Into the Mountains

Today was a road day. Oh, the roads we saw. It was a warm, clear day, one where you could see forever.

We drove through Maseru, and clockwise through the Lesotho lowlands, and ended up in a place that is anything but lowland. If Lesotho were a clock face, we drove from 9:00 to about 1:00 (it took us from about 9:00 to 3:00).

We stopped in Teyateyaneng (say it five times fast) and visited a... Hmm...What do you call a place where they weave? A weavery? Anyway, we stopped to see some hand-woven tapestries made. The women worked completely by hand: brushing, spinning, as dying the raw mohair, then weaving by hand.

Soon after that, we drove out of the "sandstone" part of Lesotho and entered the "volcanics" part. We dropped by Liphofung Cave, where several-thousand year old cave paintings by the San people are preserved in basalt overhangs.

We continued into the mountains, up over Moteng Pass, at 2840m (9300 ft.), it was not the highest altitude we have ever driven, but it was one of the most scenic routes I have ever seen. Flat-lying volcanic stratigraphy, terraced farming passing into green brush and grasslands, waterfalls, and endless switchbacks, it was more Alps than Africa.

Appropriate then, that we ended up in Oxbow, an Alpine lodge in the Maloti Range, featuring Southern Africa's only Ski Hill. Fortunately for our driving, it is not ski season here, but we did get a nice hike in, to view the Lodge and the actual "oxbow" that gave the lodge its name, from several hundred feet above.

Currently, I am drinking a "milk stout", sitting in a lounge next to a rushing mountain stream. Life is good. Tomorrow, we brave the Sani Pass, Go Dihatsu, Go!