Royal visits, the world cup and another trip to Semongkong

Last week the snow hit Lesotho, just as Prince Harry and William arrived for their visit. They were over visiting some projects during the world cup. Our friends Helen and Rich were invited to an official lunch with the royals as representatives of the charity Dolen for which Harry is a patron. Matt and I actually bumped into them one night last week after watching yet another world cup match at the local hotel. I was looking particularly fetching dressed in approximately 6 fleeces and bobble hat!

The world cup has been quite a big part of our lives over the past fortnight. Matt is very interested in the games and I am happy to keep warm in the hotel and soak up the atmosphere! Matt is off to see Argentina versus Mexico at Soccer City this Sunday with Greg and is very excited about that. Hopefully it will be a good match.

Last week the Welsh teachers who have been over here with Dolen left as their 6 month placements had finished. We had some fun leaving parties and had several of them staying at our place – 8 people on a couple of nights – cosy! Helen is leaving next week and as one of our last weekends away together we headed to Semongkong. We had heard news during the week that the snow had blocked the road to all cars except for 4x4s. Well, that news was enough to get Matt excited about putting Jeepy through her paces yet again. We set off early on Saturday and the road was clear of snow (to Matt’s disappointment) although there was evidence of some on the shady sides of the mountains and we passed some stunning frozen waterfalls. The lodge was recovering after a chaotic week of having the Princes and their entourage staying. It was clear skies and sun but freezing temperatures - minus 10 at night!

On Sunday morning we did a 5 hour hike attempting to get to the bottom of the waterfall but were sadly unable to tackle the final 200 metres due to the icy path. It was quite an adventure – less of a hike and more of a slide down and clamber back up for 3 hours!! Bruises to prove it. Matt and Helen tried an alternative route to reach the bottom (whilst I sat in safety taking photos) only for Matt to lose his footing, do a dramatic slide and only manage to stop himself by uprooting a tree! We are heading there for Christmas and are already excited as we were told about the mouth watering menus and glorious weather to expect. I think Matt is keen to take the quicker route down and attempt the abseil.

We are off to watch the Netherlands match now and then heading off to Pretoria for the weekend. Fingers crossed the Lesotho/South Africa border is better as it took us over 3 hours when we came back through after our trip to the UK!! Madness.