Lesotho: Kingdom in the Sky

Yes, it’s a country! Lesotho is a small land-locked country in the middle of South Africa. Kim and I travelled there for a week at the end of November for her “farewell tour” to Africa…

Lesotho is the home of the Basotho people. Led by the King Moshoeshoe the Great, they sought safety in the Drakensburg and Maluti mountain ranges. They fought off Boer incursions, allying themselves with the British. Basotholand came under the direct control of the British imperial government in 1884. One unexpected benefit of this was that when South Africa was formed in 1910, Basotholand was a British protectorate and was not included in South Africa, so it never became a homeland under apartheid.

Kim and I rented a car in Grahamstown and drove up through Queenstown, Aliwal North, Zastron and Wepener to enter Van Rooyens Gate at Mafeteng. Lesotho’s freedom from an apartheid past was immediately apparent. The people are more friendly, open, and relaxed – and they still stare and wave at non-Blacks. After 3 months of the complexities of race in South Africa, the simplicity of the Basotho approach was refreshing.


We spent 5 nights under the auspices of Malealea Lodge. These included a 3-day pony trek with 2 nights in the Basotho huts in the villages of Ribaneng and Sekoting. Our Basotho ponies were long-suffering and sure-footed on the steep rocky trails. I could almost fall asleep to the rhythm of their hoofbeats on the remote mountain passes.

At Malealea, we befriended an Italian duo (imagine their surprise when I spoke Italian to them). They told us about “the world’s longest commercially operated single-drop abseil” at Semonkong Lodge. They headed there on their ponies and we asked them to book us lodging. For us, it was a rough 150km drive that took 5 hours, as the final 70km was a gravel road through the mountains. The last 100 metres was the worst – I inched our tiny VW Chico down a rocky pass as people and donkeys plodded by, easily passing us.



Finally, we reached Semonkong (“Place of Smoke”), a misty magical place amidst the mountains where we abseiled 204m down the cliff face of Maletsunyane Falls. A breathtaking, petrifying, 20-minute long total adrenaline rush!