All righty, so I think that I left off the last story of my trip to Lesotho with myself and Kate hoping on a mini bus taxi in Mphaki and heading on our way towards Quthing. So we arrived around 10:30ish in a town or a cross roads nearby to Quthing. Where we were informed we could go and see Dinosaur foot prints!!! (Super exciting eh?) So we wandered back up the road after getting directions to the foot prints. We walked and eventually we saw a sign on one side of the road saying Dinosaur Footprints. So we went on in and got shown some petrified dinosaur foot prints in the rock. They were small little foot prints, maybe about 4-5inches long and there were loads of them. Really cool! The guy who showed us the foot prints said that they had only recently been protected (1999) as a find but they were in amazing shape. Unfortunately I have no clue (and nor did the employee) know which dinosaur made the foot prints. They had only a few small fossils of bones in their guest shop. But I did see real dinosaur foot prints and I have the photos to prove it!
After that Kate and I hopped into a minibus heading to Maseru and we got the most comfortable seats ever! We got the passenger seats in the front of the minibus! (I found it so very comfortable, Kate preferred a seat where her bag would attach her in for sure, I liked the view and leg room!). We arrived in Maseru after driving through (What must have been) the flattest part of Lesotho. It was beautiful and filled with farming land. In Maseru we started the effort of working on finding a place to stay. Most of the time the Lonely Planet Guidebook is up to date and has amazing maps that make it really easy to find a place to stay. I Kind of wish that this guidebook was a bit better for Maseru (or that Maseru would have better road sinage...). Anyways there is a story behind all this bitterness. So we wandered around the taxi stands looking for a cab to take us to Maseru Backpackers and Conference Centre. Which we thought would be easy enough to find (provided that we even had a map and everything!). So we asked around at the taxi stand (This was after Kate and I had discussed about asking people). We ended up finding a very eager young man who wanted to take us there. We asked him to get us to a taxi so that we could take a cab to get to this location. And he wanted to walk us to a taxi. We went with him on a bit of a city tour. He took us towards another taxi rank where we asked a driver if he knew the directions to get us to Maseru Backpackers and after looking at the map he gave us directions towards a guest house in that general direction. So this guy we had leading us was very eager that we would give him some money for helping us find the location. And we were really not in too much of a bargaining position. Eventually we found our way towards some characteristic road intersections that we (Kate and I) used to figure out where we were on the map. The guy that we had was leading us in the wrong direction and I was convinced that we needed to go the other way. So I stopped us and said (quite strongly) that I believed that the road we needed was back the other way. So we went back and walked along for a while, before we got frustrated enough with our friend (who was insistent that I was heading the wrong way) that we gave him 15 maloti to thank him for his help. After this we wandered down the road a ways before realizing that the Backpackers that we were looking for wasn’t quite as close as we thought it was. So we walked back as we had seen a wonderful military base thinking we could ask for directions there. After a while we had 3 military guys all trying to decipher the Lonely Planet map and one tried to call the phone number (and called the wrong number). But luckily a fourth guy who knew about the place but under the name Lesotho Durham Link was able to confirm that it was just down the road a ways. So we walked all the way down the road, way past where we had earlier been and walked down a dirt road way to Lesotho Durham Link (Which was just wonderful). So we checked in for the night (each of us getting a separate dorm room (we really lucked out with having separate rooms!) and paid that afternoon so that in the morning we could have an early departure. That evening we were both hankering for a good bite to eat (we had survived on Nuts and fruits for the last almost 36-40 hours). So we went out and flagged down a cab and asked the driver and the other passenger for advice for a place to eat. The passenger (assuming that because we were white that we wanted the best restaurant in town) pointed us to the luxury hotel and casino Lesotho Sun. We arrived and asked about the costs and we decided that we didn’t really want to pay for a ridiculous meal. Instead we got taken (at no different cost then we had negotiated) to a mall where we were able to go to Spur. Spur is an interesting restaurant for Canadians in the readers it is like Kelseys meets a bit cheaper style of roadhouse grill food, (For USA read TGIFs). The thing about it is that it is always a very interesting experience with the decor. It is sort of Western style theme but it meets the western style theming with a mixture of diverse native American decorations. Just very mix-matched. That was fine though as we got a good greasy bit of meat that also had fries.
That night we crashed back at the LDL(Lesotho Durham Link) and woke up early (and well rested) ready to travel on towards Semonkong. So we got to the bus stop for about 7am thinking that we would catch the bus on time. But that wasn’t quite how it worked out. We got onto the bus and sat for a while. (Unfortunately we didn’t make a wise seat choice and picked the wheel to sit on so we had to cramp our legs up for the ride). Fortunate for me they took my bag and tossed it on top of the bus! It was always a blessing to not have to have it on my lap (70L is way too big for southern Africa. It may work well for Europe and the States but not for cramped busses... I am probably downsizing for December). The Bus ride was just stunning. We bumped along (I think that is a great term to describe it) dirt roads up and down and in between mountains. Just stunning! We had a brief stop at about halfway to rest and stretch and to go to a store. Kate and I were among the last people off of the bus and we thought we had enough time to make it to the store and back. We ended running to get on the bus before it left! But we got on and made it all the way to Semonkong. When we arrived in Semonkong we met a guide from Malealea lodge who was there at Semonkong to run a fishing trip and he offered to walk with us to get to the Semonkong Lodge. We walked through the local town and it was just beautiful. Obviously not a rich community but an agriculture dependent community, as we walked past small herds of sheep and cattle. On our way down into Semonkong Lodge (the lodge is nestled into a valley!) we saw a group doing Abseiling lessons. Abseiling is rappelling down a cliff. It is really cool. We arrived at the lodge, checked in, and got given a tour of the facilities and settled into our beautiful Rondavel dorm room. (space to sleep 6 with a fireplace to keep us warm at night, a hot shower and a big 5 gallon jug of water!)
Kate and I just settled in and rested for a bit before talking about which activity we would like to do. After weighing in the Cost and time commitment of the Abseiling (Which was 800 R or so and 2 days in the lodge...) we decided that it would make more sense to go horseback riding for a day instead. So we decided to walk into town and find a grocery store so that we could make a lunch and our breakfast for that day. We had a wonderful wander through the streets and there were all of these shack shops that were painted in various flags for the world cup, so cool! That evening we ate dinner at the lodge which was just deliscious and so good to eat a proper meal. and Then that evening, two friends whom we had met in Maseru at LDL arrived to spend the night. They were an Israeli couple who had just finished their mandatory military service and were travelling from South Africa to Ethiopia in the course of 8 months. They shared our dorm room which was just wonderful! So we had a good chance to hangout and chat with them for a good bit of time. The Next morning Kate and I were both up nice and early so that we could make breakfast and lunch for when we were heading out on the horses. We then went and met our Guide for our horse ride. Please do note that this was my first solo ride on a horse and I think I learned quite a bit. We went up and out into the rural country near Semonkong and rode our horses to the Waterfall where we sat and just enjoyed looking at it (and even saw the same group of abseilers as the day before start abseiling down!). From there we rode even further into the country and went out past a lot of really beautiful picturesque rural communities. They were little communities that had some farm land, and flocks surrounding the area near the homes. Just beautiful. We then climbed up a mountain and sat and had a bite to eat next to a couple of spiral Aloe. (please see the photos on flickr!)
Unfortunately I had a really stubborn horse. He would stop at random, mark his territory, and try to go his own way. Luckily I learned really quickly to click at him and kick him to get him to move (though he really didn’t like to get moving...). That was frustrating but still a lot of fun. We ended up nice and saddle sore so by about 2pm when we arrived we were just stiff and ready to stop and rest for the rest of the day. The Israeli Couple that we had met were just about to head back towards Maseru that same day and invited us to join with them in their car. But Kate and I after discussing what we wanted to do decided that we just wanted to have a chance to stop and rest for an afternoon (to be able to stop travelling and just to rest.). So we turned down their offer and just stayed put for the afternoon. I spent some time in the area near the river just journaling and resting there by the river. Kate had a nap.
After that we took another walk into town to find some lip balm (for chapped lips) and to find myself a blanket (A Basotho Blanket). So we walked to the same grocery store that we had been at the night before to find lip balm, and in the same shop I found a beautiful Basotho Blanket (It is blue and black and has corn on it!) on sale as well!
That night we spent back at the Lodge, and had dinner (before realizing that we wanted to pay off our bill that night! And making one of the employees open up the office for us). For dinner that Night I had a saddle of lamb with apricot filling. It was really tasty and really fatty. Unfortunately that night I didn’t sleep very well as I had a horrible problem with a bad stomach cramp that kept me running to the washroom every 20 min or so. Eventually it passed but I still took an Imodium to settle my stomach before hitting the road again.
I guess I am really behind on how far I need to be on blogging about travelling so I am going to hopefully get it all up to date before tomorrow night. But so you have an idea of what has been happening/is going to be happening this week. Tomorrow night I am going to see Allan Boesak give a lecture on the Theological Underpinnings of Empire (He is a key figure in South African Theology). Which is super exciting for me as I have read only a little bit by him and it is stellar theology. Other things that have gone on... This past weekend being Thanksgiving was very tough for me. I realized Saturday how much I was missing people back at home. And that was my experience of the weekend in particular. But I have been hearing from some friends and that is always wonderful when I hear stories (and can also share more stories!).
Sorry about the length (If you made it this far I see that you slugged through the lengthiness of my writing) but it is a part of my spiritual heritage that I am in touch with! My Lutheran Preacher heritage which makes me long winded.
Anyways Peace and Blessings!
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