Mountain top graveyards and dams

I just thought I'd update you on yet another great weekend of travel... I hope you're not getting too board of our stories. This weekend was a special one as we had our first guests come and stay!! My cousin Greg and his delightful fiancée, Elonah came up from Pretoria for the weekend.

I returned from work for lunch on Friday to find, to my surprise, Greg and Elonah having a drink with Kit. They had left much earlier than I had imagined. We enjoyed a lunch before I headed back to work for a meeting with my consultant, more about that in another blog. Whilst I was at work, our visitors caught up on lost sleep. It was then Friday evening, which meant Sesotho classes. We left Greg and Elonah in the garden of the Alliance Francais with a drink each and had our lesson. They used the hour and half to walk around Maseru and inspect the buildings... these funny architects! After class we went for a curry!! It felt odd sitting in a restaurant in Maseru enjoying a butter chicken and naan bread!

On Saturday morning there was a slow amble rather than a flying start to our trip into the mountains. We first had a Skype chat with family in Jordan. Greg's mother, Eileen and mine were enjoying a break near Petra at Gail (Greg's sister's) hotel. It was quite bizarre for family that normally lives in the UK, Sri Lanka, South Africa and Jordan to all be chatting together in one conversation! After the excitement of the chat, we eventually got the car packed. We had to stop off at the mall on our way out of town for some essentials... double sided sticky tape... Jeepy has some new letters which needed sticking on.

Our first stop was Thaba Bosiu, a mountain 30 minutes outside of Maseru where the first king of Lesotho, Moshoeshoe I, lived and defended his nation from the Boers and the British. It is also where he, his descendants and all the important chiefs in the country are buried. It was a good experience, although somewhat tiring and very hot in the midday sun.

After the exercise, we sat in the car and drove up into the mountains. We stopped on the way for a picnic by a stream under a willow tree. It was great... I did some real offroading down to water... a full 30 yards!! After lunch it was off to the second of our dams, the mighty Mohale Dam which holds back a similarly impressive load of water to the first and provides for some great vistas. The dam itself is much less impressive as it is more of a mound than the double arched wall of the Katse Dam. After a brief cup of tea at the Mohale Lodge, we headed further into the interior to our lodge at Marakabei.

The lodge is located by the banks of the Senquanye River in a secluded valley. The building itself showed signs of former glory with a grand reception and cosy bar, but this weekend we were the only guests. The evening drew near, the braai (Africaans for BBQ) was lit and we settled down for meat and beer under the stars. It was a fantastic evening and got a little chilly, for the first time I actually had to put on my jumper!

On Sunday we came back to Maseru after a relaxed breakfast. Greg and Elonah carried on to Pretoria and a further 5 hours in the car. Kit and I waited for the afternoon to start to cool down before playing a game of tennis. I actually managed to win!! Kit blamed her performance on the heat... I'm not so sure, perhaps I was just good for a change!!!