Lovely Malealea

I’m sitting in our flat after a gorgeous weekend away looking out at a most tremendous hail storm beating down on Maseru.  I have never quite seen anything like it.  The rain is thick and horizontal, even obscuring the view across the road, and the hail stones are filling up our balcony!!  I must not be too distracted as I have a blog to write...

 

Friday night was the start of our Sesotho lessons.  Having missed the first week, which was greetings and family, Matt was overjoyed to discover that the topic for Friday’s lesson was on parts of the body (litho tsa ‘mele).  He then competed with the Sri Lankan dentist to find out all the necessary Sesotho words for their respective work.  I now know how to say I have a chest infection and to ask which tooth is hurting!!  After lessons, our friend Helen came back to ours for dinner, which was fun!

 

Saturday morning, after rehydration, we headed off south of Maseru to a place called Malealea.  After a 1 ½ hour drive we arrived at a gorgeous lodge.  It used to be a trading post but now has a mixture of rondavels and farmhouse buildings for people to come and stay.  It’s used as a base for pony trekking and hiking into the surrounding mountains.  We are starting to get a feel for how small Lesotho is, as on arrival in the lodge we bumped into a couple we met last weekend at the eighties party!  As we were heading out of the city for a relaxing weekend, they were heading into it for another weekend of partying... Matt and I are officially old!!

 

We left the horses/ponies breathing a sigh of relief as we decided to head off on foot, down into the Pitseng canyon and rock pools.  Clutching our photocopy trail map, determined to manage without a guide, we headed off out of the lodge gates.  One hundred yards later, a young school boy joined us and pointed out we had missed the turning!!!  Matt, the human sat nav, did not look impressed.  He blamed the lack of compass (we’d left it in Maseru) and the dodgy photocopy!  Fortunately “Vicks”, the school boy, had completed his chores for the day and was very keen on being our guide.

 

We walked for 3 hours up and down craggy rocks, past giant aloe vera plants, and through maize fields with Vicks chatting to all the herd boys along the way.  There were some amazing vistas (photos to follow).  We followed the Pitseng river and lunched by some rock pools, after a most inelegant crawl on my belly to get to the ledge where we could sit and eat.  Vicks really put us to shame as he shot up and down the rocks like a mountain goat, in bare feet even, whilst Matt and I huffed and puffed!!

 

In the evening, back at the lodge, we were entertained by a local choir and band.  Both were very good; the band however, had all homemade instruments and were most enthusiastic about their music and dance....

 

... I just got distracted by a hailstone landing in the living room... this is one amazing storm...

 

...The sun set as the band played their last number.  The gong went for dinner, which was a relaxed affair of home cooked pap, spinach, beans, and... half a cow!  I chuckled when a vegetarian lady came in and asked the cook what she could eat!!  After dinner we sat and chatted to a couple from Pretoria and watched the lightning storms over the mountains in the horizon... spectacular.  Electricity was off at 10pm but we didn’t manage to stay up till then... perhaps we are really getting old!!

 

We awoke to beautiful sunshine and clear skies and set off after breakfast on a 4 hour drive back along some windy tracks, over mountain passes and through beautiful valleys.  I think Matt was really happy spending Valentine’s day with Jeepy – his new love (see photos)!!

 

The storm seems to be easing, so I might risk connecting to the internet!