Lesotho and Eastern Free State January 2019

Just to break the endless days of sun and surf and wine and food, we took a road trip to visit Priscilla in Westminster and to visit Lesotho. A secret wish I've had is to ride a Basuto pony, those wonderful horses that can navigate the narrowest, stoniest paths in the Maluti mountains. So after dropping off Chloe and Pete at George airport we set of to enjoy the Karoo, heading for Lesotho via Springfontein.


The long, straight road. This is not mist, its haze from the heat. Temperature here is over 30 degrees, sometimes over 35 degrees. The countryside is beautiful with blue mountains in the distance












This is the Karoo I know, my Karoo. The flat landscape with the blue mountains still on the horizon. They will soon give ways to kopjes. And the windmills, everywhere the windmills. The blue, blue sky, agh, man, its home!




We drove from the Western Cape and inte the Eastern Cape. The scenery is beautiful, but its dry, I believe there has been no or very little rain. We pass Uniondale, no need to stop here, pass Willowmore, no need to sop here either, we had coffee here two years ago, but we did stop in Aberdeen. That is Aberdeen South Africa.  Had to take a photo for Scottish John.



Besides many towns in South Africa called Something Fontein, there are almost as many towns named after Scottish towns and cities. This little Aberdeen is a little town serving the sheep farming community.



For such a out of the way place there are a number of coffee/lunch places and Bed&breakfasts. Not sure why people stay over here. It was HOT in Aberdeen, we got real homemade ginger beer in this coffee shop. Surprisingly quite a few rather chique looking local ladies dropping in for a coffee. You can't judge a book by its cover of a town by its...........emptiness!

And so we continue our journey to Westminster via Springfontein. The well known Karoo kopjes.

More and more the kopjes start to look like this- We were always told the the Karoo used to be a sea, but reading the lastest research reports I cannot find any reference to a sea. Instead I found that millions of years ago, a mountain range that would have dwarfed the Andes mountains stretched over what is currently the southern most tip of Africa. Remnants of these mountains, called the Gondwanides, after the massive supercontinent, Gondwana over which it stretched- once spanned the southern continent of South America, Antartica, South Africa and Australia, and parts of it now form mountains near Cape Town. The Karoo tells a 100 million-year long story of

the supercontinent Gondwana.

 So far we have driven through the Western Cape and the Eastern Cape. We passed through the lovely town of Graaf Reinet and after Middelberg we were in the Northern Cape for a while.

Suddenly we were in the Free State, having crossed the Orange River. Just managed to get a photo.

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Springfontein is a railway junction, a cattle and sheep farming area, and it is also the place of a concentration camp during the second Anglo-Boer War. There is not much to see in Springfontein but this B&B was recommended by the Plettenberg Bay people, it being halfway between Johannesberg and Plett.  And the proprietor has cashed in on that. He has established a most unlikely B&B on the outskirts of the town. It is a jewel of a place, an old house decorated in the victorian style, with a swimmingpool, gin and tonic, a large dining room where a three course dinner is served. Cattle grazing the the field behind the pool.

The pool area with the house

It was hard to leave this oasis and head off for Bloemfontein. Carl had to send off stuff from Postnet and I had started coughing and needed something so we spent some hours in this city. It was OK, dusty and windy. And then we had to try to find Westminster.

Westminster is a village  98 km west of Bloemfontein. It was founded after Second Anglo-Boer (1899-1902) by the Duke of Westminster to settle British ex-soldiers. The Duke bought nearly 10 thousand Morgan of the fine grassland. This cost 8 pounds a morgen. On the north side of this area he established his home and build the Big House, now known as the Estate House. The rest of the land was divided into farms of about 400 morgen and a house and a stable were build on each. Water was found for each farm, a windmill erected and then the farms were settled with men and women from England.

The beautiful estate house. We visited the house although the owners were not there. Priscilla is friends with the owners and they were happy to let her show us around.

The plans of this Herbert Baker designed house

Of course the Duke of Westminster would have suitable stables for his horses. This is luxury accommodation for the horses.       

Priscillas lovely stone house in Westminster, which is not a town or a station, just a lot of farms out in the countryside.

The best place to be, the Stoep!

One of the beautiful views

Another view of Priscillas castle

Three of the 11 cats

Two more

Tea time on the Stoep

Beer time on the stoep, with the two Great Danes

Visiting the neighbours in one of the original houses

Posing Great Danes

Posing Great Danes with via wider view

Sunset in the Eastern Free state.

Next stop Semonkong in Lesotho. Although Carl does not have to sit in the back of the bakkie all the was to Lesotho. 

Two wonderful relaxing days on Priscillas farm, must mention the delicious leg of Mutton we were served. Came with Tess, sheep farmer from the neighboring farm.



And then it was time for Semonkong, Place of Smoke, in Lesotho. We drove in two cars because Priscilla was only staying one night
The 130 km from the border to Semonkong took over three hours, not because of the condition of the roads which the Chinese had recently built, but because the road climbs up to over 2000 metres, winding up and down, mostly steep and too beautiful.
We noticed this scene a few times on the way. Never managed to get a photo but cheated by taken a photo of a painting in out rondavel.

We entered Lesotho at Maseru, the capital city, but we did not go inte Maseru, just skirted around. It appears to be a very spred out city.

Lesotho is called the Kingdom in the Sky.

Information from Africa Travel Magazine: A land of mountains, Lesotho is the only country in the world which has all its land lying at altitudes in excess of 1500 m above sea level, it is a land of heights and extremes. The mountain, Thabana-Ntlenyana is at 3 482 m the highest in Southern Africa, while the highest single drop fall int the Southern Africa Maletsumyana is 192 m, having the highest abseiling cliff in the whole world at 204 m.


Entering The Kingdom in the Sky!

Too many photo opportunities along the way. We could had taken 100 photos and not being satisfied. Were fascinated by this mountain. Yes, well,  what does it look like?

The countryside and a settlement.

A very typical scene in Lesotho. This one taken from the lodge in Semonkong. Men, mostly men, on horseback trekking up the mountain.

Just outside our rondavels places to sit and enjoy the view, the morning coffee of an evening glass of wine, or something stronger.

Our fabulous rondavels. perfect for two people. Our pet horse grazing outside. There was no electricity from 20.00 to 08.00. Some problem with the supplier.


Now its at last time to ride a Basuto pony. Some information on the Basuto Pony:
The Basotho pony is famous for its stamina, docility, extremely hardy hoof, endurance, good temperament and sure-footedness.

According to the FAA of UN, the origin of the Basotho Pony can be traced back from that of the Cape horse, which formed the foundation stock. Horses with first sent to the Cape by the Dutch East India Company in 1652. They were Java horses of a strong Person and Arab strain.

The first horses appeared in Lesotho around 1825, captured from the Zulu and later from the Boers. In 1870, the Basotho Pony was known among Europeans as a type. Export of the ponies started, and their fame spread throughout South Africa and became enhanced during the Anglo-Boer War. This horse has been developed through natural selection.

The horse is a source of pride in Lesotho and there are a large number of competent riders in rural areas. In some areas of the country, there horse is the only alternative to traveling on foot, and horses are used mainly as a mode of transport over the rugged topography of Lesotho.

And now this elegant, famous horse is to take Carl on its back for a 3 hour exciting ride to the waterfall, the place of smoke.

Along the way in this very rural area we pass a shepherd with sheep and dogs. The famous Basotho blanket is always present, summer of winter.

The waterfall looks rather insipid at the moment, it being the dry season.

But it is 192 m high and is much more like a waterfall in the wet season. But the abseilers, abseiling next to the waterfall are probably quite happy. They get very wet when the waterfall is full.

Scenes along out way to the waterfall. Everywhere we see men riding horses and often with two or more donkeys loaded down with bags of mealie meal, or even cases of beer and probably a lot of other provisions. They are on their way up to their villages higher in the mountains, where there are not roads. Our guide told us the the donkeys are also used to transport the produce to the market towns. They grow mielies, spinach and a variety of other vegetables.

There could not have been a more perfect photo to illustrate the way people dress here, and of course the mode of transport. The men all where white rubber boots, balaclavas and wrap themselves in their very special colorful blankets. The blankets sometimes have religious motives. The balaclavas are pulled down when its cold and rolled up when its warmer. The boots are always there. We asked if they are always white and heard that they could also be green, but it depended on the choice of the buyer. We saw only white rubber boots. We wonder if the  boots fashion comes from the mines, where most of the men work, the mines in South Africa that is.

And the donkeys really are on the lowest wrung. They really have to work, carrying heavy loads up and down the mountain.  The lodge where we stayed had a pub called the Duck and the Donkey. The lodge organized donkey rides into the village for a pub crawl. This was not something I wanted to do. poor donkeys!

But a Basotho pony, thats quite Ok. All decked out with a helmet and ready to roll, as they say. Just not to roll off.  These wonderful animals were so sure of themselves we though they came a little to close to the edge of the ravine for comfort.

Carl gearing up, with out guide behind him. He told us he had completed  12 years of schooling, was 22 years old, lived in his village and worked as a guide. He was considering going to South Africa for
work.

Carl sharing breakfast with a friend.

And then back to Plettenberg Bay.

Literary travels through Africa

During the autumn term of 2018 I attended a course in Literary travels through Africa at a Folkhögskola.  Besides literature from Mozambique, Botswana, Angola and South Africa, we studied literature from Zimbabwe. And Zimbabwe was the country where we travelled to meet authors and publishers of the books we read. One can say that the trip was organizationally quite  relaxed  and we were not always sure about how, where and when, but we had a fantastic program which we somehow followed and enjoyed immensely.

Fifteen students and two teachers left Sweden from different airports on 29 October. Here are the expectant literary travelers waiting for a connection to Harare at Joma Kenyatta airport in Nairobi.

Arrived in Harare and bundled into two taxis for our fist sight of Harare. Funny how taxi drivers find the most trafficked roads!

 Here Susan and Angelica är posing outside our  B&B in Avondale, Harare. the B&B is called "Its a Small World". Its a Small World is quite a simple, but an interesting, or shall I say, challenging place. Avondale appears to have been a very wealthy suburb of Harare. Still big mansions behind high walls, but looking a bit sad.

It was wonderful to have Angelica and Susan on the trip. We have known each other for many years and Susan is the one who encouraged us to study with Folkhögskola. Throughout the trip we three shared rooms and had a lot of support in each other. Even though we mixed individually with the others and made good friends, it was good to always have each other to go back to.

And here we are, the triplets, as we became known!

Our first evening in Harare, no food at the B&B, where to get food, what to eat, who knows, we can take a 10 minute walk down to a shopping centre, but its getting dark, better to stick together. So we found a supermarket and  NANDOS! South Africas best chicken takeaway, Nandos. Here we are munching in our Nandos. Our youngest  companion, who is vegetarian had a vegetarian Nandos and said that it was one of the best vegetarian hamburgers she had eaten. Even Susan agreed. Ah, NANDOS is best!

Heroes Acre, the first stop on the first full day. We have two guides from Kufunda Learning Village, where one of our teachers has close contacts, having lived there for 3 months. The guides, Alan and Irvine (who the Swedes kept calling Ivan) guided us. After a quick visit to a museum with horrific details of the atrocities which took place during the Rhodesian war, we decided to walk up to the Heroes Acre. Turned out to be real heroes, walking up a hill at midday in + 30 degrees, on our first day in Africa, we were like that song, "Mad dogs and Englishmen go out in the midday sun!"

After that sweaty walk (thank goodness they had bottles of water for us) we are shown Heroes acre, an enormous monument in memory of the heroes of the Rhodesian war. All the important comrades are buried here. The monument was built by the North Koreans, which is very obvious, it is very ugly. And strange that North Korea should build a very un African monument to the freedom fighters, the comrades. Something seems wrong.  I'm  not sure how deep this "comrade" is actually in the heart of the people. Anyway, thats just my impression of a monument that could have honoured the freedom fighters in a much more dignified, culturally accurate way.

So here it is!

Much better are the photos of the view of Harare from here, 

Trying to find some shade.  If I remember correctly, when the British first came here, the city, which they named Fort Salisbury, more to the right of this photo. 

A visit to the Museum with enormous stone sculptures of the different Zimbabwean animals on parade, and below, still there,  a memorial to honour Queen Victoria. This is a country of contrasts.

In Harare we had the pleasure to meet an author, Blessing Musariri. We had read one of her short stories in the book Moving on. Her story," These feet are made for walking". The story highlights loyalty to tradition och folklore being challenged by practical needs. The story is written in an easy, swinging way and most pleasurable to read.

We also met a poet and author, Togara Muzhanenamo, in his lovely home in one of Harares better suburbs. His wife, a document filmer was also present. She, by the way said that she had never visited the Heroes Acres and predicted that it would not be there in 10 years time.  Interesting after the rather soppy visit to Heroes Acre. Togara read some of his poetry, but that which impressed me most was his short story we read in Moving On. A truly beautiful story and when he told us that the original text was a poem, I can understand why the story is so beautiful to read.