the town. They are pretty tricky to get to you have to climb up the rock overhang above the church, so it is probably best to have a guide help you (guides can be found at the Tsikoane Mission), but it will be worthwhile as there are about 40 pretty clear footprints. We stayed the night in Hlotse at the Leribe Hotel which is the towns main accomodation. There are a choice of rondavels or terraced rooms overlooking the pleasant garden. On the night we were there, a beauty contest was being held in the hotel hall. This meant that there was a large number of young single guys hanging round nursing coca-cola's! The beauty contest must have been a great success, because if memory serves it was a very loud and very late night!

Maseru

Lesotho

Caribbean