Our first trip south

I notice that Kit has already shared the fact that I caved and purchased a GPS when we were in Pretoria last!  I was always against the idea of one, as I thought it took the fun out of exploring somewhere new.  That may still be the case, but when we arrived in Pretoria at night last week, I was very happy to have a GPS device to guide us through unchartered areas of the city.  Since then we have put our new TomTom to good use as Kit and I went on a trip south for the first time.  Since we arrived in Lesotho there have been road works on the main road south and this has put us off travelling in that direction.  The time had come, however, to take our first step into these new lands.  Two doctors who had worked with me at the QEII Hospital had been moved, one to Mohale’s Hoek and the other to Qacha’s Nek.  I had promised to visit them for some time, so plans were made.

With the assistance of TomTom we set off last Friday afternoon and successfully found a detour around the last of the road works.  We managed to get to Mohale’s Hoek within 2 hours and in time for dinner with Dr Richard and his colleagues from the district hospital.  Kit and I were given a tour around the hospital, I even gave an opinion on one of the patients.  I was most impressed with the set up.  The building was sound, the wards clean and not overcrowded.  Although QEII has more in the way of equipment to do tests, there was something very appealing about the working environment in the hospital.  I’m not sure what life would be like outside of work though.  After dinner and the tour, Kit and I headed to bed in preparation for our long drive on Saturday.

We picked Dr Richard up after breakfast and headed off further south.  Our destination was Qacha’s Nek (“Q” is pronounced with a click) a town in the far south-west of Lesotho, which until recent years was only accessible by plane, on horseback or with a long detour via South Africa.  The road was long and windy as we drove over mountains, then along the Senqu (or Orange) River, and over more mountains.  We filled up at the last garage selling unleaded petrol and continued on.  The drive was quite beautiful, with scenery unique to this part of Lesotho.  We could easily have been driving through Arizona given the numerous cacti along the roadside.  We took a detour up into the mountains to a lake (Letseng-la-Letsie) for a picnic lunch.  During the drive to the lake, we did not see single other car, and during our picnic we did not see another person.  It was a remote and beautiful spot.  We may have to go back in the spring or summer, when I hear there are some unique flowers in bloom.

We arrived in Qacha’s Nek late in the afternoon.  Our first stop was the district hospital where my other ex-colleague, Dr Patrick, works.  Even though it was Saturday he was busy on the wards as he was going to be on his own in the week.  One doctor for the whole district!  The hospital had a similar feel to the one in Mohale’s Hoek, a well maintained building with warm wards and with some empty beds.  We spent some time catching up with Dr Patrick before calling it a night.  On the Sunday, we made a trip to Lesotho’s only snake park before we headed back to Maseru.  We left at 11am and eventually got back to Maseru at 6pm, a journey which by plane, we found out, takes little more than 30 minutes!

This last week at work has been quite tough.  I have continued to look after the male medical ward, the TB ward, go to the TB clinic as well as the general medical clinics despite my colleague being at a workshops all week.  I did have the help of two new doctors from the DRC (Congo) but at this stage they feel more of a hindrance than a help.  I tried my best to teach as I went along, but the pressure and volume of work prevented me from achieving a great deal.  By Thursday I got myself quite wound up by it all and was really looking forward to the break of the weekend.

And it has been a great break.  Kit and I celebrated 5 years of married life on Friday by going out for a meal; actually we went out for lunch as well as dinner, how decadent!  I had a truly fabulous time reminiscing and planning for the future.  On Saturday, we had planned a hike on a nearby plateau but due to some of the excesses of the night before, we didn’t get out of the house until after lunch.  We went on a drive just to the east of the city in search of the Metolong Dam, only to uncover that it is yet to built!  We carried on along the road and back round in a loop to Maseru.  It proved to be a great little jaunt out, and a potential for an afternoon for some of our visitors.  Today we have played tennis (I won!!), tried to fix the dripping tap in the bathroom (my nemesis) and have caught up with some correspondence.

The weather is definitely warming up.  I have managed to wear flip-flops during the day, but still need the slippers at night... so weird!  We are expecting a quiet few weeks, with no plans to travel out of Maseru until our first visitors of the spring arrive at the end of next month.  I’m looking forward to it already!