Falling from a great height

We have had an eventful weekend and are now are aching in funny places!! Friday evening was our second Sesotho class. Progress feels slow, but is being made. After greetings (which we missed) and body parts, we moved on to classes of nouns. In Sesotho there are 14, all with different concords (for constructing sentences) and different plural prefixes! I was most interested to learn that in Sesotho there are 3 different words to refer to someone without using their name, translated to "so and so". This apparently allows you to talk about someone in their presence without them knowing!

We started Saturday morning with our second game of tennis. I didn't lose as convincingly this time! More bizarrely, though was that our game was watched from a tree above by a vulture. I felt quite tired by the end of the game, but didn't realised I looked that shattered!! After tennis we returned home to chat to friends having just woken in the UK and about to have dinner in Australia on Skype. Technology is fabulous.

After "Skyping" we popped to Ladybrand across the border with plans to luncheon and pop into some shops. Lunch was really lovely but all the shops were shut on a Saturday afternoon. We therefore came back to Lesotho and played some cards. Although Ladybrand is only a 15 minute drive away this trip did require 30 minutes at the border control and 4 stamps each in our passports! I understand the formalities can be simplified once we have our residence visa for Lesotho.

Saturday evening we were invited to the Scrases for the evening. They are a couple, both doctors, who too have come over from Wales to work here. They were most welcoming and hosted a lovely evening of food, wine and chats.

Now the tale turns to Sunday and our experience of pony trekking. The Basotho pony is a breed of horse most suited to the treacherous conditions of the mountains of Lesotho (fortunately). They are descendants of the Java horse brought to the Cape in the 1600s by the Dutch East Indies Company. They are renowned for their surefootedness and stamina. Our experience of the Basotho pony started shortly after 10am in a town called Morija, an hour’s drive south of Maseru. Our friend Helen had experienced riding out of Morija from her previous trip to Lesotho. The three of us set off up the mountain with our guide Kefoe - a most splendid chap. We slowly made progress around one side of a valley before crossing it to the other. On the way down to the river’s edge my saddle slipped forward, I followed, much to the displeasure of Tina, my horse. She promptly leant forward and down I went. Apparently it was quite a graceful slide off the horse and onto a grass verge. I must say I didn't feel to graceful lying there with my left foot still stuck in the stirrups looking up at Tina's bemused face! Fortunately I wasn't harmed physically and was able to get back up into the saddle for the ride up to our lunch stop. I kept a close eye on the saddle hereafter and got quite good at dismounting to correct it when I saw it move. The ride was fabulous, there was some discomfort, especially when Tina started to trot after the others, but the views made up for it several times over. We have agreed to go back soon when I have been promised equipment more in keeping with my size.



My final bit of news is that we have just returned from a Monday afternoon game of tennis which was disastrous. I lost the set to love!! I'm blaming the aching bits after my 3 ½ hours on Tina!!