Charlie and Pete come to town

 The in-laws had only gone 48 hours when our next guests arrived.  Charlie and Pete showed up at our flat on Wednesday afternoon having already spent several days in Kwa-Zulu Natal.  Although Peter and Sheila brought the first drizzles with them, Charlie and Pete brought the thunder storms!  We had a lovely first evening catching up on what the past 4 months had brought each other.  Our chat was interrupted regularly by cracking thunder and spectacular forks of lightning.

The following morning I woke early and darted off to do some work before we headed up into the mountains for lunch.  The staff and patients in particular were very surprised to see a doctor in clinic at 7:20 in the morning!  I made a good dent in the queue and headed back home for our 9:30 departure to Katse Dam.  The drive was almost as spectacular as the first time we had done it.  The clouds in the sky somehow gave a better perspective on the landscape.  Despite a number of photo stops we managed to get to the dam for a bite to eat before the 2pm tour.  The tour was informative and entertaining... dam fine in fact!  Afterwards we checked into the lodge overlooking the reservoir, wandered around the botanical gardens before settling ourselves on the veranda with a beer for the spectacular sunset.

The following morning we prepared ourselves some breakfast and set off on a long drive through Thaba Tseka and on to Semonkong.  A large portion of the drive was a new for Kit and I.  It was a most unusual experience with glorious blue skies intermingled with fabulous cloud formations and then even snow!  The snow made it on to the news as it is a little unusual for mid-October.  We managed to find an almost idyllic spot for our picnic.  All the boxes were ticked: not too far from the road, a river running past with overhanging weeping willows and some sunshine.  The only problem was the enormous amount of litter.  In every direction there were cans, bottles and polystyrene containers.   This is a real problem in Lesotho and a great shame.  Anyway... we managed to enjoy lunch and completed our journey to Semonkong without incident.

We arrived at the lodge in the afternoon.  It is rapidly becoming our favourite spot in Lesotho and once again our visit didn’t disappoint.  We settled in our rooms and headed to the bar for a game of pool, a drink or two, followed by dinner.  We had a chat and played some pool with two Frenchman who were travelling around the world on their motorbikes!!  They had some amazing tales!

The morning on Saturday brought some clearer skies.  After breakfast we prepared for the main event of the weekend... a 204 metre abseil down besides the Maletsunyane falls.  It is the highest single drop abseil in the world!  The practice session was held just behind the lodge on a 25 metre cliff.  All four of us managed one decent, but then there were only 2.  Don’t worry... Kit and Charlie are still both alive and well... but they simply decided abseiling just isn’t for them!  We drove round to the falls after the practice session which allowed for a little bit of off roading in Jeepy!  In the afternoon the clouds returned so we had a cosy time in front of the fire playing cards.

Sunday morning the weather was again glorious; there was no wind and only a few wispy clouds in the sky.  Pete and I headed off with the crew for our abseil after breakfast.  There was a drive, then a short hike to the top.  We chatted whilst the equipment was set up.  The mood was jovial but then they were ready.  I’ll admit a few butterflies did appear, but I was ready to enjoy this experience.  Pete decided I would go first, so I was attached to my rope and stepped back to the cliff edge.  I leant back on the harness and asked myself... should I look down?  Well, why not hey?  The view down to the bottom of the falls was exhilarating.  I could see one of the instructors as a small dot on the gorge bottom.  I quickly got in to the swing of things and was able to take time to look around as I descended.  Then out of nowhere wind appeared.  The waterfall was blown over me for the bottom third of my journey down and I ended up soaked through to my underpants.  It didn’t take a great deal off the experience, which was superb.  I was safely at the bottom and in the sun, so I stripped off some layers and lay my clothes out to dry.  I now had the opportunity to watch Pete’s descent, which was unfortunately also a rather moist one!  After we dried out we had an hour’s hike back up and out of the gorge.  We stopped to admire the views... and catch our breath!

On our return to the lodge we caught up with the ladies whilst enjoying lunch in the sunshine.  They had travelled on horseback to the top of the gorge to witness their husbands avoiding plummeting to their deaths!  Their morning had been eventful in other ways too... they had had to grovel to the village chief as their horses had roamed off and grazed on lands they shouldn’t have, they also witnessed a man being chased and whipped by 5 men on horseback.  He had been caught committing a crime and was being taken to the police.  After lunch we did the last leg of our journey back to Maseru arriving in time for dinner.  We had take away pizzas and reflected on the weekend whilst we looked through our photos.  On Monday we had to say goodbyes as Charlie and Pete headed off down the garden route (where they might bump into Peter and Sheila).