I only spent 4 days in this very small country which is slap bang in the middle of South Africa. In those four days I got to see the most beautiful villages, great mountain scenery and met sound very friendly people.
I stayed in a local guesthouse in the capital, Maseru. It was a good 30 mins walk away from the town centre but figured I needed the exercise after all of the camp meals. The guesthouse was a little bit weird as it wasn’t just us mere travellers staying there. I met a lot of Canadian couples there who were in the process of adopting children from the local orphanage. I have seen this before in other countries I have travelled to but not in such a group setting. I guess someone has to look after these poor orphaned babies who lost their parents to Aids. One of them asked me if I was there to adopt a baby and I said no way in the most diplomatic way possible hoping not to offend anybody. Trying to convince them that I was only there to explore Lesotho was awkward to say the least.
I started my first day by taking a taxi to Thabio Basiu, which is a mountain where the Kings of Lesotho and some of their subjects are buried. It took awhile to get up there but the views were great plus I got the taxi driver to come up with me so I had company in case I got lost. Legs killed afterwards but it was a good intro to Lesotho. Except for the bit where I thought I was going to get dragged into a pickup truck and raped and killed. As I left the guesthouse to go into town I was followed by 2 guys in a pickup truck till the end of the road…which was bloody long. They kept making comments, you know the type…sleazy crap and eventually they said they loved me and drove off. I ignored them the whole way and was clutching the only make shift weapon I had on me at the time which as my mum’s pen. Has anyone been stabbed to death by a pen before?
The following day I took another taxi to Mahlealea and Morije. In Morije there is a very small museum on the Basotho People and also dinosaur footprints. Not sure how much of this is true but there it was. Malealea was great. I walked through the most beautiful villages. Beautiful because of all the pretty pink blossom trees. They were everywhere and made Lesotho a pretty little place. I visited the local people and several local pubs where they brew their own booze and god it’s awful and smells bad too but it’s popular amongst the villagers.
I opted out of the famous Basotho Pony rides as I was not into torturing little ponies with my weight. My favourite place in Lesotho.
On my last day I just chilled in the town centre, window shopping and doing what the local kids did and go to the cinema on Tuesday as its half price…only 10 Maluti which is equivalent to £1…cheaper than chips.
